In 2021, Shas chairman Aryeh Deri slammed Naftali Bennett for establishing a unity government with the anti-religious Yair Lapid, something he had publicly vowed not to do.
Speaking at the time in an interview with Kol Chai Radio, Deri said that he now understands the words of HaGaon HaRav Ovadia Yosef, z’tl, who made harsh statements against Bennett’s Bayit Yehudi party in 2013.
In 2012, Bennett was elected as the leader of Bayit Yehudi, a Religious Zionist and far-right party originally formed by a merger of the National Religious, Moledet, and Tkuma parties. Under Bennett, the party, which ran on a religious and far-right platform, won 12 seats in the Knesset in 2013.
Deri explained that to his puzzlement, HaRav Ovadia, z’tl, spoke very harshly against the party during the elections, calling it a “Bayit shel Goyim,” calling the members “evil” and “kofrim,” and accusing them of wanting to “uproot Judaism from Am Yisrael.” In a reference to Bennett, Reb Ovadia said: “He has a small kippah on his head like his eyes, and pretends to be religious.”
At the time, considering that the party’s agenda seemed to be similar to that of the Religious Zionist party of today, HaRav Ovadia’s words seemed very harsh.
“Although I’m considered one of Rav Ovadia’s main students, I couldn’t understand why Maran said such harsh words – Bayit shel Goyim,” Deri said on Kol Chai. “Now I understand. It was divrei nevuah mamash. We see how someone behaves without daas Torah.”
Today, after Bennett publicly supported Chillul Shabbos and non-halachic marriage, Reb Ovadia’s words seem even more prescient.
A video of Reb Ovadia speaking against Bayit Yehudi during his public shiur can be seen below:
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
