The following story is so incredible that it seems like satire, which is ironic. The material that I will be sharing comes primarily from the editor of Hyehudi.org, who collected it from a variety of sources that he linked to in his Hebrew article about it. I am also grateful to Rabbi Yehuda Epstein for providing additional information and context. The credit for most of the analysis belongs to them and their own sources.
Considering the numerous layers and lengthy details to this story, some of which are complicated, I will begin with a summary of the facts, after which I will add details and commentary.
1. The Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, Yitzchak Yosef, is the (official) author of Yalkut Yosef, a compendium of rulings on Jewish law based on the rulings of his father, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. Yalkut Yosef is touted as an authoritative work of Jewish law that is intended to give practical halachic guidance to readers.
2. The Yalkut Yosef quotes a work of satire as serious Torah, as part of an argument with practical implications in halacha. That’s right, he published a joke as actual Torah to support a halachic ruling. The satire is so obvious and absurd that no one with an ounce of Torah knowledge and seichel should have believed it was serious, let alone quoted it with seriousness in a book of practical Jewish law.
3. Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef was recently awarded the Israel Prize for Literature for the Yalkut Yosef.
4. The Ministry of Education was notified of this mockery in advance in a detailed letter, and awarded the prize to Yosef anyway. The letter is available here.
Those are the salient facts.
Now for the details…but first an introduction.
There is a longstanding controversy within the Orthodox Jewish world regarding the identity of the sea-creature that Chazal refer to as the chilazon. The chilazon produced a unique dye that was used for the blue-ish techeiles strand in tzitzis. Many believe that the chilazon has been rediscovered in our time, and with it the opportunity to fulfill the mitzvah of tzitzis in the ideal way. Many others disagree, and continue to wear tzitzis with all white threads.
This controversy is particularly intense, and it matters to people far more than it otherwise would, because techeiles is a nexus between the following flash points that transcend the disagreement over Torah sources, the identity of sea creatures, and even the ability to do a mitzvah in the ideal way:
1. The rediscovery of the chilazon, after so many centuries of exile without access to techeiles, represents a harbinger of redemption.
2. As such, whether one accepts or rejects today’s techeiles as the real thing generally depends more on party lines than an independent analysis of the information at hand. Those who believe the large-scale return of Jews to Israel is also a harbinger of redemption tend to believe in today’s techeiles. Those in the religious world who are pom-pom waving cheerleaders for the State of Israel wear their techeiles as part of their idolatrous worship of the state. Those who scorn the secular state tend to scorn techeiles, too.
Very few people can divorce their feelings about the State of Israel from their beliefs about techeiles, and very few people have the self-awareness and intellectual honesty to realize that.
3. The acceptance or rejection of techeiles also intersects the contemporary cultism of “Da’as Torah” – the expectation that the entire Jewish people blindly adhere to the commands of select rabbinic authorities in a caste system they control, and viewing critical analysis of their words by all but a privileged few as heresy. Those who reject techeiles almost invariably fall into this camp.
4. The acceptance or rejection of techeiles also intersects the contemporary cultism of secular science and modern discoveries. Those who accept techeiles almost invariably fall into this camp.
With this in mind, let us examine the farce with Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef and the literary work that is attributed to him.
About 12 years ago, a Rabbi by the name of Eliezer Holl published a book called Tichla D’chilazon (The End of the Chilazon) in which he argued against today’s techeiles. (I did not see his book, and have no opinion about it). In one of his arguments, he claimed that there are actually two types of chilazon, one of which is kosher for producing the dye for tzitzis and one of which is not.
Subsequently a Torah scholar wrote an anonymous response called Tichla D’pizalon (The End of Split Thinking), in which he took this line of thinking to the most absurd of extremes to resolve other questions. It is a masterpiece of Purim Torah. It is obvious satire. You can see it here.
It is quoted in Yalkut Yosef as serious Torah.
A translation from the editor of Hyehudi follows:
I was shown a pamphlet called “Tichla D’pizalon” where the writer proves there were two snails (Chilazon), one in the Dead Sea, called Purphura, and passul for tzitzit, and the other in the Kineret, which is kosher for tzitzit. And with this distinction he answers the contradiction in Chazal regarding the location of the Chilazon. Only the Kineret snail is kosher for tzitzit, which is why the Gemara says the snail resembles the ocean. We can all see that the Chilazon of Techeiles of the Kineret is similar to the ocean like two drops of water, which is why they are completely indistinguishable.
And that which we learn of the tribe of Zevulun trapping snails in both the Dead Sea and in the Kineret is because there were two tribes called Zevulun, which is why their names are Zevulun (in the plural tense), unlike all other tribes, otherwise it should have been called “Zevul”. This proves there were two “Zevuluns”, each tribe with its own snail. This explanation is a wonderful one.
