the Haredi power struggle

The Haredi news sites are all abuzz right now with what seems like a power struggle in the Haredi community in Israel, as a rare public dispute between the gedolim takes place.

It turns out, reportedly, that Rav Chaim Kanievsky has signed a letter ordering schools to reopen, while keeping to the health guidelines.

As an aside, curiously, the health guidelines are that schools cannot open, so any keeping of guidelines can only be partial if they open schools against the guidelines.

Back to the story...

Rav Gershon Edelstein has disagreed and said it is still too dangerous and schools should not yet be reopened. Rav Edelstein has also insisted that people continue to daven at home rather than in outdoor minyanim, also saying it is still too dangerous. He was one of the first to say to stop shuls and outdoor minyanim in the first place.

According to the reports, on the instructions of Rav Edelstein, Yated did not print Rav Kanievsky's letter.

That is big news.

After this hit the airwaves, the damage control kicked in. A statement was released by the courts of Rav Kanievsky and Rav Edelstein saying that the reports are lies and the rabbonim are all in pain from the schools being closed and the bittul torah because of it. The rabbonim are working together to find a solution as quickly as possible...
sources: Kikar, Behadrei, and a bunch more

we can talk about the power struggle between the rabbonim, we can talk about the askanim, we can talk about the changes happening int he Haredi community as a result of Corona, or some other things. But we won't. I'll leave that to other pundits who are all already analyzing those topics online and writing their predictions. Whatever the news reports about a power struggle, there is still too much unknown to me, and surely unreported, about the details to offer an opinion on the matter.

Personally I think this (not the argument, just the raising of the issue) is the beginning of pressure being put on the government to get the schools open. just like they successfully pressured the government this past week to ease regulations and allow outdoor non-porch minyanim and even mikvas, despite the lack of any change in the health situation and still not yet having any knowledge of how much the virus spread over the Pesach holiday, they are now working to do the same for the schools.

That is how I see it. The next step will be having the UTJ reps, MK Gafni and Minister Litzman, pressuring Netanyahu to allow the schools to function in some format in the next stage of "easing the regulations".

It is a power struggle. I don't know if it is a power struggle between Rav Kanievsky and Rav Edelstein, but it is surely a power struggle between the Haredi community and PM Netanyahu and the Health Ministry.

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