Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu went to the city of B'nei Brak on Friday to visit Rabbi Gershon Edelstein at his home and was greeted with jeers from those he passed on the street.
Rabbi Edelstein, approaching a century in age, is the rosh yeshiva of the massive Ponovezh Yeshiva in B'nei Brak-one of the leading Litvish yeshivot in Israel. More importantly for Netanyahu, Edelstein is also the spiritual leader of Israel's Degel HaTorah political party. He had held this position jointly for five years alongside Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky until Kanievsky's passing in March of 2022.
Locals boo'd Netanyahu and chanted insults, calling him a heretic in both modern Hebrew (kofer) and mishnaic Hebrew (apicorus).
Netanyahu's religious activity
This was not the only religious endeavor the former Prime Minister, who is not known to be a very religious man, took on in the public eye this week.
שנה טובה לחיילות וחיילי צה״ל. אוהבים אתכם מאוד. pic.twitter.com/U5oVXliOoi
— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) September 22, 2022
On Thursday, the opposition leader posted a video to his social media with the caption, "Shana Tovah to the soldiers in the IDF. We love you very much." The video depicted Netanyahu paying in a synagogue and reciting the prayer for the welfare of the IDF soldiers. His costume for the filming included a kippah and tallit. This video was met with a considerable amount of anger and confusion on social media; it was not clear for which demographic this post was made.