Avirama Golan, "Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Revolutionary"
David Shasha
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Revolutionary
By: Avirama Golan
We will now, by necessity, begin to assess the legacy of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.
We will likely not get the Sephardic perspective in the matter of his rabbinical career, so here are a few thoughts related to the Sephardic heritage:
Rabbi Yosef has presented a massive repository of Halakhic learning that is encyclopedic in nature. His compendia of responsa Yabi’a ‘Omer and Yehaveh Da’at are not likely to be equaled for their breadth and scope.
The rabbi’s other prominent achievement is his founding of the SHAS party which sought to articulate and protect the interests of the Sephardim in Israel after many bitterly fruitless decades of cultural exclusion and social stigmatization.
These are the two primary achievements of Rabbi Yosef in his lengthy career.
The rabbi’s massive Halakhic literary output speaks to his roots in the Porat Yosef seminary and the way in which that education has undermined the tradition of Sephardic Religious Humanism.
While espousing the legal methods of the classical Sephardic tradition which generally presents a more lenient Halakhic view than its Ashkenazi counterpart, the Porat Yosef worldview largely excluded the wider learning of the Maimonidean tradition. It has been famously asserted that Rabbi Ben-Zion Uziel was unable to deliver a class on Judah Halevi’s Kuzari in the Study Hall of Porat Yosef as this was seen as outside the purview of the strictly Orthodox religious nature of the institution.
Indeed, it should be remembered that Rabbi Yosef was asked in 1947 to head the rabbinical court in Egypt when the Chief Rabbi Haim Nahum Effendi was unable to perform the task because of his blindness:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovadia_Yosef#Residing_in_Egypt
As the Wikipedia entry notes, Rabbi Yosef – characteristic of his religious ethos – saw the ritual standards of the local community as “lax.” This is a critical point in trying to better understand Rabbi Yosef and how he processes Torah Judaism.
As the Haaretz article by Avirama Golan makes clear, the rabbi’s “revolution” was of a pointedly Halakhic nature. What is meant by Halakha here is an obsessive-compulsive focus on the minutiae of ritual law and custom. The thousands of responsa published by the rabbi focus on these minute details and counsel readers on how to perform them.
In an excellent book on what is called “Masorti” Judaism in Israel – a phenomenon largely connected to the Mizrahi Jews – Yaakov Yadgar shows us the net result of this situation:
As Professor Yadgar expertly shows in the many interviews he has done with Mizrahi Jews who discuss their understanding and practice of Judaism, most Sephardim in Israel remain confused and conflicted over their identity and are stymied by the rigidity of the religious institutions and their “all or nothing” approach. Crucially, these Israeli Sephardim know nothing about the literary heritage of the Sephardic past.
Sephardim have now split off into various factions based on the Ashkenazi paradigms promoted by SHAS manifest in Rabbi Yosef’s legal writings: There is the agenda of the Lithuanian Yeshivas that is tied to ritual behavior which sadly ignores the larger intellectual-scientific-philosophical tradition of Iberian and Mediterranean Jews. And then there is a Zionist nationalism embodied in the Settler radicalism that the “Masorti” Mizrahim have adopted.
The “Masorti” Mizrahi Israelis look to Religious Zionism as their model as they find ways to cut ritual corners. For SHAS members such a short-circuiting of the Halakhic process is unthinkable. Rabbi Yosef has indeed proclaimed what he calls “Minhag Eretz Yisrael,” the Judaism of the Land of Israel, as a means of uniting all Israeli Jews. This has been a contentious flashpoint as it both asserts the primacy of Joseph Karo’s Shulhan Arukh at the expense of the Ashkenazi tradition – a matter unacceptable to the Ultra-Orthodox – while at the same time negating or severely constricting the larger intellectual apparatus of Religious Humanism.
Rabbi Yosef has been quite successful in imposing his views of Sephardic Judaism on the general public. So at the same time that he promotes a return to Sephardic “greatness,” he is undermining the culture of the Sephardim who wrote poetry, philosophy, and what Orthodox Jews would consider “secular” subjects.
For the classical Sephardic tradition there is certainly Halakha and ritual and custom. But there is a larger intellectual-cultural context that is missing from the SHAS formula.
The dirty little secret of the SHAS phenomenon is the connection of many of its leaders to the Ponevezh Yeshiva; a hardcore Lithuanian institution that could not be further from the Maimonidean tradition.
http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/16754/rabbi-eliezer-shach-ex-shas-leader-dies/
In obituaries of Rabbi Eliezer Shach he is described as a founder of SHAS; a situation that came to a head in 1992 when he famously demeaned Sephardim as not mature enough to lead a political party:
Many important leaders in the SHAS party were educated in the Lithuanian Yeshiva system and it has been this Ultra-Orthodox vision that has led the party and structured its Jewish worldview.
