2005-09-03-creeationism

By Ira Sharkansky

Americans who insist on teaching creationism or intelligent design have not monopolized the strange place on the political landscape. Depending on which calendar is in use, this is the 21st or the 58th century, but powerful activists are stuck somewhere else.

Israel's entry for this pantheon is Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. He had a term as the chief Sephardi rabbi, and is the spiritual leader of the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party known by its Hebrew acronym SHAS. The party has 11 members in the 120-member Knesset. It is not currently in the government, but its members have served as important ministers, and it has aspirations. The rabbi is cited as authoritarian by SHAS parliamentarians. They visit him for instructions on how to vote. Other party leaders don a skullcap and consult with him on important occasions.

It is often difficult to understand what the rabbi says. He mumbles in Talmudic shorthand unintelligible to most Israelis. Usually the tv clips of his more interesting sermons interpret his Hebrew with a line running along the bottom. But his most recent pronouncements were unusually clear.

What is his explanation for Hurricane Katrina? God's punishment for George Bush's support for withdrawing Jews from Gaza. Black people suffered especially because "they have no God." "They don't study Torah."

A SHAS spokesman did not deny that the rabbi made the comments, but said they were taken out of context and that people were misinterpreting the rabbi. "He has a special style he uses when he speaks to the people . . . He tells jokes . . . When you just tell the joke, you are ignoring the connotation." http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArtVty.jhtml?sw=ovadia&itemNo=622278

The rabbi has already condemned Ariel Sharon. He is "the evil one" who took Jews from Gaza. God will strike him dead. That will happen, sooner or later. And then the rabbi's followers will say, "He told you so."

This is not the first pronouncement of SHAS leaders in the wake of disasters. A collision between a train and a school bus some years ago was due to cinemas in the pupils' home town that were open on the Sabbath. Other tragedies have been caused by a mezuzah (the small case attached to the doorpost of a Jewish home that contains a parchment with biblical verses) that contained a flawed parchment.

This is serious stuff. The political support for SHAS here is arguably the equivalent of the creationists/intelligent design crowd in the United States. We are allies? We control the world? Will our spiritual leaders sit at the same table? Is there an ecumenical movement in this corner of the realm? Dare we answer the questions?

Sharkansky is a member of the political science department at Hebrew University in Jerusalem