Rabbi David Yosef, a member of the Shas Council of Torah Sages and son of former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, revealed in a lecture to his students that he instructed Shas chairman Aryeh Deri not to pass laws which would discriminate against the secular in Israel.
"You hear what's happening in the media, they keep saying 'the religious are going to enact laws, to restrict and change'. I want to reassure the secularists, we have no intention of making laws to increase hatred and division, we want to unite, we want to bring closer, we don't want to divide," Rabbi Yosef said.
"We instructed Aryeh Deri and our members of the Knesset not to submit laws that would restrict the secular public, we do not retaliate through threats and laws.
"The Chazon Ish said that we have never seen a person who had stones thrown at him on Shabbat and because of that he repented. This is not our way, we will not follow the way of coercion. My father, Rabbi Ovadia, his way was always one of love and friendship and closeness, that will be our way.
We will not act like the previous government, which abused us and acted against us in such a harsh manner. We will chart a gentler path and bring hearts together," he said.