Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu has said that the earthquake in Turkey and Syria that has claimed nearly 40,000 lives is a «divine punishment» that «cleanses the world and makes it a better place.»
The rabbi has published a column in the religious conservative newspaper ‘Olam Katan’ in which he compares the earthquake to the death of the Egyptian forces in the Red Sea during the Jewish Exodus recorded in the Old Testament.
«There is no doubt that those who would have seen the Egyptians drowning in the sea (…) would have tried to save them, but the Israelites sang songs because they knew who the Egyptians were and understood that those who were drowning wanted to kill a part of them and enslave the rest,» he argued.
«They sang because they understood that it was divine justice that punished the Egyptians who had drowned the children of the people of Ishtarel in the Nile, so that all the wicked of the world would see it and be afraid,» he added.
Already openly referring to the earthquake in Syria and Turkey, Eliyahu said that «God is judging all the nations of the world who wanted to invade our land several times and throw us into the sea.» «Syria has mistreated its Jews for hundreds of years (…) and has invaded Israel three times with the intention to murder and destroy,» he reviewed.
«Turkey has defamed us in every possible context. If God reveals Himself to us and tells us that He is going to judge all our enemies, we must look and understand what is happening around us. Everything that happens, happens to clean up the world and make it better,» he reiterated.
Thus, he quoted a passage from the Bible, from the book of Ezekiel, who prophesies that when all the Jews return to the land of Isarel «vengeance will come to all the nations that have harmed us».
Some rabbis have already criticized Eliyahu, such as Rabbi Avraham Stav, who has argued that joy over the death of enemies should be reserved for the terrorists «not for the thousands of children who have done us nothing and who have been crushed together with their parents».
Rabbi Yehuda Gilad has assured that Eliyahu’s words cannot be believed. «Thousands of people made in the image of God have been buried under the ruins of their homes. Ancinans and children die in terrible agony and we should consider it a benefit to us?» he argued, according to the newspaper ‘The Times of Israel’.
Eliyahu, considered close to the Israeli Minister of National Security, the ultra-right-wing Itamar Ben Gvir, called on Jews a few months ago not to rent or sell homes to non-Jews. He has also criticized homosexuality and the participation of women in army combat units.
Eliyahu is also the father of Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu and son of the late Mordechai Eliyahu, who was Sephardic Chief Rabbi between 1983 and 1993.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
