New Sephardi Chief Rabbi Says ‘Learn Torah or Enlist in IDF’

Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, newly elected Chief Sephardi Rabbi of Israel, said in a recent Torah lesson that he often threatened students in his yeshiva that they must enlist in the IDF if they did not learn Torah.

Delivering a “shiur” (Torah lesson} in Kfar Chabad, Rabbi Yosef said that youth who are not able to learn Torah or who are not committed to so should go into the army. He added that the army service should be in places where there is “fear of God” and that the would-be yeshiva students should not simply do guard duty.

He explained that Haredi soldiers have a duty to “strengthen” others; and cited one student who telephoned the rabbi to say that he delivered a shiur every day.