According to the Knesset Speaker's announcement, 400 journalists received permission to enter the venue on Tuesday of this week, and wrote and broadcast from there to the whole world. None of them predicted that Meir Sheetrit would advance to the second round, and when he did, none of them predicted that Rivlin would defeat him. So what is the meaning of the commentaries that will be written here now? Still, here are some conclusions from this week's presidential election:
The sectarian demon lost. In the moments of tension between the first and second rounds, the Sheetrit camp raised this argument again and again. "He's Moroccan, he's one of us," they tried to tell Shas MKs and also MKs of Mizrahi origin in the other parties in the House. It didn't work. "There is a limit," MK Itzik Cohen of Shas told me after Rivlin's victory. "We would be happy to promote a Moroccan president, but we won't elect someone just because he's Moroccan, without any alignment with our values. Contrary to what they estimated, we proved that sectarianism is not our number one priority.".
The camp also lost. After the first round, Dalia Itzik tried to tell her supporters to transfer their support to Shetrit. Their response was, more or less: Pahhhh. There's a limit to the bargains.
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And the public, in the end, won. According to all the polls, the majority wanted Rivlin in the presidential palace. If Rivlin had lost in the second round, it would not have been him who would have lost, but the Knesset. The public's attitude toward it would have deteriorated even further. Itzik Shmuli, one of the leaders of the social protest, finds a connection between the demonstrations that brought him to the Knesset and his vote in the second round: "There is a limit to the disconnect between what the public outside wants and what we MKs choose. I entered the plenum before the vote, saw Rubi's downcast face, I remembered all the public opinion polls and I simply understood that the right thing for all of us was to vote for him.".
If Dalia Itzik had not run, two things would not have happened: First, transparency and the publication of financial statements would not have become a part of our public life from now on. The publications about Itzik's apartments caused her to reveal part of her financial situation, and it seems that this will be the norm from now on. And second, if it weren't for her race, we wouldn't have discovered how many ultra-Orthodox MKs have no objection at all to senior appointments of women. One after another, Eichler, Gafni, Yishai, Deri and Co. told the microphones this week that they don't even understand what the problem is with a female president, prime minister or mayor. Interesting.
The calls for Rivlin to be a non-political president are justified. But where were they when Shimon Peres served as such a political president?
Netanyahu, as is well known, tried to change the presidential election system and the essence of the institution the day before. He needs to start doing it seriously now, the day after. Long live the president, die to the system.
Yuli Edelstein may be the next president. Beyond the personal and symbolic story of a prisoner of Zion who became a senior and well-liked public figure, he is gaining another advantage on the way to the position: he is also a likable Knesset Speaker who has recently had a strained relationship with Netanyahu.
And a word to Ruby: Mr. President, don't be disappointed from now on. Not even a tenth of the media and public attention you received in the race will be given to you from now on in countless state ceremonies, not to mention boring, during your term. Police investigations against presidential candidates are what open editions here, not speeches by the president on the anniversary of Levi Eshkol. The peak of exposure, apparently, is behind you.
If the media has proven that it is not good at predicting the future, perhaps we will truly move on to the past. This week's Torah portion, Torah portion "Shelah," tells of Moses sending spies from the desert to the Land of Israel. Most of them return pessimistic and even infect the people with this pessimism. Only two of the spies return to the people motivated. They say that Israel is "flowing with milk and honey" and also add: "for the land is very, very good." Both encourage the public and appreciate that it is possible to immigrate to the Land, develop it, and live in it.
This week I read the book "Ben'in Yosef," which deals with the life of Rabbi Yosef Rivlin, one of the heads of the new president's lineage. Even after almost all of his congratulations mentioned what an old and respected Jerusalem family he comes from, I was surprised to discover how old and respected it is. Rabbi Rivlin's story is reminiscent of the story of the spies in this week's Torah portion, and in many of his writings he even compares himself to those pioneers and pioneers who went against the grain.
Rivlin was faithful to the worldview of the Vilna Gaon, who urged his students to immigrate to the Land of Israel and build it. He and his friends had planned to move outside the walls of the old settlement of Jerusalem in their youth, but they had to wait until after they got married. Only then did seven friends, including Rivlin, set out to establish the "Nachalat Shiva" neighborhood outside the walls. It was so dangerous and innovative that some of their parents thought they had gone crazy. They lived there alone for a long time, until other pioneers were convinced.
Rivlin was the main founder of more than ten such neighborhoods: Mea Shearim, Knesset Israel, Even Israel, Shaare Tzedek, and more. His nickname was "the builder of the neighborhoods," and in every neighborhood he founded, he was always the first to move in: he would move into the first house in the new neighborhood, stay there until it was established, and then immediately sell his house and move to the next new neighborhood. This dedication was well-known among the residents of Jerusalem at the time, and he was not content with just the Holy City: Rivlin helped Yoel Moshe Salomon found Petah Tikva and even gave it its name.
Rivlin studied and taught Torah and was also a poet (most of his poems are based on Kabbalah and are difficult to understand). At the same time, he spoke not only about the spiritual Jerusalem but also about the physical one. In the newspaper "HaMagid" of the time, about 150 years before many would take selfies with President Rivlin, Rabbi Rivlin excitedly reported on the arrival of the telegraph to Jerusalem: "When Jerusalem unites with all the cities of the world, and unites with them by telegraph... the gates of Jerusalem will be opened wide to all who possess... from now on, even the wealthiest of the people will not prevent their feet from coming to reside in honor in the Holy Land.".
Today, Ruby is considered an oddball when he starts every conversation with "Greetings from Jerusalem," but note the family's enthusiasm when it was decided to build a train to Jerusalem. In a letter that Rabbi Rivlin sent to a relative, he reported on the Turks' decision to build the railway: "Among the good news of the raising of the foundation of Jerusalem and the growth of our redemption, we can announce that the royal decree has gone forth to build a railroad from Jaffa to Jerusalem and from Jerusalem to Damascus... and the work is close to beginning... Who is the man who does not recognize that it is a finger of redemption?".
All the obituaries about him say that he didn't leave behind even a single penny. So if they had asked him to file a wealth declaration, it would have been quite simple. All his private money was invested in the construction of Jerusalem.
Jewish status: ""The spies were asked to give a neutral report, but instead they gave a negative interpretation. Instead of telling about what they saw in Israel, they announced that there was no chance of conquering it. This is a mistake that is not only made by the spies, we all tend to confuse facts with opinions" ("Shulchan Shabbat")
• Sivan Rahav Meir's column is published in Yedioth Ahronoth
