After the passing of Maran, I met a young secular man who asked me: 'Why was Rabbi Ovadia called Maran? And how did he reach this status?'
What should I answer him?
I told him about the rabbi's many accomplishments, about the dozens of books of halachah he wrote, about the social revolution he led, and about his greatness in Torah, which did not prevent him from going down to the people and benefiting the many. "Maran came from the bottom, invested his entire life in restoring the crown of Sephardic Judaism to its former glory and establishing hundreds of institutions and Torah classes. He invested in the public and the public returned his love. The people recognized his value and made him the greatest spiritual leader of the generation.
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""Maran," I told him, "it's not a title you receive, Maran is a title you create.".
Yesterday we met again. "Tell me," the young man asks me again, "didn't you say that conservative is a created title? What exactly is the debate about in the Haredi media?"
Truth be told: I had nothing to answer him.
I bowed my head and muttered: "Forget it, these are just debates by politicians and spin by journalists. The greats of the generation are not concerned with such questions. There is only one 'Maran' in a generation, and unfortunately he is no longer with us. This year we were orphaned by our father and great leader, and there is no one to fill his absence.".
And I added: "Instead of reading articles for this Maran and against another Maran, instead of updating WhatsApp about which MK met with which Maran, and instead of voting in this or that poll who you support for the 'next Maran,' it is better for us to pray to our Father in Heaven to hasten our redemption and grant us true heavenly leadership.".
'"Only the Messiah will solve our problems," my interlocutor told me. "I wish he would come and lead us.".
Young men will whiten the faces of old men.
The intrigues and plots of the last days bring us to the understanding that we must indeed pray more strongly for redemption. End-time prophecies are fulfilling themselves - never have we seen as keenly as in these days the fulfillment of the prophecy, 'In the generation that the son of David shall come, the insolence shall be removed, the youths shall turn the faces of the old men white,' etc.
Just about a month ago, we went out together with hundreds of thousands of members of the Haredi sector to the streets of a city to protest the harm done to Torah scholars. We cried, we prayed, and we asked the Creator of the world to remove the decrees and preserve the world of Torah. And now, in recent days, we have been unwittingly destroying the world of Torah from within. The coronation wars, the 'welcoming the rabbi' positions that have become a show of political power, are harming the prestige of the world of Torah and its leaders and bringing the world of rabbinate to an unprecedented low.
How can we bring lawsuits against captured babies - those who harm the world of Torah, while we allow ourselves to disparage the greats of the generation, rank the influential, and crown spiritual leaders based on political interests?
If we don't come to our senses and stop this drift, what good will it do us to mourn people who do not observe Torah and mitzvot and who allow themselves to be swept away in Torah and lore?
In such difficult times, we have no choice but to remember the Tanna statement in the Avot: "Beware of their embers, for their bite is like the bite of a serpent and their sting is like the sting of a scorpion." In other words, to be careful with the honor of the scholars, whose honor is the honor of the entire world of Torah, and to pray to our Father in Heaven that He will hasten our redemption.
