So today I’m minding my own business, driving in Jerusalem as usual, when this bus goes by, with a big picture of Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, the spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, next to the party’s logo. It is a campaign ad. There are three words written on it:

Mi L’hashem Elai! — Whoever is With God, Follow Me!

I really want to believe that this is camp humor. The implication that anyone who doesn’t vote for Shas (more than 90 percent of voters, according to recent polls is without God seems so far beyond arrogant that you just want to give them the benefit of the doubt. Yosef is not without a sense of humor, this everyone knows. He’s kidding, right?

But if it’s meant as a joke, it’s a pretty sick joke indeed. You see, the phrase is actually a verse from the Bible, Exodus 32:26. It’s right after the Israelites have gravely sinned against God with the Golden Calf. Moses comes down from the mountain, sees the calf, smashes the Two Tablets, and then says those very same three words — mi l’hashem elai. The Levites answer the call, and Moses tells them to take out their swords. They slay about two thousand people on that day.

So… He’s kidding, right?