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From the Liveblog of
Sunday, February 22, 2015
From the Liveblog of
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Shas spiritual leader says anthem is ‘dumb’
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleThe spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party says the “Hatikva” national anthem is “a dumb song,” the Walla news website reports.
At an event in Netivot in southern Israel, Rabbi Shalom Cohen recalls that once he was sitting at an event with the late Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, the former leader of the Shas party. When the participants at the event began to sing “Hatikva,” Yosef stood up, and Cohen remained seated, he says. Afterwards, Cohen asked Yosef why he stood during the anthem, and the rabbi replied that he had mumbled a prayer to himself while the audience sang “Hatikva.”
“A genuine man, he didn’t want that dumb song to influence him,” Cohen says.
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