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Ideological outlook
Although he urged participation in the democratic process, Shach criticised various aspects of parliamentary democracy viewing it as system of competing interest groups and bribery and believed that the Jewish nation should be governed by the divine laws alone as expressed in the Torah. Manmade legislation was flawed as it was based on self-glorification and human creativity rooted in the arrogant conviction that "my power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me" (Deut. 8, 17), against which the Torah cautions. Fiercely dismissive of secular Israeli culture, Shach championed adherence to Jewish tradition and refused to compromise in the face of modernity, contending that a secular Jewish lifestyle was no different from a non-Jewish lifestyle. After the government passed a liberalised abortion law, Shach refused to meet with Shimon Peres, calling him a "murderer of fetuses."

Aged 96, after the government collapsed in March 1990, he sparked considerable controversy when he launched into a scathing attack on the liberal socialism of the left, vilifying members of the kibbutz movement as "breeders of rabbits and pigs" who do not know what Yom Kippur is, accusing the Labor Party of cutting itself off from Jewish heritage. In the wake of the speech, Ovadia Yosef reneged on his promise to support a Peres-led coalition, and with the votes the ultra-orthodox parties determining who would lead the coalition government, Shach became a symbol for those who campaigned for electoral reform in Israel, such as Uriel Reichman who slammed the political system saying "yesterday we saw what kind of minority rules us. They preach for the exile and smear those who established this state." The speech was described as a "pivotal moment in Israeli history" and seen as a defining episode which helped shape the course of Israeli politics to this day, resulting in the election of many right-wing governments. It also marked a new low in the deteriorating relationship between the religious and secular in Israel, and although Shach was indirectly rebuked by Rabbi M. M. Schneerson for having denigrated irreligious Jews, a few months later, Shach accused President Chaim Herzog of undermining Jewish values for defending "pig-eating" kibbutzniks.

The Holocaust
Shach taught that the Holocaust was a divine punishment for the sins of the Jewish people and for their abandoning of religious observance for the enlightenment. He caused outrage in the secular Israeli media when he stated that "the Holy One blessed be He kept score for hundreds of years until it added up to six million Jews". In his defence, Haredi MKs said his comments had been misconstrued and were not meant to justify Nazi atrocities. Shach believed that the secularism of Israel society could cause another Holocaust and he once said that if the Education Ministry were to be placed in the hands of Meretz MK Shulamit Aloni, it would result in "over a million Israeli children being forced into apostasy, and that would be worse than what had happened to Jewish children during the Holocaust." Wishing to prevent deviation from the established order of prayers, he opposed the composition of new prayers to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust.

Zionism and the State of Israel
Shach rejected the Zionist notion that the safety and survival of the Jewish people lay in national sovereignty, believing instead that only the study of Torah, religious faith and observance would ensure Jewish continuity. On the contrary, Shach believed that the State of Israel was responsible for a global increase of antisemitism claiming that "since the establishment of the State, the hatred of the nations has increased tenfold. Before the establishment of the State one nation hated us, but since the establishment of the State, the entire world hates us." A major opponent of National Religious Zionism, he did not attribute any religious significance to the renewal of Jewish independence in the Land of Israel, accusing the Gush Emunim of distorting Talmudic law. Shortly after the 1967 Six-Day War he repeated the fundamental anti-zionist position denying that Israel's establishment signaled the "advent of Redemption." He stated: “We must have faith that neither the coming of the of the Messiah nor even the advent of Redemption will originate via channels which neither approach nor relate to the Torah of Israel; Redemption cannot be linked with Sabbath violation and the uprooting of [religious] precepts.” Believing that Jews living in Israel remained in exile, Shach advocated Israeli subservience to the United States. Even as Israel faced attack from Iraq during the Gulf War, Shach refused to allow the Prayer for the State adopted by the Chief Rabbinate to be recited and instead called for prayers to be recited on behalf of the United States and its allies. Believing they would stoke antisemitism, Shach was fiercely opposed to Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories viewing them as a provocation towards the international community and banned his followers from purchasing homes on the West Bank. He denounced Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights and adoption of the 1980 Jerusalem Law which designated the unified city as the capital of Israel. He was distraught when the Temple Mount transferred to Israeli control fearing that countless Jews would violate severe Torah prohibitions by entering the compound. He instructed people not to visit the Western Wall, tombs of Rachel and the Patriarchs, or the cemetery on the Mount of Olives claiming it was dangerous to do so. Ruling that preservation of life was paramount according to Jewish law, he favoured territorial concessions in return for peace and cautioned Menachem Begin against taking hard-line positions during peace negotiations with Egypt. Believing that Jews should survive by existing passively in the world, he opposed the establishment of a Jewish army believing that conflict and bloodshed resulted in the spiritual and moral destruction of humanity. During the Lebanon war he called General Ariel Sharon a rodef whom Jewish law permits to be killed without trial in order to save the lives of others. He rejected the view of the religious-Zionists that the military campaigns waged against the PLO constituted a milkhemet mitzvah (a religiously sanctioned war) arguing that the votes cast in the Knesset revolved around political horse trading, not the actual legitimacy of waging war. He inveighed against the secular character of the Israeli state believing that it alienated Jews from their religious traditions and said the existence of laws that contradict and consistently undermine the Torah constitutes a rebellion against Israel's covenant with God and is "worse than the gravest transgression" which would in turn bring divine wrath upon the nation. He forbade military service for yeshiva students referring to conscription as a "plot to uproot the Torah from Israel" and proclaimed that yeshiva students were obligated to sacrifice their lives rather than join the Israeli army. In 1986 he declared "other than the Torah we have no security; neither soldiers nor the IDF will help us."

Chabad and the Lubavitcher Rebbe
From the 1970s onwards, Shach became an outspoken critic of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, accusing the Chabad leader of creating 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 that a rebbe is "the essence and being of God clothed in a body". 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 Tefillin Campaign and once described Schneerson as "the madman who sits in New York and drives the whole world crazy". Shach threatened to leave the opening session of the 6th World Congress of Agudath Israel if a greeting from Schneerson was read out. When the message was referred to over the loudspeaker, he walked out. 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."

Modern Orthodoxy
Shach wrote that Modern Orthodox Yeshiva University type institutions were a threat to authentic Judaism. Shach 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)..." He felt that the success of people who achieved greatness in Torah despite involvement in secular studies was the work of the "satanic forces." Shach accused Joseph B. Soloveitchik of Yeshiva University 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". In 1988, Shach accused Adin Steinsaltz of heresy and was later chief among a group of rabbis banning his works. He told an American rabbi in the 1980s that "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."

Hasidic Judaism
Shach wrote that he was not opposed to Hasidic Judaism saying he recognized Hasidism as "yera'im" and "shlaymim" (God-fearing and wholesome), and full of Torah and Mitzvos and fear of heaven. 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."

Shach resigned from the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah ("Council of Torah Greats") following tensions between him and the Gerer Rebbe, Rabbi Simcha Bunim Alter (d. 1992). In the Eleventh Knesset elections of 1984, Shach had already told his supporters to vote for Shas instead of Agudat Yisrael. Some perceived the schism as the reemergence 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.