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Rabbi Ovadia's Purimspleen
By Yair Sheleg
Rabbi Ovadia Yossef's "Haman speech" raises an interesting question: Why, in
recent years, is Shas in the vanguard of the more extreme ultra-Orthodox
struggles and thus stealing the show from Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox Jews,
despite the fact that Sephardi Halachic rulings and the religious
outlook of Sephardi Jews in general are usually thought to be less
extreme than the rulings and outlook of the Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox
community?
Shas's extremism is evident not
only in Rabbi Yosef's no-holds-barred speeches but also in the fact
that, over the last few years, it has been Shas that has led the
ultra-Orthodox crusade against the Supreme Court. It should also be
noted that in most of the grass-roots confrontations in recent years
between religious and secular Jews, such as Pardess Hannah and Beit
Shemesh, forces identified with Shas have set the tone and have thus
usurped the Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox as initiators of such face-offs.
Apparently, the primary reason for
this development is the fact that Shas is no longer just another
ultra-Orthodox group but represents, at the more substantive level, a
social protest movement whose religious identity is the channel for
expressing its protest. This point is certainly true when we consider
not only the majority of Shas's non-ultra-Orthodox voters but also the
party's tough kernel, which is ultra-Orthodox.
Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox Jews grew up in the atmosphere of ideological
conflict with the secular world but they have never felt that someone
was trying to alter their identity (at least, not deliberately).
Admittedly, during the initial decades of Israeli history, the Ashkenazi
ultra-Orthodox community was a small, marginal minority representing the
charred remnants of the once-illustrious ultra-Orthodox Jewish community
in East Europe, which was almost totally destroyed by the Nazis. As
such, the Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox Jewish community here sensed that it
was fighting for its very survival and the struggle it mounted was also
of a no-holds-barred, violent nature.
Today, that community is large and
has penetrated all aspects of life in Israel. Thus, the sense of an
urgent need for revolutionary action has subsided and, in recent years,
there have been almost no violent struggles waged by ultra-Orthodox Jews
trying to dictate their terms to society. In the present era, they focus
their energies on protecting the vital interests of their community -
housing for young couples, militant action in educational crises (in
view of the friction with the secular world) and a rear-guard battle for
the continuation of the induction exemption for yeshiva students.
In contrast, the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox community did not develop from any
ideology imported from the diaspora but instead is an expression of rage
and humiliation over the attempts of Israeli society to alter the
identity of Sephardi Jews during the early years of the state. Sephardi
ultra-Orthodoxy formed as a sort of counter-culture and carried a
message of social - rather than religious - protest against the hated
establishment.
While the confrontation between the Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox community and
the secular majority of Israeli society is primarily ideological, the
face-off between the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox community and the
"establishment" is essentially a struggle for social survival and for a
separate identity. The nature of this struggle endows the members of the
Sephardi ultra-Orthodox community with a much stronger sense that they
have the internal legitimacy to take far-reaching steps, because their
struggle with the establishment has an emotional intensity that
surpasses the level of feelings generated in an ideological-intellectual
confrontation.
In light of this fact, when roadblocks are set up in the path of the
Sephardi ultra-Orthodox "counter-culture" - whether they take the form
of the High Court of Justice or Education Minister Yossi Sarid - they
are seen not just as the expression of an ideological confrontation
between secular and religious Jews but mainly as a new version of the
conflict with the firmly-rooted Ashkenazi-secular establishment that has
tried in the past to undermine Sephardi Jewish identity. As a result,
all the pent-up rage of the past is unleashed and the Sephardi
ultra-Orthodox community devotes its energies to ensure that history
will not be repeated and that its identity will not be attacked once
more. Essentially, the message that this community transmits to Israeli
society in the context of such confrontations is: "We will not let you
suppress our identity a second time."
The above is not intended, of course, to justify the words that have been
used by Rabbi Yosef. Quite the contrary, the legitimization of those who
feel that they are victims is extremely dangerous and must be approached
with utmost caution. However, the need for caution also implies a
two-fold conclusion: Vigilance must be exercised, but great care must
also be taken in order not to escalate the conflict.
In this context, patience is vital, because, after venting its rage, the
"counter-culture" will not be interested in remaining technologically
and economically backward. If the necessary degree of caution and
patience is exercised, we will see the emergence (in fact, initial signs
are already apparent) of a new generation of Shasniks, who will display
a more tolerant attitude towards the secular world and who will seek,
like the Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox community today, its own unique
defense system against the threat of modernity to religious observance.
Forum
http://www.hofesh.org.il/articles/shas/hassata.html
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