Rabbi Machfoud Compares Yemenite Child Conversion Attempts to Current Threats to Torah World
Translated & summarized from Kikar HaShabbat by baba
Rabbi Shlomo Machfoud compared past attempts to convert Yemenite immigrant children to Judaism in 1949 to current threats against Torah study. He recounted how children were taken from their families and encouraged to violate Shabbat at Kibbutz Beit HaShita. Rabbi Machfoud stated that these efforts aimed to undermine religious tradition. He concluded by emphasizing that Torah study is what protects the Jewish people.
The story in 5 lines · by baba
- Rabbi Shlomo Machfoud compared past religious coercion of Yemenite children to current threats to Torah study.
- He recounted efforts in 1949 at Kibbutz Beit HaShita to convert about sixty Yemenite immigrant children.
- Children were allegedly offered gifts and encouraged to violate Shabbat, with only three escaping the influence.
- Rabbi Machfoud stated that these methods aimed to turn Jewish people away from their religion.
- He urged strengthening Torah study as the means of protection for the people of Israel.
Rabbi Shlomo Machfoud, a member of the Council of Torah Sages of Shas, drew parallels between past attempts to undermine religious observance among Yemenite immigrants and current challenges facing the world of Torah study. Speaking at an event in Bnei Brak on Saturday night for yeshiva students arrested due to their military status, Rabbi Machfoud recounted his experiences in 1949 after his family immigrated from Yemen.
He described a three-month stay at Kibbutz Beit HaShita, where representatives offered holy books to immigrant families in exchange for allowing their children to be educated at the kibbutz. "They took about sixty children from us," he said, detailing how a guide attempted to accustom the children to violating the Sabbath, telling one child that "in Yemen you had Shabbat, here in the Land of Israel is religion." Another child was offered new shoes to join a trip on Shabbat. "They had special methods to turn the people of Israel away from their religion," Rabbi Machfoud stated.
He claimed that out of the approximately sixty children, only three were not affected by these efforts, and he himself narrowly escaped the kibbutz's influence. Rabbi Machfoud then transitioned to the present situation, asserting that just as there were those who sought to uproot religious tradition from immigrant children in the past, there are now those aiming to harm the foundations of Torah study.
The rabbi concluded by urging strengthening commitment to Torah study, stating, "No weapon forged against you shall prevail.