Times of Israel Rabbi Shmuel Pappenheim of the haredi
Orthodox organization Eda Haharedit shares little common ground with
Reform Rabbi Uri Regev, a religious pluralism activist.
But when news broke last week that
Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi, Yona Metzger, was arrested on suspicion
of fraud and money laundering, Pappenheim and Regev had the same
reaction: Who cares?
For Pappenheim, the chief rabbi is a political
figure who has scant influence as a religious leader. And to Regev, he
represents a coercive religious authority whose actions have little
meaning for Israel’s secular majority.
Both regard the chief rabbi’s legal troubles as both unsurprising and largely irrelevant.
“Whom does the chief rabbi serve?” asked
Regev, who heads Hiddush, a religious pluralism nonprofit. “The secular
sector has no connection to the rabbinate. It doesn’t have any
expectations of the chief rabbinate.” [....]
The Edah cares about no one or anything outside of their tight realm, a very anti-Torah point of view. The Reform movement has thrown Torah out the window years ago, so any Rabbinate is less than a fly in their face.
ReplyDeleteThe Chief Rabbinate is respected by a large segment of Nationalistic Frum Jews in Israel (respected does not mean 'followed'), Mesorati/Traditional Jews in Israel (which is a large majority) and Jews outside of the country. Therefore any indictment, embarrassment or negative news about the Chief Rabbi's behavior lowers the 'honor of shamayim'.
The entire Rabbi Metzger affair from the onset was full of 'tricks'. Rav Elyashuv pushed his candidacy and he was voted upon without any real support..
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