In his popular weekly address broadcast to tens of thousands of followers June 18, Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef made a broadside attack at ultranationalist Knesset member Itamar Ben-Gvir for praying on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount in contravention of the rabbinical ban on Jewish prayer at the site.

“What blasphemy to go against all the true, great men of Israel. Think about it, fool,” he said. “He will tell you that he, too, has rabbis. … Think twice, you cretin. You think your rabbis know better than the greatest rabbis?” Yosef went on to accuse Ben Gvir and rabbis who support him of provocative behavior and disrespect for rabbinical teachings, “going up to the Temple Mount, stirring up trouble and crossing the line of the great men of Israel.” He urged his flock to “steer clear of” Ben Gvir.

Yosef’s injunction comes within a longstanding Jewish debate regarding entry to the Temple Mount. The traditional view, espoused by the ultra-Orthodox and Yosef's father, the late Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, bans visits to the site where the Jewish Temple once stood for fear of inadvertently stepping on the Holy of Holies and desecrating God’s spirit. Others, especially so-called "religious Zionists" like Ben Gvir, whose Jewish Power party merged into the Religious Zionism party, argue that entering the Temple Mount is permissible under certain conditions.

Yosef’s attack stunned many in the Knesset, where aside from his strong nationalist views, Ben Gvir’s conservative stances on issues of state and religion often align with those of the two ultra-Orthodox parties in the legislature, particularly Shas, which Yosef serves as spiritual leader.