Sephardic Chief Rabbi Rav Yitzchok Yosef on Sunday harshly criticized the Supreme Court justices for their decision to stop funding for yeshivas after the exemption that allowed yeshiva students to avoid military service expired.
At a Lag Ba’omer event in Yerushalayim, he remarked, “These are foolish judges. Instead of increasing funding for the yeshivas, they provide only a pittance to the married yeshiva students.”
“Rather than increasing the funds, they reduced them. For nearly two months, the yeshiva world has received no money. Where is your common sense? We are in a difficult situation, and during times of war, we need merits for the nation of Israel. Instead of supporting that, you are undermining the very foundation you rely on.”
He emphasized, “Our Torah supports our soldiers, and all the wounded. If G-d would grant them wisdom, they would restore all the budgets. Under normal circumstances, they should have resigned from the government – what kind of government is this? They wait for an alliance with the Left, promising us whatever we want, while the Right always creates problems for us.”
In late March, Supreme Court justices Uzi Fogelman, Yitzchok Amit, and Noam Solberg issued an interim ruling to freeze support for yeshiva students of enlistment age.
This freeze took effect on April 1, following the expiration of the government’s interim order allowing the delay of yeshiva students’ enlistment.
The justices explained that the ruling was issued “in light of the Attorney General’s position on the illegality of transferring support funds after this time, and due to a lack of any apparent authority to continue the budget, we did not see fit to order a transitional instruction.”
They also stated, “Institutions whose eligibility for subsidies under the criteria will be impacted by the interim order will continue receiving funds for those students not covered by the ruling until the end of the current school year, on August 9, 2024.”
{Matzav.com Israel}