Shas spiritual leader: 'Hatikva is a stupid song'

"Hatikvah is a stupid song?"

Rav Ovadia Yosef left, Rabbi Cohen right

My points after the article

The Shas movement spiritual leader, the frequently acerbic Rabbi Shalom Cohen renowned for his divisive and controversial comments, has once again caused consternation over his outspoken views.

Speaking at a Shas campaign rally in Netivot on Sunday, Cohen called the Israeli national anthem Hatikva "a stupid song" and disparaged those who sing it, while speaking of his long devotion to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the revered and legendary late rabbinic leader of Shas. 

Cohen was describing the anointment ceremony of former Sephardi Chief Yitzhak Nissim in 1955 which he attended along with Yosef. 

"At the end of the ceremony they began to sing "kol od be'leivav [the beginning words of the Israeli national anthem Hatikvah]." said the rabbi mockingly. "I thought to myself 'they're mad, I didn't stand, everyone stood up like it was the aleinu le'shabayach [prayer] but the rabbi [Yosef] also stood. "

"I asked the rabbi [Yosef] why did you stand up? He said 'I said the aleinu leshabayach prayer. Why did he say aleinu leshabayach? He didn't want this stupid song to influence us at all," said Cohen. 

Large parts of the haredi world have a long-held animus towards the Israeli national anthem. 

The words “to be a free nation in our land” are generally scorned by the haredi community, who see themselves as servants of God. It is commonly believed in the ultra-Orthodox community that the meaning behind the words “free nation” is free of the religious commandments of the Torah. 

“The haredi world is of the opinion that that it is intolerable that the national anthem of the Jewish state declares that the hope of the Jewish people is to be a free people,” said Shahar Ilan, the deputy director of the Hiddush religious freedom lobbying group in reference to their objection to the particular line “a free nation in our land. 

Cohen has a long record of vitriolic and antagonistic statements. In July last year during Operation Protective Edge, Cohen said at a prayer rally for IDF soldiers that the Jewish people do not need an army.

"Do you think the people of Israel need an army?” Cohen asked. “It is God almighty who fights for Israel.”

In response to Sunday’s outburst, Shas defended the rabbi and said “no-one can lecture Rabbi Shalom Cohen, who lived all his years in the walls of Jerusalem, what Zionism is and what the relationship is with the Land of Israel.”

“It is the right and obligation of Rabbi Shalom Cohen to think that the sources of the Torah of Israel which escorted the Jewish people across thousands of years and speaks of the yearning for, and the return to Zion are preferable ten times over to a song that was created in the last few decades,” an official Shas party response read, in reference to Hatikvah, although it was actually written down in its final form by Imber 138 years ago. 

Several points.


First is the world of difference between Maran and his successor. 

Why did Maran stand up during the singing of the Israeli National Anthem when he attached no real importance to it? 

Because he attached importance to the feelings and sensitivities of his fellow Jews who did attach importance to Israel's national anthem. So he stood up and said Aleinu to himself, thereby avoiding to hurt the feelings of his fellow Jews. And for the same reason, Maran did not publicly call Hatikvah stupid.


So why didn't HaRav Cohen stand up and why did he call Hatikvah stupid? 
Because while Maran was Maran, HaRav Cohen is HaRav Cohen. 


The second point -
that Charedim do not not like Hatikvah because it calls for the day that Jews to be free people in their land, and they consider this to be against G-d. 

Every year at Pesach, which celebrates our FREEDOM, I recite from the Haggadah: "This year we are here. Next year, may we be in Eretz Yisrael. Now we are slaves. Next year, may we be free men."  Clearly a theme taken from the Haggadah by the author of Hatikvah. 

Perhaps the Charedim should delete this offensive, anti-G-d phrase from the Haggadah, or perhaps at least say it in a whisper so no one hears it.

Regarding HaRav Cohen's denial of the need for an Israeli army. I cannot argue against the leader of the Council of Sages, but I can state an opposing shita. 

