Dr. Nissim Leon, an expert on Mizrahi Haredi, is head of the Society and Culture Department at Bar Ilan University, and the author of the books 'Haredi Soft' and 'Shas of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef'.
What is the change, if any, between the Shas of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, zt"l, and that of Rabbi Shalom Cohen on a sociological level?
There is a difference between a Shas headed by a poske, and a Shas headed by a rosh yeshiva. It is worth remembering that Rabbi Ovadia came from the 'kingdom', he came from the 'state'. He was a city rabbi, a state rabbi. The rosh yeshiva has a very homogeneous community. It is an ideal community. He sees the ideal community before his eyes, and it is naturally less nuanced. His perception is therefore more meticulous.
Shas has always been ultra-Orthodox, but under the leadership of Rabbi Shalom Cohen, or in the environment - of which Rabbi Cohen is a part - Shas today is more ultra-Orthodox than before. The trend is more of a gathering inward. An approach that will raise walls, will do more for its own home. Shas will be the Sephardic Agudat Israel, by the way, which it was supposed to be from the beginning. This is of course not a criticism, but a description of a different leadership, a different one.
Another point: Rabbi Ovadia's Shas grew up in an environment full of resources: political resources, economic resources - state resources. Shas had government ministries, and as of now that is not happening, and I am not convinced that this is going to change, although that is not my field.
Why was Rabbi Ovadia's Shas so successful?
Rabbi Ovadia brought a state concept, according to which it is possible to connect with the state and also repair it. The trend seen today in Shas is more of a trend of convergence, of preserving the existing. Is that less good? It depends on who you ask. Shas will be the Sephardic Agudat Israel, by the way, which it was supposed to be in the first place. If they want to return to the glory days, they will have to work much harder. Shas is currently being confronted by other forces in the periphery, for example, religious Zionism and its Torah-based nuclei. The patents that worked in the 1990s will not necessarily work now.
Was the appointment of Hacham Shalom Cohen a politically wise move?
Everyone asks that. I don't know, I'm not a political consultant. If the appointment is an organizational appointment for the movement, maintaining continuity of leadership, stability amidst uncertainty, then it seems like a smart move. Again, this is not my area of expertise.
What do you think about the voices being heard surrounding the appointment of Rabbi Amar as the next spiritual leader?
In my opinion, several divisions, several rifts, are developing in Sephardic Haredi. The first is between the world of the poskim and the world of the yeshiva heads.
The second split is the ethnic divide between those of North African descent and the other ethnic groups, mainly the Iraqis – Halavim. Rabbi Amar is to some extent closer to the North African side, apart from the fact that he himself is from Morocco. There are gaps in perception here. The North African temperament is more nationalistic, it has a patriotic orientation. The Halavim or Iraqi scholars are more zealous and less afraid of entering into conflict with the state.
Rabbi Ovadia himself was from Iraq, and he was a nationalist?
Rabbi Ovadia was indeed exceptional in this respect. I am not convinced to the level of predictability that this gap will come to fruition, but it is certainly possible that certain forces will exploit this rift. There are clearly two perceptions of two publics here.
Shas today does not have a figure that represents the image of 'Sefardi Haredi'. The rabbis of Shas today are the images of 'Ashkenazi Haredi'. Even if they are authentic Sephardim, they do not differ substantially from the image of the Ashkenazi rabbis. Rabbi Amar with the cloak constitutes the image of 'Sefardi Haredi'.
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