A senior Israeli rabbi published a biblical-style prayer calling for the downfall of Iran’s clerical regime, as reports of nationwide protests and a sweeping internet shutdown fueled new religious and political commentaryin Israel. Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of Safed and a senior figure in the Religious Zionist world, shared the text during what Israeli outlets described as a night of intense unrest inside Iran.
In the prayer, Eliyahu wove together direct quotations from the Torah and Jewish liturgy with a contemporary plea focused on Tehran. He thanked God for granting strength “to strike our enemies” and echoed the Leviticus verse, “You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.”
He then moved to language drawn from the Book of Numbers, “Rise up, Lord, and let Your enemies be scattered,” before adding a blunt, present-day request aimed at Iran’s leadership.
According to the text published on his own social media, Eliyahu asked God to “destroy the leaders of Iran” whom he said sought Israel’s destruction, while also urging protection for “the people rising up against them” and calling on Iran’s security forces to “help, not fight” the protesters. Israeli coverage linked the prayer to the latest reports of mass demonstrations in Iran and an unusually broad communications blackout. Analysts at the Critical Threats Project and the Institute for the Study of War said Iran sustained a nationwide internet shutdown, likely to disrupt coordination and obscure the scale of repression, with connectivity reported at about one percent of normal levels during the blackout. (Read More)
