Rabbi Yazdi: Attack on IDF Chief Was 'Slip'

One of Rabbi Yazdi's students offered a different explanation to JFeed, suggesting the rabbi's words stemmed from genuine anguish over the arrests of yeshiva students. "The rabbi didn't intend those words. He was simply in pain over the situation, that they're coming to arrest Torah students, yeshiva boys and kollel members. That's why the words came out of pain. There was no intention to attack or humiliate the Chief of Staff," the student stated.

Yet sources close to Rabbi Yazdi presented a starkly different narrative, insisting the speech was deliberate and sanctioned. "The words spoken at the rally were said after consultation and with the approval of rabbis," associates explained. "As a student of Maran HaGaon Rabbi Shalom Cohen and HaGaon Rabbi Shimon Baadani, he was asked to deliver the message. Similar expressions have been heard in the past from Torah giants, including Rabbi Ovadia Yosef regarding Yossi Sarid and Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman regarding Yair Lapid."

The conflicting explanations, ranging from "slip of the tongue" to "approved by rabbis," revealed deep confusion within Rabbi Yazdi's circle about how to contain the fallout.

The political backlash was swift and severe. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a sharp condemnation, as did President Isaac Herzog. The Shas movement, which organized the rally alongside other Sephardic Torah leaders, published an official statement distancing itself from Rabbi Yazdi's remarks. "The extreme statements heard last night against the Chief of Staff at the protest rally for the honor of Torah held in Bnei Brak do not reflect the opinion of our rabbis, the Council of Torah Sages," the statement declared. "These statements are contrary to the path of the Shas movement, which our teacher and rabbi Ovadia Yosef taught us."

Rabbi Moshe Maya, the elder statesman of the Shas Council of Torah Sages, went further, issuing a rare public rebuke. "I was deeply pained to hear the words spoken against the Chief of Staff at the important rally held last night protesting the humiliation of Torah scholars. This is not the way of Torah," Rabbi Maya stated in a formal declaration.

The controversy also drew attention to Rabbi Yazdi's institutional standing. Initial reports circulating on social media incorrectly attributed massive government funding to his kollel by conflating the budgets of an umbrella organization overseeing four separate institutions, Beit Abba, Mishpatei Elyon, Biur Halacha, and Torat V'Chaim. However, Rabbi Yazdi's kollel itself comprises approximately 30 scholars, not the inflated figures suggested in viral posts.

The rally, which drew thousands to Bnei Brak Monday night, was organized to protest the ongoing arrests of yeshiva students and what haredi leaders term systematic persecution of Torah scholars. Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef and other senior rabbis attended, though Rabbi Yosef had issued explicit warnings beforehand instructing participants not to block Highway 4 or engage in disruptive behavior.

The incident comes as Israel's haredi draft crisis continues to escalate, with fierce debates erupting over military service, Torah study, and who bears the burden of defending the state.

Rabbi Yazdi's inflammatory remarks, and the chaotic response that followed, signal how volatile the confrontation has become, with rhetoric spiraling beyond the control of even those who deploy it.