By Rabbi Dow Marmur
JERUSALEM — In his lifetime, Ovadia Yosef – a former Sephardi chief rabbi of Israel, said to have been a great rabbinic scholar – was also a kind-of supreme leader/ayatollah of the ultra-Orthodox Sephardi Shas party. He now seems to continue to rule it from the grave. Though his earthly home has remained the meeting place of his leading followers, now also his grave has become a venue for political decision making.
[Though Yosef’s orthodoxy was radically different from that of the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s both seem to continue to influence the living from their graves. In the case of the Rebbe, some of his followers believe that his death is only temporary: the second coming has become an improbable Jewish doctrine of some members of this sect.]
Eli Yishai – who was the titular head of Shas while the current leader Arieh Deri was doing time in prison for fraud – recently split from the party and established his own when Deri returned to lead Shas. In response, Deri recommended that Yishai should go to Yosef’s grave to apologize for what he has done.
Perhaps in response, a video from 2008 has surfaced and has just been shown on one of the Israeli TV channels in which Yosef condemns Deri in the strongest possible terms while praising Yishai.
Yosef’s family and Deri’s supporters went to the grave to lament the effect of the video. The implication is that those who made it public (probably Yishai’s people) are the real sinners whereas Deri is the victim of the renegade’s evil machinations.
What about the content of the video? Ovadia Yosef was known for sharp and unexpected asides – “taken out of context,” according to his supporters. When in his lifetime, he gave very learned public discourses journalists flocked to them because he almost invariably made some saucy remark that provided the following day’s headlines. Though it’s difficult to see this video in the same light, efforts are being made to do so and thus minimize its impact.
In response Arieh Deri has submitted his resignation as the leader Shas to the “council of sages” who now seem to want to own and run the party the way Yosef once did. Of course the “sages” wouldn’t accept Deri’s request and asked him (told him?) to stay. At this stage it’s not clear whether Deri will (as part of a pre-arranged drama with a “happy end”) or won’t (out of fear of the consequences for the party if he stays).
Judging by a poll published in Tuesday’s Ha’aetz, Yishai may not even make the cut (the minimum 3,25% of votes needed that guarantee four seats in the Knesset). It’s not unreasonable to assume that if the trend is supported by other polls, it may influence the decision to keep Deri at the helm and continue to find ways of discrediting those who published the video as a way of averting disaster in Shas.
Though there’re supposed to be ideological differences between Yishai and Deri – the former being more on the right, the latter more pragmatic and centrist – these have been overshadowed by the personal vendettas.
By all accounts, political infighting is never fair game. The split in Shas illustrates it. That in this case it’s argued in terms of love for and adherence to the teachings of the great master and founder makes it only more bizarre and much less likely to benefit the rank-and-file whom the politicians purport to represent.
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Rabbi Marmur, spiritual leader emeritus of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto, Canada, now resides in Jerusalem. Your comment may be posted in the box below this article or sent directly to the author at dow.marmur@sdjewishworld.com