Not informed about the meeting. Shas chairman Aryeh Deri (Photography Jonathan Zindel/Flash90)
For about a decade the Council of Torah Sages of Shas hardly met, and its few gatherings were mostly to approve appointments in Shas, so the yeshiva were coordinated in advance with the chairman of Shas, Aryeh Deri, who often even requested the yeshiva.
Last night (Monday), close to midnight, members of the Council of Torah Sages, the Gaon Rabbi David Yosef, the Gaon Rabbi Moshe Maya and the Gaon Rabbi Reuven Elbaz, gathered for an unusual yeshiva in Jerusalem.
The Shabbat Square learned that the yeshiva was planned a few hours before and that Shas chairman Aryeh Deri did not know about its existence even after the rabbis started the yeshiva.
It is not yet clear what topic the rabbis decided to gather for the extraordinary yeshiva. An associate of one of the members of the council claimed in a conversation with ‘Kikar HaShabbat’ that the rabbis also discussed, among other things, the uproar over the appointment of MK Amir Ohana as Speaker of the Knesset and the embrace he received from the ultra-Orthodox members of the Knesset.
However, another insider claims that the rabbis did not mention Ohana’s name at all in the unusual yeshiva and emphasized: “The very independent gathering – dramatic, it has not happened in many years that the members of the council have gathered without informing Deri. This is an unusual and dramatic move that apparently did not end at last night’s yeshiva.” .
It should be noted that in recent days the senior Sephardi rabbis, including the Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar and the head of the ‘Kasa Rahamim’ yeshiva Rabbi Meir Mazoz, have sharply attacked the conduct of the ultra-orthodox factions in the appointment of Ohana to the Speaker of the Knesset. Behind the scenes, a member of the Council of Torah Sages also expressed anger at the conduct of the Shas MKs.
The Shabbat Square has learned that in a closed meeting with members of the Knesset, Shas Chairman Deri said: “Netanyahu stung me with the appointment of Amir Ohana, we thought it would be Yoav Kish or Dodi Amsalem. We were wrong in our conduct in the plenum, I ran away immediately after the speech, I don’t understand the ultra-orthodox MKs who went to hug him after that speech.”