The white-bearded rabbi had an unusual message for his followers in Israel. Instead of presenting a teaching from the Torah, he exhorted them in a widely distributed video clip to avoid the temptation of spying for Iran.

“Heaven forbid, there are those who cooperate with them,” declared Yigal Cohen, a member of Israel’s chief rabbinical council with a large and influential social media presence.

It was unexpected messaging but hardly random. Rabbi Cohen said that Israeli security officials had approached him and asked him to warn listeners that Iranian agents were recruiting people in Israel to work for them — urging them over the internet to photograph locations, acquire guns and hide them in a set location, and potentially even kill.

“I am begging you, there is no greater blasphemy than seeing a Torah-abiding, observant Jew betray his people,” the rabbi said in the video, adding that any such contact with Iranian agents would end in jail time and ruin lives.

Israeli authorities have long been warning through public awareness campaigns that Iranian intelligence agents are recruiting informers and operatives inside Israel. Enlisting Rabbi Cohen and other rabbis was part of a broad array of countermeasures Israel is taking against an adversary that police and prosecutors say is seeking new ways to gain advantage.