Rabbi Yosef Says Netanyahu Has No Chance to Repent, Eisenkot Might

Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, president of Shas' Council of Torah Sages and former Sephardic chief rabbi, used his motzei Shabbat Torah class to say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has no chance of repenting, while suggesting Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot might yet return to observance. Yosef framed the remark as a Torah reflection on a secular Israel and the wish that Jews across the spectrum will do teshuvah. The comment lands during the coalition's final week of the 25th Knesset, with Basic Law: Torah Study, a yeshiva-student enforcement freeze and a kashrut bill still moving. A senior Sephardic authority publicly sorting national figures by prospects for teshuvah carries weight in Shas circles and among religious voters heading toward the October election.