“[Minister of Education Rabbi Shai] Piron wants to uproot the Torah
students that the world rests on and you, HaBayit HaYehudi, wish to be
partner to this? Lapid promises them that [Zionist Orthodox] hesder
yeshivot will not be harmed. I don’t know who everyone voted for but
those who voted for [HaBayit HaYehudi] believe they are going to Olam
Haba [heaven] but are instead headed for Gehinnom [hell].”
Rabbi Shalom Cohen
Jews Who Voted For Zionist Orthodox Party In Last Knesset Elections Will “Go To Hell,” Senior Sefardi Haredi Rabbi Says
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Rabbi Shalom Cohen, a senior member of the Sefardi haredi Shas Party’s Council of Torah Sages and the rosh yeshiva of the Porat Yosef Yeshiva in Jerusalem's Old City, said several weeks ago that voters for the Zionist Orthodox HaBayit HaYehudi Party were “Amalek,” the biblical arch enemy of the Jewish people that the Torah commands Jews to wipe out and destroy.
After a storm of criticism, Shas tried to soften those remarks by saying Cohen was only referring to HaBayit HaYehudi politicians – not to Jews who voted for the party.
And as long as the election of of the new chief rabbis was in process, that is the position Shas and held to.
But now that the chief rabbi elections are over and haredim are triumphant, Cohen has gone back to his old hate-mongering ways.
Following a meeting of haredi and Zionist Orthodox rabbis meant to calm
the fighting between the two camps, Cohen lashed
out again. Speaking earlier this week to a group of his students, Cohen said that anyone who voted for the HaBayit HaYehudi Party in the last Knesset elections will go to hell.
Cohen said that he received a letter from a Zionist Orthodox rabbi the Jerusalem area who questioned how he could have made such harsh remarks.
According to a report in Yeshiva World, Cohen went on to explain that he would not address the rabbi’s question because it was not worth answering. Who did he vote for in the elections? Cohen asked sarcastically. Cohen then stated as a matter of fact that anyone – including that rabbi– who voted for HaBayit HaYehudi is going to “gehinnom” (hell).
“[Minister of Education Rabbi Shai] Piron wants to uproot the Torah students that the world rests on and you, HaBayit HaYehudi, wish to be partner to this? Lapid promises them that [Zionist Orthodox] hesder yeshivot will not be harmed. I don’t know who everyone voted for but those who voted for [HaBayit HaYehudi] believe they are going to Olam Haba [heaven] but are instead headed for Gehinnom [hell],” Cohen fumed, stressing that his words were only said to uphold the honor of God, pointing out that those who voted for HaBayit HaYehudi are truly wretched people.
Cohen also called on the small number of Zionist Orthodox rabbis who are opposed to the haredi draft or who are opposed to forcing haredi grade, secondary and high school-level yeshivas to teach the country’s core curriculum of secular studies to force HaBayit HaYehudi to leave the ruling coation and cause the government to fall.