Over 36 hours have passed since the recording in which Shas Chairman, Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, can be heard disparaging former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar.
In my innocence, the first time I heard the recording, I was sure Deri had ended his political career. After all, Deri is the head of a religious party, a party which prides itself on respect for Torah, whose MKs always listen to their rabbis and what Torah says. And yet, he allowed himself to call Rabbi Amar - over and over again - "Amar." He laughed, "He's bored all day long, he just has to control things, he has to be in the headlines," speaking in an incredibly belittling fashion about Rabbi Amar's Torah scholarship.
But Aryeh Deri is not going anywhere, as befits a politician with seven lives. Not only does he not plan to resign, he isn't even planning to apologize. His response yesterday to the article was, "Minister Deri respects Israel's rabbis, has always followed their instructions, and will continue to do so in the future." How does that make sense, when juxtaposed with the recording? Only Deri knows. Two days ago, Deri tweeted that he is "ignoring all the background noise." Meaning, if you thought that I'm going to apologize for what I said - you're wrong. According to the Deri Method, if he puts up a video in which former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef is criticizing Rabbi Amar, this will add to the honor of Torah and Torah scholars.
The Shas party, which knows how to criticize so harshly anyone who dares harm the respect given to rabbis (for instance, he called Opposition Leader Elazar Stern (Zionist Union) an "audacious and impudent," and "a disgusting guy who sits there gaping"), fills its mouth with water, allowing itself to act as if the Chief Rabbi of Israel and former Chief Rabbi of Israel were any random person. Meanwhile, Rami Sedan was suspected of saying something in private against Aryeh Deri and Shas, yet he was forced to resign from his position at Channel 10, despite denying the charges against him. Deri himself said it: I will fight in every way possible to get him out of here.
Meanwhile, Deri belittled a great rabbi in Israel, and I'm not hearing even a bit of criticism.
You want us to honor the Torah? That depends on what your position is. You want us to follow what Torah says? We will do our best.
But the issue here is much bigger than Deri himself. This story teaches us the huge gap between what Shas' financial supporters and the voters they came from do. While the voters themselves would stand up every time someone mentions the name of a great rabbi, the financial backers will find ways to turn the voters' respect for Torah into money and power.
The problem is not just Deri, and it's not just the person who recorded him. It's an entire culture of politics which are unrelated to what is good for the public. It's about politics for the sake of money and power.
It's not surprising that Shas' Chairman does what he wants, or that other MKs are trying to throw him out. Nor is it surprising that the party's rabbis are irrelevant. No one really asked them, anyways. Those close to Deri claim that the person who tripped Deri up is the son of a council chairman, and that he is trying to create a revolution in Shas. But all that does is prove that the party's rabbis aren't really the ones making decisions - the financial backers are.
So once it's clear to everyone that Shas "does politics," there's no real respect for the Torah, there's no council, and the rabbis are a burden which must be gotten rid of, it will be time to get rid of this party. We won't forget the good Shas has done in the past, or how dedicated and willing it was to work for the Israeli public. Now, however, we need to find people who will represent the public they come from, who will place a focus on true respect for the Torah, its scholars, and its values, and whose supporters will have a bit of humility.
Israel's conservative and traditional public deserve a different Judaism. They deserve a Judaism of light and honesty, of fairness and moral values.