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A former Sephardi chief rabbi, Yitzhak Yosef, has sparked outrage by labelling a fellow rabbi, whose son fell while serving in the IDF, a "heretic" for backing mandatory service for yeshiva students. An undated leaked recording released by Kol Chai radio reportedly saw Yosef target Rabbi Tamir Granot, the head of Hesder Yeshiva Orot Shaul in Tel Aviv - a yeshiva which combines religious education with military service. "There was one rabbi — I don’t know if he’s a rabbi — Granot, the head of a hesder yeshiva. The way he spoke against us on television. Aren’t you afraid of the humiliation of the Torah scholars?," Yosef is reported to have said. "I think there are some of them who, if they were to come to join a minyan [prayer quorum], we would not include them in the minyan. "They fall under the category of apikores [heretics]. Not all of them." Yosef was previously the subject of controversy for suggesting that the deaths of five IDF soldiers in July were linked to a general "neglect" of Torah study. The men were all from the Netzah Yehuda Battalion, one of the army's first Charedi units, and were killed when an explosive device was detonated near Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza. Mourning the “dear soldiers” in an open letter, Yosef wrote: “We are to blame. "Weakness in Torah study leads to disasters, such as the terrible tragedy of the soldiers’ deaths in battle.” The issue of Charedi conscription has proved bitterly divisive and politically challenging in Israel, with Shas, one of two major Charedi parties in the Knesset, resigning its MKs from all their ministerial roles in protest at the government trying to force through the measure. Unlike the United Torah Judaism faction, which quit the coalition in July, Shas remains part of the government, but its withdrawal, should it happen, would force Prime Minister Netanyahu into minority government.
