Rabbis and royalty
God periodically shows us a sense of poetic justice and even a sense of humor.
This week the world media celebrated the birth of a new heir to the British royal house: an institution not built on talent, but rather on bloodlines, and without any strategic power.
A few hours later, a few men in black in Jerusalem turned the rabbinate of Israel into a royal hereditary institution built not on talent but on bloodlines and without much spiritual power. After William and Kate showed off their princely baby, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef crowned his son, and Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau crowned his son.
It was a happy day in London, but a sad one in Jerusalem.
The funny thing is that both the British royal house and the Israeli rabbinate can have great symbolic and even spiritual consequence if the “royal” or the “rabbi” sets a good example, finds a certain grace, courage and even modesty that elevate them beyond the trappings of office.
It is a lesson many Israeli rabbis – particularly of the ultra-Orthodox persuasion – need to learn: too many of Israel’s religious leaders have been building hatzerot – royal courts – around themselves, and they have taken to passing on their power through bloodlines.
JUST LIKE vassals serving royal courts in the Middle Ages, most of the Hassidic community live in poverty, making donations to their religious leaders’ courts.
Many of the Hassidic rabbis have been doing this for years, but it is really making a mockery of the job of rabbi – a post that is mostly about being a teacher and spiritual guide. When our spiritual guides guide themselves by love of money or love of power, then we lose heart and lose faith.
Yonah Metzger, Israel’s current Ashkenazi chief rabbi, is under house arrest in a huge corruption case, and the evidence appears quite damning. Rabbi Metzger was put into office by a powerful voting bloc organized by ultra-Orthodox leader Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, who wanted to take control of the Chief Rabbinate.
Rabbi Elyashiv picked Metzger just like British Mandatory authorities in Palestine picked Hajj Amin al-Husseini to be Grand Mufti. Of the four candidates Husseini was the worst on his Islamic exams, but he was politically powerful and expedient. The Mandate chose Husseini, and Elyashiv chose Metzger. Power trumped spirit.
Many religions in many lands have seen their men 65 YEARS AGO
On July 28, 1948, The Palestine Post reported that about 2,000 men and women, representing a crosssection of the Israeli Army, Navy and Air Force, paraded with their equipment in Tel Aviv, while aircraft zoomed overhead. The parade passed in review in the Maccabi Stadium before prime minister David Ben-Gurion and chief of staff, Brig. Ya’acov Dori (Dostrovsky). The parade marked the 43rd anniversary of Theodor Herzl’s death, observed every year, this time as a first National Day, in memory of the man who gave political expression to the vision of a Jewish state.
At Lake Success, the UN Security Council rejected the Syrian proposal to submit the Palestine question to the International Court of Justice for its opinion. Voting was six in favor, one against and four abstentions. Thus Syria was one vote short of the minimum. An Israeli spokesman said that the three Arab conditions for the demilitarization of Jerusalem were “so absurd that they will not even provide a basis for discussion.” Israel had also protested again to the UN Security Council against the continued British detention of 9,000 Jews in prison camps in Cyprus.
The pumps at Ras el-Ain were being repaired and water was expected to be pumped to Jerusalem shortly. The first convoy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on the main road was also expected to
50 YEARS AGO
On July 28, 1963, The Jerusalem Post reported that president Zalman Shazar had sent a message to president Tito of Yugoslavia expressing Israel’s grief over the Yugoslav earthquake disaster. Yugoslavia had accepted Israel’s aid for the disaster area. The first consignment of medicine, tents and clothing had already left for Yugoslavia by air.
Prime minister Levi Eshkol told the press that Moscow’s partial in cloth exposed in the most embarrassing ways. In the ultra-Orthodox establishment of Israel, where nothing succeeds like success or... maybe like succession.
Think of it: Rabbi Yosef and Rabbi Blau got to do what Moses and Samuel did not succeed in doing – pass on the mantle of spiritual leadership to their sons.
British royalty – and royalty in general – get real power when they show a common touch and common sense, when they reach out and lift up. They rise up in our eyes and become symbolically and even strategically powerful not when they ensconce themselves in a luxurious royal court but rather when they court virtue.
As a reporter I once saw how Israel’s Sephardi-oriented Black Panther Party greeted Ashkenazi chief rabbi Shlomo Goren when he visited them in their tent demonstrations.
Rabbi Goren won their respect because he had been a tireless religious influence for good. He was a rabbi who was also a paratrooper and a visitor of the sick, not a minister who took money, lavish hotel rooms and first-class plane tickets to perform weddings for Jews in Basel and London.
We need more rabbis like Rabbi Goren. Yes, he was a showboat, but he also cared about God, not gold, and people sensed that.
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef has built a huge power structure – the Shas Party. It has an unparalleled record of political success and political corruption in its short history. Many of its top leaders went to jail: Arye Deri, Yair Levi, Shlomo Ben-Izri.
We are supposed to imitate God and the great messengers of God. But when the messengers fail, we should replace them, even if they are black-robed rabbis selected by black-robed rabbis.
Israel is dealing with monumental religious questions that require a human and a humane face tied to God’s teachings. One is treating mass immigration of people of partial Jewish heritage who want to become Jews in the fullest sense.
French statesman Georges Clemenceau once reportedly said, “War is too important to be left for generals,” and perhaps it is time to realize that “religion is too important to be left to rabbis and priests.”
After all, God said to Moses: “ve-atem tihyu li – mamlekhet kohanim ve-goy kadosh – “And ye shall be a nation of priests and a holy people (Exodus 19:6).
The writer is the author of Battle for Our Minds: Western Elites and the Terror Threat published by Threshold/Simon and Schuster. He was Strategic Affairs Adviser in the Ministry of Public Security, and will be a visiting professor at University of California, Irvine. begin – two such convoys were expected to pass the Jordanian-held stretch of road at Latrun daily.
Mediator Count Folke Bernadotte said that he would go on leave on August 8, 1948, and he hoped to provide round-table talks between Israel and the Arabs upon his return.
Five British employees of the Jerusalem Electric and Public Service Corporation were charged in Tel Aviv on three counts of espionage and security violations.
Col. Moshe Dayan assumed command of the Sixth Brigade in Jerusalem in succession to Col. David Shaltiel.
It was now disclosed that 34 enemy planes were destroyed by the Israel Air Force during the war.
Still trying hard to avoid the word “Israel” in its broadcasts, the BBC described Moshe Shertok (Sharett) as the man “who deals with Jewish affairs for the Jews.” The Provisional Government was called “Provisional Government of the Jews.” nuclear test ban agreement would herald a calmer atmosphere, if it resulted in the cessation of arms shipments to Israel’s enemies.
Armed marauders from Jordan shot and killed a 13-year-old Beduin boy and wounded his mother, both from the Abu Muamat tribe, and stole 17 sheep from their flock.
25 YEARS AGO
On July 25, 1988, The Jerusalem Post reported that while the doctors’ strike continued, the Treasury agreed to add 24 per cent more slots for nurses in the public hospitals, almost two-thirds of them during the next two years. The three nurses who had been on a hunger strike for 15 days celebrated by having a solid meal.
Two leading Palestine Liberation Organization supporters in the territories expressed unqualified public support for a document by PLO official Bassam Abu Sharif calling for direct talks with Israel in an international conference. Speaking at a panel discussion with Israelis sponsored by the Peace Now organization, Faisal Husseini and Radwan Abu Ayash also advocated mutual recognition and a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
In Washington, the US State Department denied the statement made by Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak that American officials would shortly meet with “prominent” members of the PLO.
– Alexander Zvielli