Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, Israel's Sephardic Chief Rabbi and a member of the Council of Torah Sages, instructed the Shas faction Tuesday to support Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi's communications law, in exchange for advancing the yeshiva draft immunity bill, according to a Srugim report.
The instruction came in a letter Rabbi Yosef sent to Shas chairman Aryeh Deri, following a personal appeal from Karhi asking the rabbi to intervene. In the letter, Rabbi Yosef explained his reasoning, invoking the Talmudic phrase associated with Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai's request to Vespasian, give me Yavne and its sages, to argue that there is no room for delay and that the passage of the Torah study law must not be endangered in any way.
He added that on the matter of kosher certification, the Jewish people must be saved from eating non kosher and forbidden foods, and that Shas should actively support the current matter rather than simply avoiding wrongdoing. He concluded that the important issues must be allowed to move forward with the authorities, with urgent conditions attached as described, and that Torah stands above all else.
Rabbi Yosef's letter comes after Haredi factions in the Knesset announced Monday that they would oppose Karhi's communications law, which includes provisions Haredi lawmakers say open the door to Chillul Shabbat and to broadcasting inappropriate content. Shas is now expected to support the bill following the rabbi's instruction, reversing that opposition, in what amounts to a direct trade, communications law support in exchange for progress on the yeshiva arrest immunity legislation.
