Tel-Chai Nation

David Weinberg wrote about the travesty Haredi rabbis like Yitzhak Yosef have led to:

Had Rabbi Yosef’s remarks not been delivered in such foul fashion, and each of the above statements so defamatory, one might have charitably thought that he was trying to make a legitimate point.

One might have thought that Yosef was seeking to spark a serious and needed debate about the problematics of bringing so many Russian non-Jews to Israel (upwards of 400,000), or at least drive parliamentary reconsideration of the "grandchild clause" in the Law of Return (which is core to the problem).

One might have thought that he was considering taking more responsibility for handling the screaming-to-heaven need for Orthodox conversion outreach to Russian-Israeli non-Jews, in a positive way that might somewhat defuse the enormous demographic and societal time bomb posed by the current situation.

But no. Rabbi Yosef’s outburst is characteristic of his generally sour, angry demeanor and his politicized approach to his post as chief rabbi.

Yitzhak Yosef was mainly responding to the violent anti-religious campaigning of that base rabble-rouser, Avigdor Lieberman, and his Yisrael Beiteinu henchmen (extremists like Alecs Kushnir and Lazar Kaplun). Unfortunately, Yosef’s eruption provides fodder for Lieberman’s political campaign in advance of Israel’s March elections.

If anything, Yosef clearly isn't as educated as he thinks he is. Otherwise, he'd know better than to give ammunition to Lieberman that could've been entirely avoided. It just demonstrates the poor conduct many insular Haredis go by, and how ignorant they are of arguments like "life and death are in the hands of the tongue".

This is one more sad result of the ruinous Oslo peace process. In the 1990s, the political left gave the keys to Israel’s Jewish character to Ultra-Orthodox politicians in order to purchase haredi support for the Oslo process and the subsequent Gaza disengagement.

Haredi rabbis began a slow but inexorable conquest, with the backing of the reigning Labor Party, of city rabbinates, religious courts, conversion courts, municipal religious councils, and kashrut agencies, turning the Chief Rabbinate into an ossified, contrary force that has created more problems than it has solved.

Religious Zionist and Modern Orthodox rabbis, who had built and controlled the Rabbinate for the country’s first 40 years and who were generally much more attuned to the needs of the non-religious and Zionist public, were pushed out.

Prime Minister Netanyahu made the same Faustian bargain in 2013, when – for narrow political reasons – he supported the haredi candidate for chief rabbi, David Lau, over the religious Zionist candidate, Rabbi David Stav.

As far as most haredi rabbis are concerned, the many Russian non-Jews who came to Israel, and their children, can simply remain goyim – since haredi society has no intention of mixing with that public anyway.

That's what being insular is all about. It shows Yosef's crowd doesn't recognize their humanity, and that's what drives Haredis like him, which is contrary to Judaism. For what he did, he should be defrocked.

Labels: haredi corruption, Israel, Judaism, Knesset, Moonbattery, political corruption