The division among the people. Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto was asked in his last talk held at the Shuva Israel center in Manhattan, about the rift in Israeli society around the judicial reform. He replied that there is only one thing that has the power to unite the people in Israel - and that is the Torah.
Rabbi Pinto explained, "The holy Torah is what preserved the Jewish people in all their diasporas. Without the holy Torah, there is no unity among Jews.
“The thing that truly unites the Jewish people more than anything else is the holy Torah," he told a journalist who asked him about it.
Rabbi Pinto added that the fact that "we are all called Jews, and speak Hebrew, and are circumcised" is not enough. "The holy Torah is the spirit and soul that binds the entire Jewish nation."
Some may recall that about a month ago, in a talk he gave at the home of media celebrity Ofira Essayag, Rabbi Pinto was asked about the political issue. He said at the time: "First of all, with us - there is no politics. When lying and flattery are wedded together - they give birth to politics. Politics is not good, it is not good. In recent generations, it has become totally loathsome."
Rabbi Pinto continued: "And another thing. Most of our students were in the army and served in the army and have fulfilled their obligation to the state, but I don't like to talk about politics. It’s not my prerogative.
“I have the right to pray, talk, ask and do," Rabbi Pinto added.
He explained, "We think that the more religion takes a back seat and doesn't get close to politics - the better it is. Both here and in America. We also see it in America. Jews, don't get close to politics! Not of the gentiles, not of the right, and not of the left. We're only one and a half percent of the world. It's not always good to run to be at the top."
Rabbi Pinto focused on what needs to be done in Israel and said: "Here, we need to pray for mercy and for peace." He said: "In our yeshivas, we have 87 yeshivas, we prohibited everyone from getting involved, neither with this group nor with the other, not to express an opinion, not to say anything. It's none of our business, we don't know all the sides, we don't know what the army knows. We also have no prerogative to talk about these things. We have the prerogative to pray not to get involved with it," Rabbi Pinto said.
This article was written in cooperation with Shuva Israel