The sole purpose of non-Jews is to serve Jews, according to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef,
the head of Shas’s Council of Torah Sages and a senior Sephardi
adjudicator.
“Goyim were born only to serve us. Without that, they have
no place in the world – only to serve the People of Israel,” he said in his
weekly Saturday night sermon on the laws regarding the actions non-Jews are
permitted to perform on Shabbat.
According to Yosef, the lives of
non-Jews in Israel are safeguarded by divinity, to prevent losses to
Jews.
“In Israel, death has no dominion over them... With gentiles, it
will be like any person – they need to die, but [God] will give them longevity.
Why? Imagine that one’s donkey would die, they’d lose their money.
This
is his servant... That’s why he gets a long life, to work well for this Jew,”
Yosef said.
“Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow,
they will reap. We will sit like an effendi and eat.
That is why gentiles
were created,” he added.
Yosef’s Saturday night sermons have seen many
controversial statements from the 90-year-old rabbi. In August, Yosef caused a
diplomatic uproar when he wished a plague upon the Palestinian people and their
leaders, a curse he retracted a few weeks later, when he blessed them along with
all of Israel’s other peace-seeking neighbors.