Monday, nine in the morning, the Tel Aviv District Court. Everyone is talking about Olmert, no one is talking about justice. Of the hundreds of pages of the verdict that will be read here in a few minutes, the former prime minister's corruption is not actually the most serious. The mechanism that was exposed is serious enough even without him. In other words, even if Olmert appeals to the Supreme Court and proves that everything indeed went through his brother and secretary without his knowledge, this will remain a shocking affair. And what is shocking about it is the banality of the corruption: the fact that all the urban legends, rumors and whispers about how these mechanisms work have turned out to be true.
At the end of a week in which this affair was talked about so much, here are just three more small notes: First, what was revealed this week is so transparent and disturbing that, while reading the verdict, you wonder how they didn't think of it before. How was it not clear, when the Holyland project began to swell and expand, that something was wrong here. With all due respect to the prosecution for its work on this case, it would never have been revealed if Shmuel Dechner had not decided to open his mouth after years. Couldn't there have been earlier warning lights?
Second, something about proportions: If everything is corruption, then nothing is corruption. After all, we beat tam-tam drums on everything, a fly or an elephant. Not every Yaakov Frenkel is Avraham Hirshson. Not every Silvan Shalom is Moshe Katsav. Not every Bibi is Olmert. How great is the distance between Lilian Peretz and Shmuel Dechner, between the nanny scandals and a bribery conviction. It is a mistake to paint everything under the heading "corruption" and only filter all day long "everyone is corrupt.".
Want more news, videos and stories? Join the Haredim 10 WhatsApp channel >>
And third, what a wonderful unity! I looked at the defendants' benches in the crowded courtroom and saw Haredim and secular, Ashkenazim and Sephardim, rich and poor. Everyone acted together. It's exciting to see how one can put aside differences and unite for a common goal.
What is the connection between this week's Torah, the "Leper" Torah, and the Passover Haggadah, the text that will be read by millions in ten days? On the surface, there is no connection. This week's Torah deals with the laws of leprosy, and the Haggadah deals with the Exodus from Egypt. But in fact, both deal with speech, with two sides of the coin of human speech.
This week's Torah warns against lashon hara, and against the punishment of leprosy that follows it. It is a sin that the Sages attribute great severity to, and even state: "lashon hara is equivalent to idolatry, incest, and bloodshed." Gossip and lying are also described in the Book of Psalms as something that poisons the social atmosphere. More than 100 years ago, Rabbi Yisrael Meir HaCohen wrote his book "Chofetz Chaim" in which he compiled the relevant laws concerning lashon hara, and following the book's release, the rabbi himself earned the nickname "HaChofetz Chaim." The image of the Chaifetz Chaim has also become a brand, synonymous with the prohibition against gossiping, cursing, and defiling. In recent years, his image can even be seen as a screensaver on cellphones. A kind of reminder that the owner of the device has set for himself to keep his mouth shut.
But here comes the other side of the coin: Is someone who engages in so much slander a reclusive, reclusive type who runs away from the company of people? Many testimonies say that the Chofetz Chaim himself used to talk, and a lot. He wanted to show the public that his intention was not for everyone to be silent. On the contrary. It is permissible to talk, it just depends on what and who. And here we come to Passover, a holiday whose nickname is also "Pe Sach," meaning: "Pe speaks." In many books, Passover is even called "the holiday of speech," the holiday in which we need to constantly remind ourselves and our children what the story is, and pass it on.
According to Halacha, it is not enough to just read the Passover Haggadah. One must also say it out loud, opening one's mouth as much as possible. Describe, tell, sing, mention, ask, answer, "and the more one tells about the Exodus from Egypt - the better.".
Last Thursday, Bnei Brak, home of Rabbi Dov Povarsky, Rosh Yeshiva of Ponevezh. An unusual visit by members of the "Plogta" organization. It's hard to define the organization's members, but it seems the title that fits them is "Haredim and Secularists Refuse to Be Enemies.".
Almost every day they bring extremes together in an attempt to forge a common future, and this time they brought a secular group on a tour of Bnei Brak.
The picture above is worth a thousand words: on the left is the head of the Ponivezh yeshiva, on the right is Brigadier General Ram Shmueli, a reserve fighter pilot and one of the leaders of the initiative. "We will do exactly the opposite of what the media dictates to us," said Shmueli at the beginning of the tour, "They are fueling polarization by extremists, and we are looking for common ground and connection.".
I've had the opportunity to attend several "Plogta" events, and they are indeed, first and foremost, anti-media. Haredim and secularists who are fed up with the discourse that labels them so superficially. Under the media's radar, quietly, they have already brought thousands together for in-depth conversations, for shared learning, for debates that have no desire to produce a headline or scoop at the end.
The curiosity on both sides is immense: students and professors flock to meetings alongside yeshiva heads and women avrechim. On their lively Facebook page, you can learn about the evening "Haredim in a barrel and wigs in a tower" held in Zichron Yaakov and the panel "When a righteous man in his faith and equality in burden met" at a kibbutz in the north. During the large Haredi demonstration in Jerusalem, they held a stormy evening of discussions in Kfar Shmariahu.
Yehuda Polishuk, one of the project leaders, talks about the difficulty of meeting demand from the field: "People on both sides are thirsty for real talk. We don't embellish and we don't say 'unity, unity.' We put the most burning issues on the table – conscription, exclusion of women, Shabbat – and we want to prove that we can clarify them together.".
Benjamin Netanyahu and Aryeh Deri were recently guests on "State of the Nation." Ostensibly, the prime minister and the Shas chairman, the important figures, went down to the people and participated in an entertainment program. They did Lior Schlein and the guys a favor. It reminded me of Sapir Sabah's visit (remember?) to the Knesset. In the days when the girl from the high school in the north who came out against teacher Adam Verta was a celebrity for a moment, the politicians in the hallways took pictures with her, and if you looked closely, you saw: it wasn't that she was excited to stand next to them, they were excited to stand by her. She showed them respect, not the other way around. The same is true on "State of the Nation": Netanyahu and Deri don't give the program recognition, but the opposite.
The Jewish Status: "What a deep desire for freedom is ingrained in the heart of a people that could, in the spring of its days, create such a work of genius and pass it on from generation to generation" (Berl Katznelson on the Passover Haggadah)
• A column by Sivan Rahav-Meir is published in Yedioth Ahronoth.
