Summary of editorials from the Izraeli Hebrew press
BreuerPress
All five papers discuss various issues regarding the passing of former Sephardi Chief Rabbi and Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef:
Ma’ariv characterizes the last three decades as „the Shas decades,” and contends that under Rabbi Yosef’s tutelage, „These three decades have been characterized by only one thing: Those who left Islamic countries, who are called Sephardic, and maybe Mizrachim [„Easterners”], became more and more ultra-orthodox. Evasion [of IDF service] grew and participation in the work force declined.” The paper says: „There is no argument that one of our generation’s greatest passed away yesterday. He could have led the ultra-orthodox… to a combination of moderation in both matters of Jewish law and national feeling. This did not happen. It also does not detract from Yosef’s greatness in Jewish law that his rulings on conversion and the seventh agricultural year, for example, were moderate. But there was something frustrating in Rabbi Yosef’s path and personality.” The author hopes that among his many students will be those who will lead i n a more positive direction and notes that „In the legacy he left behind, there are also bases for this direction. May his memory be blessed.”
Yediot Aharonot says that Rabbi Yosef „indeed sat at his desk night and day tirelessly writing religious rulings,” but asserts that „The secret of his power, which cannot be denied, was the number of seats Shas had in the Knesset and the movement’s special place in Israeli politics.”
Yisrael Hayom says that the battles over who might succeed Rabbi Yosef as Shas’s spiritual leader began well before he passed away, and believes that the infighting „has left the party divided and broken in almost every respect.” The author avers that now „The struggles will become open and unbridled,” and concludes: „Rabbi Ovadia carried this great network called Shas on his back. There is not, and will not be, a successor to step into his shoes. All of the hopes of Shas’s leaders may be summed up in one word – inertia. The fumes that he left behind will allow this car to keep going, at least for one or two election campaigns, before it comes to a halt on the side of the road.”
Haaretz comments that “Along with his virtues and achievements, Yosef will also be remembered as a man who contributed a great deal to the polarization and division of Israeli society,” and notes that “Perhaps the greatest damage of Yosef’s legacy is that Shas, under his leadership, nurtured a large and growing group of citizens who did not work for a living or serve in the army, but instead subsisted on government allowances and charity.”
The Jerusalem Post states: “Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s death marks the passing of one of the most creative and original halachic minds of the modern era.” The editor remarks that Rabbi Yosef “reached out to a large segment of Sephardi Israelis whose observance was not rigidly Orthodox, promoted a ‘melting pot’ approach of unifying the customs of Sephardi Jews and rejected the traditions that developed in the Diaspora,” and hopes, in the long term, that “he will be remembered for his tremendous Torah scholarship and his transformation of Sephardi Jewry.”