There is an idea that while G-d produces the results, we are not supposed to just sit back and wait for G-d. We must do our part. We are partners with G-d in creation and in running and correcting the world. And so, even though G-d took us out of Egypt, we needed to kill the pascal lamb and put its blood on the door lintel. 

And even though G-d split the sea, Nachshon ben Aminadav had to first enter up to his nose. 

And even though G-d brought us into the land and gave us victory over the enemies, we had to have an army that fought those enemies. 

In fact, the Torah demands and describes the very type of army that HaRav Coehn thinks is superfluous.


Finally, 
that Shas explains how long the Rav has lived in Jerusalem and explains his understanding of Eretz Yisrael, this is not the only understanding possible - there is an entirely different understanding from the National Religious Rabbonim. 

Maaseh Avos siman l'banim. In the days of Moshe, 10 Gedolei HaDor rejected the land and brought the people to reject the land.

 Only 2 Gedolim (Yehoshua and Calev) praised the land and said let's enter it and conquer it (Yehoshua headed up the army as well as the being the transmitter of Torah sheb' al Peh). 

In recent history, HaRav Kook and his son Rav Tzvi Yehuda were the Calev and Yehoshua of our time; the Haredi Gedolim are not.
Haredi Tzionim should vote for Eli Yisha/Boruch Marzel.

It's all hitting the fan: Video emerges of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef calling Deri a thief, bad man

The Tzaddik, Arye Deri..

Explosive footage of the revered late Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef heavily criticizing current party chairman Arye Deri was made public on Sunday night, a development which could further harm the Charedi Shas party’s political standing and electoral hopes. 

The footage from 2008 aired by Channel 2, which shows Yosef calling Deri a thief and a bad man who did not listen to the rabbis instructions, could severely damage Shas’ political future, given that political legitimacy in the haredi world is largely based on rabbinic support.

The recent establishment of the new Yachad Ha’am Itanu party headed by Deri’s rival Eli Yishai has badly dented Shas’ standing in opinion polls and the latest revelations could further harm the party’s political fortunes. 

The video aired by Channel 2 on Sunday night, showed Yosef in 2008 talking with his youngest son Moshe Yosef, Moshe’s wife Yehudit and Yosef’s personal assistant Tzvi Hakkak, when the seven year ban on Deri from elected office was coming to an end.

Deri, who was the former chair of the party until he was convicted on bribery charges and imprisoned for two years, was agitating at the time for a return to the party which had been led since 1999 by Eli Yishai. 

In the video footage aired by Channel 2, Hakkak is seen reading a newspaper article about Deri’s possible return to Shas, and Yosef tells Moshe why he does not want Deri back as party chair, despite promising him as such when he went to prison.

Yosef said that 30 to 40 percent of people thought the court had been right to convict Deri and that Shas could lose those voters if they brought him back. 

“If we put him for example at the head of our [electoral] list, 30 to 40 percent will leave us,” the rabbi says. “Why? Because he was judged in court. Why take someone who [is a] thief? Why take someone who accepts bribes? Why should we do this?...No-one has anything on Yishai.” 

Yosef also accused Deri of being too independent and of not listening to him. Yosef related that Deri had ousted a Shas figure from his position and installed someone else against the wishes of the rabbi. 

“Arye will not listen. I know from past experience, he’s too independent,” Yosef told his son. “Your mother was crying. Is this not an evil person?,” said the rabbi. “I told him a couple of times, he didn’t want to listen.”

Yosef also noted that Deri was seeking a potential new rabbinic patron to start a new political party. 

“He’s encouraging [Rabbi] Kaduri to make another party. He’ll get 5,000 votes, he won’t pass the electoral threshold... I can’t betray Eli Yishai,” Yosef said. 

In 2012 however, Deri was brought back to the Shas front lines after again threatening to establish a new political party. He was appointed joint chairman along with Yishai and former Shas MK Ariel Atias, and eventually appointed sole chairman by Yosef.

