Jun 4, 2023
trouble around Rav Meir Kahane
This is an interesting turn of events.
The race for the elections of new Chief Rabbis is heating up. We have heard about the various candidates for Sefardic Chief Rabbi - between the seeming frontrunners Rabbi Dovid Yosef, Rabbi Yehuda Deri, and some others though Shas has not yet announced which is their official candidate), while the party-supported candidate for the Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi had yet to be named.
The race for the elections of new Chief Rabbis is heating up. We have heard about the various candidates for Sefardic Chief Rabbi - between the seeming frontrunners Rabbi Dovid Yosef, Rabbi Yehuda Deri, and some others though Shas has not yet announced which is their official candidate), while the party-supported candidate for the Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi had yet to be named.
The Ashkenazi candidate is a bit more complicated. The DL party/parties (right now Smotritch and Ben Gvir) inked a deal with Shas for trading support, they will support Shas's candidate and Shas will support theirs. Aguda generally does not field their own candidate but they usually strongly influence which DL candidate will get elected.
Minister Smotritch has announced that they will support Rav Meir Kahane (I checked, no relation to the OG) - a rav and rosh yeshiva and dayan from Ashkelon. Degel doesnt like him because it seems he comes from a more liberal end of the DL community (I personally am not familiar with him at all so have no personal knowledge) and are threatening to not support his candidacy. The leading candidate for Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi until now was though to be Rav Micha Halevi, a well respected rav more from the Har Hamor community (supposedly Avi Maoz considers him his rabbi) which is more "traditional" and closer to the Haredi style - Degel was fine with him (I havent heard anything about Aguda's position on this just yet) being the DL candidate.
With UTJ making trouble now, things are up in the air. They have said they will now consider floating their own candidate against the DL candidate and whoever else might run (DL split the vote and Haredi candidate wins, etc). Shas, for now, is saying the deal they signed with Hatzionut Hadatit for trading support is going to be kept. If Degel throws a fit, it is hard to imagine this continuing as is - either Shas will be pressured to back down or Smotritch will be pressured to change its candidate.
So far it seems to me that Smotritch gives Degel (and Shas, but not relevant here) whatever they want, while Degel does not necessarily support Smotritch's and Ben Gvir's initiatives. I wonder if this will break that camel's back or if Smotritch will just give in to Degel again...
Anyway, it is funny and ironic to think that with Smotritch and Ben Gvir holding senior positions in government, yet have distanced themselves from Rabbi Meir Kahane, the next Chief Rabbi serving during their terms in office might be one named Rav Meir Kahane...
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