About a year ago, I happened to come across a Shas election video from 1988 in some archive.
The talented director Shmuel Calderon, who later accompanied the party in several election campaigns, then presented the whole story in two minutes of propaganda: decorated Torah scrolls, shofars, the Western Wall and sweet children learning Torah.
Then we see in the broadcast Shabbat candles lit and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef speaking with care, almost in tears, about heritage, about tradition, about how the Torah belongs to the entire Jewish people and is just waiting for us in the corner.
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Then they film Israeli youth walking down the street (and the youth of '88 look so innocent and righteous compared to the youth of 2014) and show some newspaper headlines about violence and educational decline in Israel. Then Rabbi Yitzhak Peretz cries out in pain, in front of a large hall full of traditional audiences: "How? How can I go up to my father, and the boy is not with me?".
Kat.
The camera suddenly cuts to the grave of Rachel, who is still crying for her sons and hoping that they will return to their roots, and in the background, the song "Ashurer Shira in Honor of the Torah" plays all the time.
The truth? Aren't you going to laugh at me? I cried.
In its innocent early days, it was so clear what Shas wanted to do, and it was so true and right. It's called restoring Atara to its former glory.
I was reminded of this ad when I saw the Shas campaign this week under the title "One people, one basket." The Shas ad looks like a Rami Levy ad, and when I looked deeper, I saw that they are calling on us to mark the food products on which we want the VAT to be reduced to zero.
Shas' ultimatum to join the next government is also related to raising the minimum wage.
I'm not saying that social and economic messages shouldn't be part of the campaign, but right now that's the sole message in this election.
Did Rabbi Ovadia Yosef establish Shas to reduce VAT on food products under his supervision? Is that why he toiled and toiled in Israel and around the world during his 93 years?
Understand, this is not nostalgic fondness for that commercial. On the contrary. Today it is even more relevant: Shas only needs to make a propaganda video with a collection of reality shows and commercials that air every night in Israel, it only needs to go out for a short street poll on basic concepts in Judaism – to convince us that the mission is not complete. That we need another synagogue, another Torah lesson, and another mikveh to return the Jewish people to what they were and what they will be.
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef is not here, but his famous statement, unfortunately, still holds true: There are a million children who don't know how to say "Shema Yisrael.".
But in the meantime, Shas has chosen a different direction. I will sing a song in honor of the minimum wage.
• From the column that will be published tomorrow in the newspaper 'Besheva''