[And we should not be bothered by the verse saying “the sons of Yaakov were twelve” (and if there are two Zevuluns, the number should be thirteen), because in fact, there two “Yaakovs” as well, as the Torah says explicitly “Vaya’akveni zeh fa’amayim” [“and he held me back two times”]. There were also two “Yitzchaks”, and this is clear in the Torah, as we find them being promised a son twice. This is also the meaning of the verse “And these are the children of Yitzchak son of Avraham, Avraham produced Yitzchak.” And it says explicitly “Avraham was one”, which implies there are two, however, of Yitzchak. This resolves the contradiction in Chazal as to the age of Yitzchak at the time of the Akeida as well, since Avraham must have offered each one up on the altar at a different age. Likewise, this resolves the conflicting views as to the age of Rivka (was she three when marrying Yitzchak or was she fourteen?). The answer is there were two Yitzchaks, and each of them married their own “Rivka”.]
Indeed, it is apparent that when Hashem promised to give them Eretz Yisrael, this means for each and every Yitzchak, because there are, in fact, two “Eretz Yisraels”, as well. This explanation answers many difficulties, for there are many signs used to describe Eretz Yisrael that don’t match the Land of Israel we are familiar with. Firstly, Eretz Yisrael is described as being higher than all other lands, but ours is not the highest. Furthermore, the Vilna Gaon created a map of Eretz Yisrael which doesn’t compare to the Eretz Yisrael we have. Additionally, our sages tell us that the air of the Land of Israel grants people wisdom, and we have not seen that occur. It must be that there are “Eretz Yisraels”, one for each Yitzchak and Yaakov. And while we don’t find any other Eretz Yisraels in the world, there may be two worlds. Indeed, our world doesn’t match the world described by our sages either, for our own world is round, while the sages say the world resembles a porch (ach’sadra), so it must be Chazal were discussing that other world. And over there is a square-shaped Eretz Yisrael, and in its Lake of Kineret located in the tribal portion of the other Zevulun is a kosher snail, with Glatt Kosher bones and sinews, from whose blood one can produce the right Techeiles, and it is possible the Second “Bnei Yisrael” use it. Likewise, regarding Iyov (Job) we find a contradiction in Chazal, for some say he doesn’t exist (except as a parable), while others say he did exist. We are led to conclude there were two “Iyovs”, one of whom existed, and another who indeed never existed at all.]
End of quote.
You can see it in Yalkut Yosef here. I’m told this was added in the 5780 edition.
It is primarily for this that Yitzchak Yosef was just awarded Israel’s most prestigious prize – not for humor, but for serious Torah literature.
To make matters worse, this is a book on practical Jewish law that is intended for the masses, who generally will not be equipped to challenge the content, nor possess the gumption to do so.
There are only two possible explanations for how this absurd satire was published as serious Torah in Yalkut Yosef.
1) Torah scholars who have critically examined Yalkut Yosef believe, for a variety of reasons, that it was authored at least in part by a committee of writers and attributed in full to Yitzchak Yosef. (Perhaps there are two Yitzchak Yosefs as well?) One of these writers inserted the satire, and Yosef either didn’t bother to supervise the Torah being published in his name, or believed it was real Torah.
It is extremely common for public figures to hire more competent people to write speeches for them and even ghost write their books. This practice, widespread though it is, is not very respectable, but when it comes to Torah – especially practical halacha – it is completely unacceptable.
2) Yosef inserted it himself.
One of these must be true. I’m not sure which reflects more poorly on Yosef, but both are devastating in their implications.
Either way, four years after this complete nonsense was published in his name and sold to the masses, and continues to be sold to the masses, the great Chief Rabbi won a prize from the State of Israel for it.
But there’s even more.
A mere week after the October 7 mini-Holocaust, Yitzchak Yosef was busy sending a letter in which he sharply attacked the Sephardic Yeshiva Kisei Rachamim, its Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Meir Mazuz, and his most prominent disciples. You can see the letter here.
Among other things, Yosef lambasted their ignorance, lack of intelligence, and inability to make proper distinctions.
ביחד ננצח!
This, from someone whose magnum opus quoted an absurd satire as serious Torah, and teaches the masses that there were two of each of the patriarchs and two lands of Israel.
But it gets even crazier. The author of the anonymous satire related to me that someone from the office of the Sephardic Chief Rabbi managed to track him down and called him, asking if his piece was serious or a joke. The author replied that it was a joke. The caller asked if the author would agree to speak with the office the next day, but they never called him back.
Meanwhile, Yitzchak Yosef struts around in his bigdei kehuna, issues state-serving rulings that are completely against the Torah, makes inflammatory remarks that bring hatred and scorn upon the Torah-observant world (see here), publishes satire as serious Torah for the masses, and gets rewarded by his employers, the Erev Rav State of Israel, for a job well done.
A politically appointed “Chief Rabbi” of the heretical State of Israel is the quintessence of controlled opposition.
It’s all a big Erev Rav farce.
If you are going to defend it, know full well what you are defending.
It’s high time the masses stopped making apologies for the charlatans who rule over us, disgrace the Jewish people, and lead the masses to spiritual and physical destruction.
It’s high time people stopped defending wicked phonies just because they may possess Torah knowledge and hold prominent positions.
That doesn’t make these people honorable or worthy of knee-jerk defense.
It makes them more dangerous.
The facts have been presented. What you choose to do with them is your responsibility.
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