Rabbi Yosef Warns Bnei Brak Protesters: Don't Block Highway 4

Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef issued an urgent directive Monday afternoon warning participants in tonight's mass Bnei Brak rally against blocking Highway 4 or any other roads, instructing the haredi community to conduct the demonstration strictly as a prayer assembly rather than a disruptive protest.

The intervention came hours before the scheduled 9:30 PM gathering on Eshel Avraham and Rabinov Streets in Bnei Brak, a rally organized by Sephardic Torah leaders to protest the ongoing arrests of yeshiva students and what organizers term "spiritual persecution" of Torah scholars.

Rabbi Yosef dispatched a formal letter to Bnei Brak Chief Rabbi Massoud Ben Shimon, who had expressed concerns that the demonstration could spiral out of control with crowds descending onto Highway 4, one of Israel's major traffic arteries. The Chief Rabbi's warning reflects growing anxiety among religious leaders that the rally could trigger the kind of road blockages that have inflamed tensions between haredi and secular communities in recent weeks.

"Following what you discussed with us, and as we also spoke with the elder of the Council of Torah Sages, Rabbi Moshe Maya," Rabbi Yosef wrote in the letter, "we accept the proposal to warn and alert that the prayer assembly scheduled for today at 9:30 PM on Eshel Avraham-Rabinov Streets in Bnei Brak will be conducted with a double and redoubled warning to yeshiva students to avoid protest actions that are not in the way of Torah, and not to descend under any circumstances to Highway 4 or the like, to block roads, God forbid."

The Chief Rabbi emphasized that the gathering must be time-limited, with participants dispersing immediately after its conclusion. "The assembly will be bounded by a clear timeframe, and immediately after its conclusion everyone will disperse to their homes and sanctify the Name of Heaven," he stated.

The directive comes against the backdrop of escalating confrontations over haredi military service. Last week, thousands of haredi vehicles staged a massive convoy protest that blocked roads across Israel, prompting threats of retaliation from secular activist groups. On Friday afternoon, the "Mothers at the Front" movement attempted to blockade Bnei Brak in the hours before Shabbat, sparking tense confrontations with residents.

The Broader Crisis

Tonight's rally was organized by senior Sephardic Torah authorities, including Council of Torah Sages elder Rabbi Moshe Maya, council member Rabbi Shlomo Machpud, and rabbinical court head Rabbi Nissim Ben Shimon. In a joint statement titled "Go gather all the Jews," the rabbis framed the demonstration as a response to what they termed "decrees of spiritual destruction threatening the precious yeshiva students and kollel scholars."

"Due to the difficult situation prevailing in our land, and due to the decrees of spiritual destruction threatening the precious yeshiva students and kollel scholars, and as our sages said, 'Greater is one who causes another to sin than one who kills him,'" the rabbis declared in their call to action.

The statement continued with sharp language about the imprisonment of Torah scholars: "And due to the desecration of holy things, as they are imprisoned — precious yeshiva students and Torah laborers — in filthy prisons contaminated with the impurity of worldly lusts, at the hands of harsh and cruel masters, because of their studying Torah here in the Holy Land. Woe to ears that hear such things, woe to eyes that see such things, woe to us that this has happened in our days."

The rabbis invoked the religious obligation of communal protest, warning that silence could result in collective punishment. "And due to the obligation of protest incumbent upon every single person from Israel whose fear of God has touched his heart, lest we be caught, God forbid, for the sin of the generation," they wrote.

Yosef's Earlier Warning

Rabbi Yosef's intervention Monday followed a recorded message he delivered last week to imprisoned yeshiva students, in which he sharply criticized what he characterized as ethnic discrimination in the military's arrest campaign. The Chief Rabbi noted that virtually all those detained in the recent wave of military police operations targeting draft-eligible yeshiva students have been Sephardic.

"I hereby strengthen all those participating in the protest against the authorities, in their persecution of Torah students and their pursuit of them," Rabbi Yosef stated in that earlier message. "They arrest Torah scholars, kollel members, yeshiva students. Unfortunately, mainly Sephardim. There is clear racism here, humiliating them."

The Chief Rabbi's criticism extended to the current government, despite its right-wing composition. "Woe to us that specifically in a right-wing government there are such decrees against Torah students, and against kollel members, and against the holy Torah," he declared. "May there be no complaint from Heaven. We must protest for the honor of Torah. We hereby protest completely against the desecration of Torah."

Tonight's demonstration will test whether Rabbi Yosef's directive can prevent the kind of road blockages that have become flashpoints in Israel's escalating culture war over military service and religious exemptions.