The clash between the Sephardic Halakhic tradition and Ashkenazi Orthodox fundamentalism has continued to subvert the cultural Sephardism of SHAS. While there is certainly a Sephardic coloration in SHAS and its members, the identity is only skin-deep; in truth, SHAS Judaism is linked to the agenda of the Haredi Ashkenazim with only minor distinctions on ritual matters.
Over time it has become eminently clear that Rabbi Yosef’s view of the Arab Question has become rather negligible as SHAS has moved firmly into the Haredi-Right camp. Rabbi Yosef was once seen as a maverick in terms of peace issues:
But this is how things developed:
http://dreamingofmoshiach.blogspot.com/2008/02/rav-ovadia-yosef-regrets-oslo-agreement.html
The rabbi has become better known for his deprecating comments on Arabs:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1270038.stm
http://www.memri.org/report/en/print4604.htm
Such pronouncements are a far cry from the idea that the Jews of the Arab world would be a bridge to their compatriots; an argument made by Trude Weiss-Rosmarin in her eloquent 1968 article “Toward Jewish-Muslim Dialogue”:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/Davidshasha/r8LowyTwFlc/U4PIPtJ8dGQJ
Sadly, it is this combined legacy of anti-Arab provocation and Haredi-style Judaism that have become emblematic of the SHAS party and Rabbi Yosef. The roots of this tone-deafness can be traced in the transformation of the Sephardic religious world along the lines of Ashkenazi radicalism. Rabbi Yosef spent some years as an outlier in the Haredi world, but over time the rift healed and the Ashkenazi grudgingly accepted his high stature.
But there was ultimately a high price to be paid for this acceptance.
Having rejected the expansive cultural heritage of Iberian Judaism, Rabbi Yosef constricted the SHAS movement to the ritual straitjacket. Eschewing the intellectual genius of the great Sephardi literary masters, the SHAS movement appears to be bereft of the “secular” values so intrinsic to educated society. Living in an Israel where the religious-secular divide continues to expand and deteriorate, SHAS is now part of the problem rather than a possible mediator in its eventual solution. Rather than being a voice of peace and rationality, SHAS is mired in the muck of Ashkenazi factionalism and is resolutely tied to the Haredi world; to the point where we see a consistent problem in the discrimination of Haredi institutions against Sephardic students:
http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Sephardi-haredim-complain-to-court-about-ghettos-310348
It is because of Rabbi Yosef’s socio-religious vision that the problem of Sephardi students in Ashkenazi institutions arises in the first place. Although SHAS promotes Sephardi custom, its religious default is indistinguishable from that of the Ashkenazi Ultra-Orthodox community. The intimacy of SHAS, from the days of Rabbi Shach’s leadership and mentoring, with the Ashkenazi Haredim has been a constant feature of the movement in spite of the lingering tension.
So for all his erudition in Halakhic scholarship and his purported love of the Arab Jewish tradition, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef has cemented the Ashkenazification of the Sephardic religious community by removing the Humanist component of Rabbinic Humanism and focusing exclusively on matters of ritual and custom.
It is little wonder that SHAS has continued to be mired in scandal and controversy, always seeming to use arguments of moral relativism to justify the bad behavior:
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/scandal-in-rabbi-ovadia-yosef-s-family-rocks-shas-1.408622
While corruption scandals are not extraordinary in Israeli politics, the lack of moral leadership in SHAS has become emblematic of a follow-the-herd mentality that seeks access to the corridors of power and the material gain that comes from being connected. SHAS has made some strides in elevating the status of Israeli Sephardim, but has done so in a way that continues to embody a religious extremism and anti-Modern approach that is disconnected from the classical Sephardic vision of leaders like the aforementioned Haim Nahum Effendi, a man who Rabbi Yosef wrongly thought to be a negligible religious leader.
So Rabbi Yosef has indeed had an incalculable intellectual effect on Orthodox Judaism with his many legal writings. He has as leader of SHAS had an equally important effect on the Israeli political system.
