The Shas movement's spiritual leader, the frequently acerbic Rabbi Shalom Cohen renowned for his divisive and controversial comments, has once again caused consternation over his outspoken views.
Speaking at a Shas campaign rally in Netivot on Sunday, Cohen called the Israeli national anthem Hatikva "a stupid song" and disparaged those who sing it, while speaking of his long devotion to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the revered and legendary late rabbinic leader of Shas.
Cohen was describing the anointment ceremony of former Sephardi Chief Yitzhak Nissim in 1955 which he attended along with Yosef.
"At the end of the ceremony they began to sing "kol od be'leivav [the beginning words of the Israeli national anthem Hatikvah]." said the rabbi mockingly. "I thought to myself 'they're mad, I didn't stand, everyone stood up like it was the aleinu le'shabayach [prayer] but the rabbi [Yosef] also stood. "
"I asked the rabbi [Yosef] why did you stand up? He said 'I said the aleinu leshabayach prayer. Why did he say aleinu leshabayach? He didn't want this stupid song to influence us at all," said Cohen.
Large parts of the haredi world have a long-held animus towards the Israeli national anthem.
The words “to be a free nation in our land” are generally scorned by the haredi community, who see themselves as servants of God. It is commonly believed in the ultra-Orthodox community that the meaning behind the words “free nation” is free of the religious commandments of the Torah.
“The haredi world is of the opinion that that it is intolerable that the national anthem of the Jewish state declares that the hope of the Jewish people is to be a free people,” said Shahar Ilan, the deputy director of the Hiddush religious freedom lobbying group in reference to their objection to the particular line “a free nation in our land.
Ilan said that the haredi world is also dismissive of the author of Hatikva, Naphtali Herz Imber, specifically for his alcoholism.
In addition, he claimed that Cohen was distorting the actions of Rabbi Yosef on the day of the anointment ceremony since, he said, Yosef had clearly not wanted to offend people by not standing whereas Yosef stood up so as not cause offense.
Cohen has a long record of vitriolic and antagonistic statements. In July last year during Operation Protective Edge, Cohen said at a prayer rally for IDF soldiers that the Jewish people do not need an army.
"Do you think the people of Israel need an army?” Cohen asked. “It is God almighty who fights for Israel.”
In response to Sunday’s outburst, Shas defended the rabbi and said “no-one can lecture Rabbi Shalom Cohen, who lived all his years in the walls of Jerusalem, what Zionism is and what the relationship is with the Land of Israel.”
“It is the right and obligation of Rabbi Shalom Cohen to think that the sources of the Torah of Israel which escorted the Jewish people across thousands of years and speaks of the yearning for, and the return to Zion are preferable ten times over to a song that was created in the last few decades,” an official Shas party response read, in reference to Hatikvah, although it was actually written down in its final form by Imber 138 years ago.