Rabbi Moshe Maya, a senior member of the Shas Council of Torah Sages, said in an interview that voting for left-wing parties is a sin against the Jewish people, but that it is permissible to join them in a coalition government, according to reports.
Rabbi Moshe Maya, a senior member of the Shas Council of Torah Sages, made a noteworthy political statement on Wednesday morning (June 24) in an interview with journalists Yakov Ravid and Israel Cohen. His remarks address a perennial tension for the ultra-Orthodox Shas party: balancing religious-ideological opposition to left-wing politics with the practical necessity of coalition building. The rabbi stated bluntly that voting for leftist parties 'harms the Jewish people'—a characterization that aligns with Shas’s long-standing view of left-wing platforms as antithetical to Torah values and national security. However, he then explicitly permitted joining such parties in a government coalition. This distinction between electoral support and governmental partnership reflects the pragmatic political reality in which Shas has repeatedly sat in governments with center-left parties, including the current opposition. The statement comes amid ongoing coalition negotiations and speculation about possible government formations following the March 2026 elections. No further details from the interview have been released; the full context of the rabbi's permission—whether subject to conditions—remains unclear. The Zioneer has no prior reporting on this specific statement.
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