Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual leader of the Shas political movement, prayed for
the well-being of IDF personnel participating in hostilities in the south on
Thursday morning, adding supplications that they prevail over the forces arrayed
against them.
“We are being greatly troubled by the enemies of the people
of Israel, specifically the Palestinians,” Yosef said, following his morning
prayer service. “We must pray for our soldiers, the soldiers of the
IDF.”
The rabbi then recited a prayer for the safety of Israeli soldiers
fighting in Operation Pillar of Defense, calling on God “to bless, guard,
preserve, help, strengthen and elevate the soldiers of the Israel Defense
Forces, guardians of the walls.
“May God guard them and deliver them from
all trouble and sorrow, and bring them home to a good and peaceful life,” he
continued.
“And may all their enemies fall before them by the sword, as
it is written about such evil people: ‘Their swords shall pierce their own
hearts and their bows shall be broken,’ amen and amen,” Yosef
concluded.
Separately, the dean of Bnei Brak’s Ponevezh Yeshiva Rabbi
Gershon Edelstein told his students on Thursday morning that they must
“strengthen their Torah studies, because the Torah provides defense and
deliverance; it is the only thing that defends and delivers.”
In response
to several questions on whether residents of the South should leave their homes,
Rabbi Haim Kanievsky, one of the most senior haredi rabbis in the country,
replied in the affirmative, telling anyone asking that they should go to Bnei
Brak, where he resides.
Edelstein echoed Kanievsky’s comments, saying
that in a place where Torah is studied, damage cannot be inflicted, and – in
reference to the 1990-1991 First Gulf War, in which Iraqi 42 Scud missiles hit
Israel – noted that Bnei Brak was not struck.
“Therefore we should
redouble our Torah study because it is the only guarantee and the only defense,”
Edelstein said.