Dr. Nissim Leon, the Director of the MA Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Bar-Ilan University, spoke with Arutz Sheva on Thursday about the real crisis Shas faces.
According to Leon, the author of Soft Ultra-Orthodoxy: Religious Renewal in Mizrahi Jews, the real crisis is not the dispute between Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri and former Shas Chairman and current Yachad-Ha'am Itanu Chairman Eli Yishai. Rather, he argues it is an intense power struggle and crisis of religious authority.
"Firstly, the authority of the Shas Council of Torah Sages is now under a huge question mark. Even the political leadership, in the case of Aryeh Deri, has refused its orders and continues to press for his own resignation," Leon said.
Leon noted that "even some Shas rabbis are standing on the the fence and not throwing their weight behind the Council of Torah Sages. And of course there are those who take stands without listening to provisions of the Council."
According to Leon, Deri understands that Shas' public and supporters are no longer connected to the spiritual authority of the movement.
"He is very familiar with Shas' territory and he realizes there is a crisis of authority between religious and political factions, making it impossible to go to elections."
"You see today that a portion [of previous Shas voters] are drifting to Eli Yishai, a portion to United Torah Judaism, and some will remain with Shas," Leon outlined.
"Deri is like the CEO of an organization and the Council of Torah Sages like the board of directors. Suddenly the CEO discovers he has no resources. What's happening in Shas right now is chaos."
Leon argued that, contrary to the Ashkenazi hareidi movement, the Sephardic hareidi movement of today lacks a Maran - an exceptionally respected rabbi serving as the religious authority of the movement.
"In the last thirty or forty years, Mizrahi Jewry have established a glorious world of Torah through great rabbinic leadership - and at the cornerstone of that was Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. However, today they have no Maran."
"We saw a similar crisis in Ashkenazic Judaism in the dispute between Rabbi Steinman and Rabbi Auerbach, but that was not a crisis of this scale," Leon noted.
"Crises of authority, such as this, have always been able to be resolved, but it can take anywhere from a month to ten years."