Shas rabbi: Russians are heretics, Reform destroying Judaism

Rabbi Meir Mazuz, a prominent spiritual leader and Shas head, accused Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman and Reform Jews in a sermon to his own community on Saturday of attacking Jewish values.

“Liberman comes from Russia. In Russia there is no religion, there is nothing,” he said during his weekly Saturday night sermon.

Liberman, who is associated with immigrants from the former Soviet Union, came to Israel from what is current-day Moldova.

“Russians are heretics… They blabber what they want. In Russian there are professors, but [the Russians] here know nothing. There [in Russia] they develop nuclear capabilities (gar’een), and here they sell seeds (gar’eenim). And where did that get them? They starved to death. Any person who says something gets sent to Siberia [and disappears] in darkness and despair,” he said.

“But when you follow the Torah, when you honor the Torah and respect Am Yisrael, and in Russia [there are those] who do care about Am Yisrael. [Russian Chief Rabbi] Rabbi Berel Lazar did some very good things. He went to Dubai, brought some observant Jews, and for the first time he held a wedding in history a wedding was held in Dubai based on Halakha. And the Arabs say, ‘How nice! Look at this nation!'”

Mazuz then shifted to denouncing Reform Judaism.

“Those Reform Jews destroyed Judaism. They are neither blessed nor cursed. On one side a priest, and on the other a rabbi. One blesses and the other curses. This brought destruction onto Israel,” he said.

Mazuz is a political leader and Sephardi Haredi rabbi in Israel, the dean of the Kisse Rahamim yeshivah, and the son of the Rabbi and Judge of Tunis, Rabbi Matzliah Mazuz. He is considered the spiritual leader of Tunisian Jews and was the spiritual patron of former Shas chairman Eli Yishai, who in 2013 lost a leadership battle to current Shas leader Arye Deri.

Mazuz has a history of making racist and anti-LGBT comments.

“We are strict about the words of the Torah by washing hands and the rest of the commandments,” Mazuz said at the time.

“This pride parade is a parade against nature, and anyone who does something against nature, the one who created nature takes revenge on him,” he said. “When you do things against nature, you place your hand in the fire and pray that the fire doesn’t burn you? It burns you! Here they are doing [something] against nature in impertinence: the pride parade. What are you proud of?”

Mazuz claimed that all countries that have parades had been affected by the virus, but that Arab countries that didn’t have pride parades did not have the virus, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and a number of other countries throughout the Middle East.

In addition, in the March 2021 elections, Mazuz praised religious-Zionist leader Rabbi Zvi Tau, who is the spiritual patron of the anti-LGBT Noam Party. Noam united with the far-right Otzma Yehudit Party, which then joined Bezalel Smotrich’s National Union to form the Religious Zionist Party.