The Times of Israel has a kind of top 5 list of the many offensive comments made by Sefardi haredi leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef over the past 13 years. Yosef
passed away this week at the age of 93 and official police estimates
say 850,000 people attended his funeral in Jerusalem – the largest
funeral in Israeli history, which was held only five hours after he
passed away. But what the Times of Israel does not know is that of these five very offensive remarks,
all but one of them is completely Torah/halakha-based.
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef
The Times of Israel has a kind of top 5 list of the many offensive comments made by Sefardi haredi leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef over the past 13 years. Yosef passed away this week at the age of 93 and official police estimates say 850,000 people attended his funeral in Jerusalem – the largest funeral in Israeli history, which was held only five hours after he passed away.
But what the Times of Israel does not know (or simply does not report) is that of these five very offensive remarks, all but one of them is completely Torah/halakha-based:
1) “The six million Holocaust victims were reincarnations of the souls of sinners, people who transgressed and did all sorts of things which should not be done. They had been reincarnated in order to atone [by being martyred].”
– Said during Yosef’s weekly Saturday night sermon in August 2000, the remark is based on a statement by 16th century kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria (the Arizal) that the Jews murdered by the Romans during the destruction of the Second Temple were reincarnated sinners sent back to atone for their sins. Dying as martyrs provided complete atonement.
2) “There was a tsunami and there are terrible natural disasters, because there isn’t enough Torah study… Black people reside there [New Orleans]. Blacks will study the Torah? [God said] let’s bring a tsunami and drown them.”
“Hundreds of thousands remained homeless. Tens of thousands have been killed. All of this because they have no God.”
“Bush was behind Gush Katif [the Gaza settlement bloc]. He encouraged Sharon to expel Gush Katif… We had 15,000 people expelled here, and there 150,000. It was God’s retribution… God does not short-change anyone.”
– Said during Yosef’s weekly Saturday night sermon in July 2005, this is a combination of various midrashic and Talmudic ideas about divine retribution for polytheism, for ‘perverse’ or wonton sexual behavior, and for persecuting Jews. The racism, however, has no real Torah/halakha support.
3) “Goyim were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world – only to serve the People of Israel.”
“In Israel, death has no dominion over them… With gentiles, it will be like any person – they need to die, but [God] will give them longevity. Why? Imagine that one’s donkey would die, they’d lose their money.
“This is his servant… That’s why he gets a long life, to work well for this Jew.”
“Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap. We will sit like an effendi and eat… That is why gentiles were created.”
– Said during Yosef’s weekly Saturday night sermon in October 2010, this is the classic rabbinic cartoon-level view of non-Jews, the type of thing small children were (and in haredi communities, often still are) told. In decades past, haredi adult males who really were able to study well and learn well would have noticed that great Jewish sages like the Rambam had a much more complex and nuanced view of all this. My impression is that is less true today, especially in hasidic communities.
4) “How can you make peace with a snake?”
“Those evildoers, the Arabs — it says in the Gemara [Talmud] that God is sorry he ever created those sons of Ishmael.”
– Said during Yosef’s weekly Saturday night sermon in August 2000, it is an accurate representation of what midrashic and other rabbinic sources say about the biblical Ishmael and his descendants. It also reflects Yosef's anger at being deceived (in his view) by Palestinian leaders when he agreed to support the Oslo Peace Accords and was said only days before Palestinians launched the Second Intifada.
5) “[Muslims] are stupid. Their religion is as ugly as they are.”
– Said during Yosef’s weekly Saturday night sermon in December 2009, this is the only one of the Times of Israel’s five worst quotes from Yosef that has no real foundation in Torah or halakha.