The struggle between Israel's ultra-Orthodox party gained momentum on Sunday, when books of religious law written by the venerated Sephardic rabbi and Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef were burned at a major intersection in Or Yehuda.
Shas officials expressed shock at the event and Aryeh Deri, one of the party's three political leaders, came to the site to read psalms with the city’s rabbis.
A complaint was filed with the Mesubbim Police and after an initial investigation the police began searching for a suspect. Shas activists have blamed followers of Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak, the spiritual leader of the Koah Lehashpia party, for the incident.
Police suspect that the books were burned as part of the internecine wars of the ultra-Orthodox Sephardic rabbis that erupted in the wake of the election campaign undertaken by Rabbi Yitzhak, a prominent proselytizer for returning to religion.
Uzi Aharon, the chairman of the Shas branch in Or Yehuda, claimed that an activist in Rabbi Yitzhak’s party with whom he is personally acquainted is behind the deed, but he has not offered any proof.
Attorney Aryeh Samarly, No. 1 on the Koah Lehashpia slate, denied any connection to the incident. “Never happened, no way," Samarly told Haaretz. "This criminal act, which we deplore, has no connection to Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak, to the Koah Lehashpia party or to any of its people."
“With two days to go before the election, we are trying with all our power to lower the flames of incitement and hatred towards Shas. Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak has forbidden us from saying anything, good or bad, about Shas, and of course even more so from carrying out an act like this. We had nothing to do with it.”
Samarly said his party believes the culprit was a businessman disgruntled with Shas' behavior. “From an investigation we have conducted, the person who did the deed is the owner of a shop in Or Yehuda whose Kashrut certificate Shas decided to revoke," he said.
On Monday of last week ,several dozen Shas activists disrupted a rally of Rabbi Yitzhak’s in Beit Shemesh. The popular preacher has refused to cancel his party’s participation in the election and is rebelling against Rabbi Yosef. The Shas activists shouted defamatory epithets at Rabbi Yitzhak and one of them sprayed gas in the auditorium. Even before he could begin to speak, Rabbi Yitzhak was spirited out of the hall.
The battle between the ultra-Orthodox parties has extended to the Am Shalem party as well: A few days ago copies of a book by MK Rabbi Chaim Amsellem, leader of that party, were also burned. In his book, Amsellem attacks Rabbi Yosef and his family, as well as Shas and its leaders.
Rabbi Yitzhak's well-publicized revolt against Shas of late has included personal remarks against Rabbi Yosef and his family. Eminent rabbis recently came out against him in a sharply worded letter but he has remained rebellious.
About eight days ago, in a religious lesson dedicated to the Shas spiritual leader’s recovery – attended by Deri, Interior Minister Eli Yishai, Housing and Construction Minister Ariel Atias and former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron - another prominent proselytizer Rabbi Reuven Elbaz lambasted the “terrorists” carrying out the personal attack against Rabbi Yosef.
Without mentioning Rabbi Yitzhak by name, Rabbi Elbaz proclaimed: “All kinds of thorns in the vineyard are rising. May the Holy Name have mercy on us. What do they want from Maran (Our Master - an honorific for Rabbi Yosef)? This is a direct blow to his dignity, his Torah, his leadership, and his holiness.”
After Rabbi Yosef's stoke last week, Shas switched its previously planned campaign ads on television with a short film focusing on prayers for his recovery entitled: “Love Maran – vote Shas.”
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