Yemenite kiruv (outreach, intra-Jewish missionary) Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak, known for his ‘megachurch’-style gatherings and his fire and brimstone sermons meant to convince secular Israelis to become haredi, lashed out at Israel’s haredi chief rabbis over their meeting with Pope Francis this past weekend and in the process equated the pope with "vermin" and called him an impure idol.
Above: Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak
Pope Is “Vermin” And An Impure “Idol,” Haredi Outreach Rabbi Says
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Yemenite kiruv (outreach, intra-Jewish missionary) Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak, known for his ‘megachurch’-style gatherings and his fire and brimstone sermons meant to convince secular Israelis to become haredi, lashed out at Israel’s haredi chief rabbis over their meeting with Pope Francis this past weekend, the Times of Israel reported.
“Those who are going to meet the pope today and shake hands with the Avi Avos HaTuma (the root and origin of all spiritual impurity; the ultimate source of spiritual impurity). Is this what they were chosen for?,” Yitzhak said during a lecture, adding that it was not an honor to “shake the hand of the idol,” i.e., the pope.
The chief rabbis’ meeting with the pope and shaking the pope’s hand would surely not please God, Yitzhak insisted.
“Is God happy today, to see the chief rabbis of the State of Israel shaking the hand of the idol?,” Yitzhak said.
Yitzhak also called on the Sefardi haredi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef to resign over that meeting with the pope.
“Why are you degrading yourself? You are a representative of the State of Israel! What are you a rabbi for? To purify the sheretz [vermin]?” Amnon Yitzhak said. (A sheretz imparts impurity and can’t ever be purified itself.)
Yitzhak made a failed run for Knesset against the wishes of the Sefardi haredi Shas Party, which was then led by Chief Rabbi Yosef Yitzhak’s father, former Sefardi Chief Rabbi of Israel Ovadia Yosef.
Amnon Yitzhak and Shas fought bitterly during the election, and Yitzhak was especially upset with Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s sons, whom he accused of slandering him to the elderly rabbi.
Yitzhak is no stranger to controversy. Among many outlandish statements he has made, in November Yitzhak ruled it is “immodest” for women to drive cars, falsely claiming that before the automobile, only men drove horse-drawn carriages.
Yitzhak has thousands of followers.