Rabbi Tamir Granot’s son, Captain Amitay Zvi Granot, was killed shortly after the October 7 Hamas attack in an incident on the Lebanese border while fighting Hezbollah.
Israel’s former Sephardic chief rabbi and Shas spiritual leader Yitzhak Yosef sharply criticized the head of the Yeshivat Orot Shaul in south Tel Aviv, Rabbi Tamir Granot, on Sunday during a Kol Hai radio broadcast, after Granot advocated for the enlistment of the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) sector in the IDF.
Granot’s son, Captain Amitay Zvi Granot, died shortly after the October 7 Hamas attack in an incident on the Lebanese border while fighting Hezbollah. Yosef claimed that Rabbi Granot was among several yeshiva heads who attacked him on television.
“Aren’t you afraid of dishonoring Torah scholars?” -Yosef asked him.
Yosef continued, alluding to Granot: “I think there are some of them who, if they come to join the minyan, we will not accept them. They are heretics. Not all of them.”
Granot had previously denounced Yosef while he was chief rabbi, after Yosef threatened to leave Israel if authorities forced Haredi yeshiva students to enlist.
“You have to ask for forgiveness from my wife, from her tears, and go up to Mount Herzl and ask for forgiveness from Amitay, a Yeshiva student and combat soldier, and from all the righteous, holy and pure Torah scholars who chose to fight, and also from those who are not Torah scholars but gave their lives,” Granot said at the time.
“Go abroad so as not to wage a war of commandments, a war that endangers national life?! Honorable Rabbi, are we in Russia? Is the army the tsar’s army?” Ynet quoted him as saying.
Discussions on ethical issues are welcome, insults and degradation are prohibited
The president of the Tzohar Rabbinical Organization, Rabbi David Stav, said in response to the exchange that while debate on ethical issues is welcome, “insulting and degrading is prohibited.”
“Torah discourse should be based on humility, mutual respect, and accountability to the word of God, not personal attacks. Is someone who disagrees with you no longer a rabbi? No one can claim a monopoly on Torah and halacha,” he continued, adding that the Torah was given to all of Israel and anyone who dedicates themselves to it deserves respect and constructive discourse despite disagreement.
Rabbi Stav continued, according to Ynet, “When a rabbi in Israel chooses language of insults and degradation toward another Torah scholar, and especially toward a person who is also a bereaved father, it causes a grave desecration of God’s name that damages the honor of the Torah itself.”