Eretz Nehederet, the premier satire show in Israel, or as some describe it as Israel's version of Saturday Night Live, ran a skit last night about the elections in which they joked about Shas's campaign ads "there's a father in heaven" with a big picture of Rav Ovadia Yosef.

In the skit they brought Rav Ovadia down to talk to him about the elections. I saw a poor quality clip of the skit (I have nmot yet found an official video clip of this online so I havent found one good quality yet) and personally I did not find it all that funny.

Shas is making a big deal about this. They are very upset, there are some things you don't joke about, it hurts the sensitivities of so many people to whom Rav Ovadia was and is very dear, etc.

They need to get a bit of a sense of humor and just laugh it off or ignore it. Satire shows laugh at everything and everybody.

The real issue is, I think, that they need a demon to wake up and bring back their electorate. Shas leaders seem to be discovering that their target audience either does not care enough about the elections to get excited or have moved on to other parties - either UTJ or Likud or The New Right or even Zehut, and maybe others... this is also why they are making up stories about Gantz and Lapid planning a gay parade by the Kotel and flooding the malls with pork. They are trying to find the trigger that will shock their electorate and bring them home and motivate them to go out and vote Shas.

This image has raised quite a ruckus..


The image was a promo for the television satire show "Eretz Nehederet". As you can see, they are standing in a shul and wearing tallitot. The image was used as a promo for the show, entering its 13th season, using the theme of it being their bar mitzva year.

The religious and Haredi MKs, who were notably quiet regarding the deal with the Reform about the Kotel division, are extremely upset about this cynical use of a shul. Rabbonim are upset. The Chief Rabbis are upset. The Rabbanut religious council is upset. There are calls to have Eretz Nehederet censured and even to put the producers in jail for denigrating religion.

It seems all they did was take this picture in the shul, not video an entire episode in a shul setting. I am not sure what is so bad. People go to shuls for photographs all the time. Religious singers make music videos inside shuls. Bar Mitzvah boys, people getting married, politicians, rabbis having meetings, etc. Shuls are used for all sorts of things, and I do not see why this taking a picture is so bad, compared to everything else done in our shuls.

The worst thing I can think of being done in a shul, far worse than this photograph, is how some communities use their shuls for political rallies during election seasons. They bring in politicians to talk in front of the aron kodesh. They bring rabbonim to talk about elections in front of the aron kodesh. That seems far more denigrating to the shul, and also really seems assur according to the halachot of appropriate behavior in a shul, and far more inappropriate than this one photograph above..

Now playing armchair psychologist, I think the reaction is likely a result of the Reform deal at the Kotel. They have taken so much criticism for quietly allowing the deal to go through that perhaps they feel they now have to take a strong public stand defending the honor of a synagogue. I can't think of another reason to turn this into such a big deal.

This is a funny skit by Eretz Nehederet, a satirical show styled after SNL, making fun of the BBC style of reporting on the war...



(HatTip: Pesky Settler)