Yishai has claimed that Yosef was cajoled and manipulated by Deri and his assistants at a time when the rabbis health was failing. 

In response to the video, Deri issued a statement saying that it was apparent to everyone that Yosef himself had appointed him chairman, and that Yishai had told lies about him to Yosef when the video footage was taken. 

“Eli Yishai knew about the promise of Maran [Yosef] in front of the people of Israel to return the deposit to Arye Deri, and because of this he spread lies and false accusations against Deri in order to block his return. The words explicitly spoken by Maran [Yosef] when Arye Deri returned [to head the party] speak for themselves.

“In these days, when the public expects unity, the subversive man who styles himself as loyal [to Yosef] decided to leak a recording in which he secretly recorded Maran, and took advantage of the trust Maran had in him.”

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's Funeral Largest In Israel’s History

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (4th R) and President Shimon Peres (2nd R) stand near the body of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of the ultra-religious Shas political party, before his funeral in Jerusalem 

The capital came to a veritable standstill Monday evening as at least 800,000 men, women and children from across the nation descended upon Jerusalem to mourn the death earlier in the day of Shas spiritual leader, and former chief rabbi, Ovadia Yosef, in the largest funeral in the nation’s history.

Police helicopters hovered above the city and Light Rail trains reached maximum capacity due to multiple road closings, as hundreds of thousands rushed to attend the 6 pm funeral at the Sanhedria Cemetery.

According to Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, hundreds of officers were deployed throughout the city to ensure order.

Meanwhile, dozens of chartered buses that were able to navigate the numerous street closings – as well as sections of Highway 1 – were parked, some haphazardly, around Ammunition Hill’s sidewalks and parking lots.

Teenager Alon Meiri traveled on one of the buses from Netanya with 50 other men to attend the funeral.

“He’s my rabbi, my teacher,” said Meiri of Yosef, as dozens of men prayed next to his bus in a parking lot. “He knew the Halacha better than anyone and knew things on a scale that no one else does. If you asked him a question he would answer immediately and give you the sources.”

Meiri added that he believes Yosef is irreplaceable.

“It will be impossible to fill his shoes,” he said. “This is a huge loss for us.”

Ron Rafaeli, of Ashdod, also expressed sorrow as he and thousands of others hurriedly walked to the site of the funeral.

“Our greatest rabbi has left us,” he said.

Asked what made Yosef such an exceptional leader, Rafaeli cited Yosef’s unusual connection with the common man.

“He was great because he spoke in the peoples’ language and never acted like he was above them,” he replied. “He acted like he was of them.”

Indeed, Yigal Masika, who traveled from outside of Netanya, said that although Yosef was among the most erudite rabbis in the world, he was still “the rabbi of everybody.”

“He was the greatest rabbi of his generation – a great leader and one of the last holy men of Israel,” said Masika. “He loved all the Jewish people, no matter who they were, and united Jews and rabbis from across the world.”

Masika added, “No one comes close to his knowledge.”

Michael Simantor said he traveled with his young son from Ma’aleh Adumim to attend the funeral.

“He was the greatest rabbi in Israel,” he said. “In his body and mind he was a living Torah. He designed the way we live here today as Jews.”

Noting the gravity of the funeral, Simantor said he told his son that he will never forget the day’s phenomenon.

“I said that one day he will tell his son and grandson that he took part in this significant event,” he said.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat issued a statement mourning the loss of Yosef.

“Rabbi Ovadia Yosef was a part of the Jerusalem landscape for many decades,” Barkat wrote. “He was a spiritual leader, a respected scholar, an influential author and a halachic authority for hundreds of thousands of people in Israel and around the world.”

He continued, “Jerusalem mourns with all of Israel and sends condolences to Rabbi Yosef’s family.”

Barkat added that the Jerusalem Municipality will coordinate an official commemoration of Yosef’s legacy in the coming months.