HaGaon HaRav Shalom Cohen, head of the Shas Moetzas Chachmei HaTorah, spoke out harshly on Motzei Shabbos against Chareidim who voted for Beit Shemesh Mayor-elect, Dr. Aliza Bloch, who is a member of the dati leumi community. She stunned many by unseating two term mayor, Rabbi Moshe Abutbul of the Shas party by 533 votes.
During a Shas post-election celebration event in Jerusalem, Rav Cohen decided to address the loss in the Beit Shemesh, citing it was nothing less than “an embarrassment and disgrace” that Bloch emerged the victor against Abutbul.
Rav Cohen addressed claims of disapproval against Abutbul from within the Chareidi camp: “They say that Moshe Abutbul did not take care of garbage collection and cleaning the streets. Phoeey (slang) on you! [טפו עליכם!]”
“What about the Torah related things that he did? Is there more cleanliness in the world than that? In Olam Habaah, they [Chareidi voters for Bloch] will be put into clean bathrooms. There, they will have clean bathrooms…”
“How do Yerei Shomayim who put on Tefillin in the morning not know how to weigh between this one (candidate) or this one? It is an embarrassment and a disgrace”, added Rav Cohen.
Shas chairman Minister Aryeh Deri also blamed the Yachad party headed by Eli Yishai for Abutbul’s failure. Deri said “They are all looking for the responsible party. Who is to blame. They look when the answer is right under their noses. The other list – the same list the grandson of Maran is on (Yishai’s), which took 1,300 votes [from us]”.
(He was referring to a grandson of HaGaon HaRav Ovadia Yosef ZT”L running with Aryeh King in the Jerusalem race, and that list is connected to Yishai’s party).
Deri added that contrary to the word of Gedolei Torah, Sephardim, Ashkenazim and chassidim stood behind another candidate, “Against one of our own, HaRav Moshe Abutbul, and there is not an Admor or Gadol B’Torah who did not back him and behold, the entire chareidi tzibur is now sorrowed and pained”.
“These people”, he added, referring to Yishai, “purportedly act in the name of Maran, in the name of Torah, against Chachmei Yisrael. Like I said, Baruch Hashem, they went from הלכו מדחי אל דחי, [a bad situation to worse]”.
Yishai did not remain silent, but responded via twitter, stating, “Deri failed in the Beit Shemesh race but instead of behaving like the rest of the chareidim who promised to draw conclusions and conduct a thorough examination of why thousands of chareidim preferred to vote Bloch, he regularly places the blame on others and runs away from taking responsibility. This was the case in Emanuel too, as well as in Elad and many other municipalities around the country”.
למעלה מ-4 שנים שאני כבר לא בתנועת ש״ס, ועדיין אחראי בכל כשלון של אריה דרעי.
אבל זה בסדר, התרגלנו כבר שהשמאל מאשים אותנו בהכל, הרי אנחנו גם רצחנו את רבין. 2/2— אלי ישי (@Ely_Ishay) November 3, 2018
“I am not in Shas for over four years and I am still responsible for all of Deri’s failures. It is okay however. We are used to it, that he blames others [after all] we also killed Rabin”.
דרעי נכשל בבחירות בבית שמש, אך במקום לנהוג כמו יתר הנציגים החרדים שהבטיחו להסיק מסקנות ולערוך בדק בית מדוע אלפי חרדים העדיפו את בלוך, הוא כרגיל מאשים אחרים ובורח מלקיחת אחריות. וכך גם בעמנואל, באלעד ובישובים רבים ברחבי הארץ. 2/1 https://t.co/KdQIZcAWnG
— אלי ישי (@Ely_Ishay) November 3, 2018
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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12 Responses
No introspection
No humility
No respect of other Jews
No feeling of responsibility to take care of a city full of peoples basic physical needs
How exactly is this Judaism ?
His attitude is the only shame i see here
shas is not our party, it is a party that works with corruption and only supports its candidates. it is a totally disgusting group of people who worship power and money.
They know that there is a toilet in gehenim because they have been there and seen it, but since all of their friends are there so they mistake it for heaven….
most disgusting of all political parties….
Is Bloch somehow less religious than Abutbul? Why should a haredi resident not vote for her, if he thinks she’d be a better mayor?
@Milhouse- Without getting involved in politics, she’s know to have a very anti-chareidi sant.
Milhouse, Bloch is a Zionist and a woman, which likely bother Rav Cohen.
He seems to conflate the mission of a mayor with that of a Rav.
#1The question is understandable and indeed I was one who actually suspected that bloch win or at least would come close
First all those bashing Abutboul the ones always claim to be more tolerant ,more accepting.
ironic The ruthless lack of Tolerance for this fellow especially that he was he’s a wonderful BT
Of more import if you look at narrow bread and butter As many more do now then indeed this result was to be expected
if one is the bigger picture And long-term repercussions potentially then indeed it’s something concerning
Milhouse,
Those of us who consider ourselves to be Charedi generally believe that the Gedolim of the generation know more than we do.
All the significant Charedi Rabbonim both nationally and locally instructed their followers to vote for Abutbul therefore to go against their instruction is considered to be a Chillul Hashem.
I am not saying whether right or wrong just explaining why who one thinks is the better mayor is not necessarily the only criteria when voting.
Whilst on the subject as I local resident I struggle to see why people voted for her to be mayor but not her party (or similar ones) in an equal way to be on the council where the Charedi parties still hold a majority.
Abutbul was merely a figurehead, to vote him out and keep the seats the same was completely pointless
chareidi amiti[sic] ,
A little respect for one of the greatest and most dignified Talmidei Chachamim of the generation.
Rav Ovadia Yosef and others used to use even stronger language on a regular basis.
Surely you were denouncing them as well!
StuartW,
No.
in Israel the median is the message and therefore a mayor Is never just a city manager
tp://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/173412/shas-benizri-on-rav-ovadias-attack-against-rav-stav.html#sthash.IBDKqgP1.dpuf
Can I please have an explanation why my comments from earlier were not approved? They were not inflammatory at all, just an honest perspective.
This kind of reaction is precisely why many of us chareidi Yidden are having a difficult time maintaining faith in the Daas Torah in today’s world. More often than not, it seems that the statements coming from rabbonim are often no more than personal attacks or partisan politics, stemming from some desire for power and without any true guidance.