IDF chief rabbi laments his 'public embarrassment' at Greenfeld funeral

Soldier's sister shouts at rabbi for taking part in Gaza pullout.

By MATTHEW WAGNER
coffin 88 ap (photo credit: )
coffin 88 ap
(photo credit: )
OC Chaplaincy Corps Brig.-Gen. Yisrael Weiss, who was ejected on Monday by Shoshi Greenfeld from the funeral of her brother Sgt. Yehuda Baruch Greenfeld - killed in a Kaytusha attack in Kfar Giladi - expressed his sorrow over the incident in an Army Radio interview Tuesday. "I was publicly embarrassed and felt that my blood had been spilled," said Weiss, alluding to a rabbinic teaching that equates the public disgrace of a fellow Jew with manslaughter. Shouting that Weiss was an accomplice to the criminal expulsion of thousands of Jews from Gush Katif, Greenfeld demanded that the chief IDF rabbi leave the funeral immediately. Her attack on Weiss was made before hundreds who had come to pay their last respects to Yehuda and before numerous representatives of the news media. Weiss claimed that Greenfeld timed her attack to maximize the impact of the public embarrassment. "They could have told me quietly to leave. I don't force myself into places where I am not wanted," said Weiss, who had helped prepare Yehuda's body for burial in accordance with Jewish laws. Greenfeld is an anti-disengagement activist and freelance journalist for the right-wing daily Mekor Rishon and the Arutz 7 radio station. Since the beginning of the military offensive in the North, she has been a bitter critic of religious Zionists' participation. Calling for insubordination, Greenfeld has argued that after the IDF brutally expelled Jewish settlers from their homes, religious Zionists must break ties with the IDF. For many religious Zionists, Weiss is seen as a traitor for helping to orchestrate the disengagement plan, which was seen as inimical to the religious movement for Greater Israel. During disengagement, his house was surrounded by demonstrators calling on him to resign. Rabbi Yoel Bin-Nun, head of the Religious Kibbutz Yeshiva on Ein Tzurim, was one of several individuals who displayed solidarity with Weiss by leaving the funeral with him. Bin-Nun refused to comment on the incident except to say that one must not judge another who is in the throes of great sorrow. Chief Rabbis Shlomo Amar and Yona Metzger issued a statement of protest Tuesday against the verbal attack on Weiss. The two called on the Jewish people to respect and honor rabbis.