Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox gathered in Bnei Brak for a rally against conscription led for the first time by former Chief Rabbi and member of Shas’s Council of Torah Sages Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef. Knesset members Raanan Ben-Zur, Michael Malchieli and Yonatan Mishriki attended the protest. Rabbi Shabtai Levi asked at the opening of the rally “not to speak ill of anyone, not to carry out pogroms and not to block roads – this is not the way of Torah scholars.” He later said that “the reason we are not defeating Hamas and Hezbollah is because when there is no respect for Torah – this is what happens.”
