Rabbi Shteinman: Yair Lapid – 'Amalek'

Finance Minister Yair Lapid has long been known as an enemy of the haredi public, but now, Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman, a prominent leader in the haredi world, says that Lapid is Amalek, the archetypical enemy of Israel from biblical times.

This Saturday, when the parasha of Amalek is read, Shteinman instructed his disciples to have Lapid on their minds as they utter the words telling of the great enemy of the Israelites.

Twice a year, synagogues read the three verses that command to remember Amalek and destroy his descendants; once as part of the Ki Teitzei parasha, which will be read this Saturday, and once as a separate reading that in itself fulfilled the mitvah of memorial.

The next Hebrew year, 5774, is a leap year and longer than usual, which means there will be 13 months between this reading and the next; certain interpretations in the halacha claim that the second reading must also be done as a mitzvah, to continue the tradition of reading the important Amalek verse every 12 months.

Like any 'enemy of Israel'

Towards the upcoming Shabbat, in which synagogues will read the Ki Teitzei parasha will be read, Rabbi Shteinman has instructed his pupils to keep the finance minister in mind while reading the parasha, in order to illustrate the historic Amalek.

Sources close to Shteinman also said that he tells pupils to think of Lapid and of Education Minister Shai Piron when saying Birkat haMinim, which is said three times every day other than Shabat, and that is read with the purpose of destroying the enemies of Israel: "And let the arrogant government be speedily uprooted in our days.

Let the noẓerim and the minim be destroyed in a moment. And let them be blotted out of the Book of Life and not be inscribed together with the righteous."