Shach was opposed to
Zionism, both secular and religious. He was dismissive of secular
Israelis and their culture. For example, during a 1990 speech, he lambasted secular
kibbutzniks as "breeders of rabbits and pigs" who did not "know what
Yom Kippur is". In the same speech, he said that the Labor Party had cut themselves off from their Jewish past and wished to "seek a new Torah". Labor Party politician
Yossi Beilin said Shach's speech set back relations between religious and secular Israelis by decades. Other secular Israelis, including residents of the kibbutz
Ein Harod, were said to have found the speech inspirational, so much so as to bring them closer to religious practice. In 1985, four years after the Labor Party supported a liberalized
abortion law, Shach refused to meet with
Shimon Peres and said he would not speak with a "murderer of fetuses". In
Haaretz, Shahar Ilan described him as "an ideologue" and "a zealot who repeatedly led his followers into ideological battles". Shach never seemed concerned over the discord he provoked: "There is no need to worry about
machlokes [dispute], because if it is done for the sake of Heaven, in the end, it will endure... One is obligated to be a
baal-machlokes [disputant]. It is no feat to be in agreement with everybody!" Shach was also critical of Western
democracy, once referring to it as a "cancer", adding that, "Only the sacred Torah is the true democracy."
Position on army service In May 1998, following talk of a political compromise which would allow Haredim to perform
national service by guarding holy places, Shach as well as many other Orthodox leaders told their followers in public statements that it is forbidden to serve in the army, and that "it is necessary to die for this". This is a case, Shach said, in which, halachically, one must "be killed, rather than transgress". This position was expressed in large ads placed in all three of Israel's daily newspapers on May 22, 1998. Shach is quoted as saying that, "Any yeshiva student who cheats the authorities and uses the exemption from service for anything other than real engagement in
Torah study is a
rodef (someone who threatens the lives of others)", and that "those who are not learning jeopardize the position of those who are learning as they should".
Position on territorial compromise Shach supported the withdrawal from land under Israeli control, basing it upon the
halakhic principle of
pikuach nefesh ("[the] saving [of a] life"), in which the preservation of lives takes precedence over nearly all other obligations in the Torah, including those pertaining to the sanctity of land. Shach also criticized
Israeli settlements in the
West Bank and
Gaza Strip as "a blatant attempt to provoke the international community", and called on Haredi Jews to avoid moving to such communities. Shach often said that for true peace, it was "permitted and necessary to compromise on even half of the Land of Israel", and wrote that, "It is forbidden for the Israeli government to be stubborn about these things, as this will add fuel to the fire of anti-Semitism". When
Yitzchak Hutner was asked to support this position, he refused, saying that, "agreement to other-than-biblical borders was tantamount to denial of the entire Torah".
Chabad and the Lubavitcher Rebbe Shach was an antagonist of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, and was one of the leading major Lithuanian rabbis to come out in force against the Chabad movement and its leader. From the 1970s onwards, Shach was publicly critical of Schneerson, accusing Chabad of false
Messianism by claiming Schneerson had created a cult of crypto-messianism around himself. He objected to Schneerson's calling upon the Messiah to appear, and when some of Schneerson's followers proclaimed him the Messiah, Shach called for a boycott of Chabad and its institutions. In 1988, Shach denounced Schneerson as a
meshiach sheker (false messiah), and compared Chabad Hasidim to the followers of the 17th century
Sabbatai Zevi, branding as
idolatrous Schneerson's statement referring to his father-in-law, the previous rebbe of Chabad, which he viewed as God's chosen leader of the generation, "the essence and being of God clothed in a body of the "Moses" of the Generation, as it was by Moses himself". Followers of Shach refused to eat
meat slaughtered by Chabad Hasidim, refusing to recognize them as adherents of authentic Judaism. Shach also opposed Chabad's Rambam Campaign and
Tefillin Campaign, and once described Schneerson as "the madman who sits in
New York and drives the whole world crazy". He nevertheless prayed for his recovery, explaining that "I pray for the rebbe's recovery, and simultaneously also pray that he abandon his invalid way".
Criticism of rabbis and Jewish institutions In a lengthy attack on
Joseph B. Soloveitchik (d. 1993) of
Yeshiva University, Shach accused him of writing "things that are forbidden to hear", as well as of "... endangering the survival of Torah-true Judaism by indoctrinating the masses with actual words of heresy". Shach resigned from the
Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah ("Council of Torah Greats") following tensions between him and the
Gerer Rebbe,
Simcha Bunim Alter. In the
Eleventh Knesset elections of 1984, Shach had already told his supporters to vote for Shas, instead of Agudat Yisrael. Some attempted to create the perception that the schism was a re-emergence of the dissent between
Hasidim and
Mitnagdim, as Shach represented the Lithuanian Torah world, while the Gerer Rebbe was among the most important Hasidic Rebbes and represented the most significant Hasidic court in Agudat Yisrael. However, it would not be accurate to base the entire conflict on a renewal of the historic dispute between Hasidim and Mitnagdim which began in the latter half of the eighteenth century. Shach strenuously opposed this mischaracterization. Rabbi
Adin Steinsaltz was accused of heresy by Shach, who, in a letter written September 10, 1988, wrote that "... and similarly, all his other works contain heresy. It is forbidden to debate with Steinsaltz, because, as a heretic, all the debates will only cause him to degenerate more. He is not a genuine person (
ein tocho ke-baro), and everyone is obliged to distance themselves from him. This is the duty of the hour (''mitzvah be-sha'atah''). It will generate merit for the forthcoming Day of Judgement." In summer 1989, a group of rabbis, including Shach, placed a ban on three of Steinsaltz's books. Shach wrote that Yeshiva University-type institutions posed a threat to the endurance of authentic Judaism. He called them "an absolute disaster, causing the destruction of our Holy Torah. Even the so-called '
Touro College' in the USA is a terrible disaster, a '
churban ha-das ' (destruction of the Jewish religion)..." Shach writes that the success of those people who were able to achieve greatness in Torah, despite their involvement in secular studies, are "''ma'aseh
satan''" (the work of the satanic forces), for the existence of such role models will entice others to follow suit, only to be doomed. In conversation with an American rabbi in the 1980s, Shach stated, "The Americans think that I am too controversial and divisive. But in a time when no one else is willing to speak up on behalf of our true tradition, I feel myself impelled to do so." Shach denied that he was a hater of Hasidim: "We are fighting against secularism in the yeshivas. Today, with the help of Heaven, people are learning Torah in both Hasidic and Lithuanian yeshivos. In my view, there is no difference between them; all of them are important and dear to me. In fact, go ahead, and ask your Hasidic friends with us at Ponevezh if I distinguish between Hasidic and Lithuanian students." == Death and legacy ==