But in the end, after his long tenure as Sephardi Chief Rabbi and as head of the most significant Sephardic political party in Israel, Sephardic Judaism finds itself emptied of its most precious content and Sephardim on the road to losing their noble heritage. Evidence of discrimination against Sephardim continues while Sephardim remain unrepresented in mainstream Jewish institutions and find themselves being written out of Jewish history:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/Davidshasha/yj_4nB1nWTk/PSVcxzqBsKEJ
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/Davidshasha/a93EykBERUk/rA34Yg5U6oAJ
The classic sources of the Sephardic tradition are not only not part of the larger Jewish agenda, but are largely unknown to Sephardim themselves:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/Davidshasha/MJ35YoKl4jI
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef has promoted a narrow vision of Sephardic Judaism which has reinforced the Ashkenazi-Lithuanian model even as it maintains a Middle Eastern coloration. Books on intellectual subjects critical to the Sephardic heritage continue to be written exclusively by Ashkenazi scholars at the same time that we have seen the explosion of historical divisions in the Sephardic community over religious-Halakhic matters.
Rather than being a force that would unite Sephardim around their rich civilization, Rabbi Yosef has continued to stoke religious and political divisions by presenting a benighted picture of the Sephardic tradition as predicated exclusively on ritual matters rather than on the wider expanse of intellectual attainment. Sephardic tradition is far more than the sum of its ritual requirements.
The current state of the Sephardim is pitiful and when we assess the situation it is necessary to look closely at the role of leaders in the process of destruction and evisceration.
DS
It’s sad to see how in light of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s serious condition, images empty of wisdom not to mention respect for others are winning out. Those images are reflected in the contempt emanating from political commentaries weighted down with psychology, personal motives and gossip aplenty that are permeated with scorn for the rabbi, and in fact for his many followers.
Yes, yes, you heard right. He cursed, acted the fool, sent people packing and slapped them. That’s all true, and it’s interesting that those who hold him in contempt find it easier to be forgiving when it comes to great turns of phrase like the “blind she-goat” (about Netanyahu) and to be shocked only when it comes to execrations of “our own.” Minimal effort, if any, is invested in an attempt to understand the great value of the man, as if it were not clear that since the 1980s, the social-cultural reality in Israel has changed unrecognizably.
Those who can look at this change without panicking, can perhaps understand that the spiritual leader of Shas is not, as he is often presented, a clown (though he is a gifted stand-up comedian), but rather a revolutionary. The impact of the revolution he generated by way of deep sociocultural changes in Israel has still not been deciphered, but it shows itself in two places: among the large public that is rediscovered anew on the day after every election, and in the academic world, which has so far only touched the fringes of his works.
Ostensibly, these are contradictions: the open, public and political aspect, which expresses itself at the ballot box, as opposed to the aspect of Torah and Jewish law, which are relevant only to a closed, religious world, as it is studied academically. But these two aspects are inseparable parts of he rabbi’s personality and reflect his world. Without understanding the link between them, it is difficult to plumb the depths of the revolution he led. Not only for “his” public, but for all of Israeli society.
Scholars like Benny Lau, Zvi Zohar, Ariel Pikar, Aviezer Ravitzky and others, have clearly discerned this link. Their research shows how Yosef was able to extricate an entire group of people from the stigma of discrimination-driven powerlessness and fill them with pride in their ancient heritage. Under the slogan “restoring the ancient crown,” he combined brilliant, daring halakhic moves with the empowerment of deep social streams.
This complex activity, which was both conservative and radical at the same time, generated huge changes, the political manifestations of which are just the tip of the iceberg, and the real significance of which can be seen in every aspect of public life and discourse.
The most interesting and compelling fact emerging from the research is the national and cultural choice offered by Yosef’s worldview. “Restoring the ancient crown” is not just a proposal to become insularly ultra-Orthodox. On the contrary, it represents the return to the halakha and culture of Eretz Israel.
Rabbi Yosef sought to inculcate throughout society the awareness of the authentic place of the people of this land, in a tolerant and flexible Mediterranean spirit. In this context he dared, for example, to rule that the value of pikuah nefesh – preservation of life – outweighed that of settling the territories; insisted that the establishment of the state was not a religious miracle; did not segregate secular people, and sought to create a single prayer service for everyone, in Sephardi style. The worldview he expressed resembled the dream of Israel’s founders of a unified national consciousness, but it was better suited to the true Israel.
Despite the slander, this view is anti-nationalist and anti-Haredi. Although the leaders of Shas dragged their party into separatism, their rabbi was and is a Zionist leader in the full social and national sense of the word. His worldview, which was distorted, stained and taken advantage of, still exists, crystal-clear, in his writings.
For all the foolish slips of the tongue that he made under the pressure of the power-hungry bullies who surrounded him, and despite his human weaknesses, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef is nonetheless a revolutionary. And the revolution he led still issues its own fascinating call to Israeli society.
From Haaretz, September 30, 2013