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So they're asses By Haaretz Editorial Tags: Shas, Israel news  As the elections near, the usual rituals and angry impulses are repeating themselves. One of those is the obligatory slip of the tongue by Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. It always draws huge headlines in the media, elicits furious responses and angry, indignant editorials. The rabbi's followers, among them the heads of the Shas party, rush to interpret his slip of the tongue, and once again the argument erupts. This time the rabbi aimed his obscenities at schoolteachers, calling them "asses" because they teach, in his view, "nonsense": history, geography and civics. The time has come to stop getting excited over Yosef's statements. The Shas leader is a politician in every sense of the word, and his utterances - from his instructions to his people to his seemingly well-calculated verbal gaffes - are designed to influence his constituency. The rabbi has indeed earned a reputation as a learned adjudicator and religious scholar, but it appears he's marring his reputation in his old age. His tasteless plays on words in his sermons are not meant to ignite a public argument. His attitude toward the curriculum in secular schools is known and hackneyed. It is no different than his preaching sessions urging a return to devout piety, which make a mockery of everything that appears secular, civic, universal, and humanistic - generally subjects in the state school system. The preachers and sermonizers who derive sustenance from Shas' political dealings, from the Shas education system and its El Hama'ayam movement, are waging an all-out war against the state education system because it is from there, and not the ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi system, that Shas draws new pupils every year. Now it appears that teachers from the Shas stream do not even get respect from their rabbis - nursery schools in education systems affiliated with Shas are suing the movement over a failure to pay salaries. Advertisement It is against the backdrop of the campaign to attract new students to the Shas education system that Rabbi Yosef is now appealing to the traditional-Mizrahi community. Yosef's sons and daughters were educated in the state system, which gave them the tools needed for a general, professional higher education (and he therefore insults them and their classmates), but his statements represent Shas' position as it is. One could assume that Industry and Trade Minister Eli Yishai, who boasts of allocating resources for professional training of ultra-Orthodox students with no higher education to extricate them from poverty and dependency, understands how baseless and damaging the exalted rabbi's outbursts against the "secular" professions are. Shas is trying to have its cake and eat it too: to deride the fundamental values of a state education while setting its sights on the Education Ministry. While Shas leaders claim that their constituency is loyal to the state and its sons serve in the Israel Defense Forces, their education system, which is funded by state subsidies, aims to insulate its children from symbols of the state while teaching them to scorn the core-curriculum subjects that are the backbone of the state education system. One ought not be moved by Rabbi Yosef's sermons, and handing the education portfolio over to Shas should be looked at as a fleeting election joke. Bookmark to del.icio.us   A real mensch Chabad leaders say the slain rabbi's only concern was helping Jews away from home. An immodest proposal Likud MK suggests using Palestinian prisoners as human shields against Qassams.

Read & React 9 dead in Mumbai Chabad house assault; Israel to help identify bodies Responses: 457 ANALYSIS / Is Al-Qaida behind the Mumbai terror attacks? Responses: 142 Roni Bart: Obama only makes demands of Israel, not the Palestinians Responses: 151 Anshel Pfeffer: U.S. Jews jealous of Israelis who don't have to grapple with Jewish identity Responses: 94 More Headlines 00:29 9 dead in Mumbai Chabad house attack; Israel to help identify bodies 00:58 At Chabad house, Israeli paramedics checked the dead as crowd hailed the soldiers 01:11 Tensions escalate between India and Pakistan in wake of Mumbai attacks 00:32 ANALYSIS / Are the Mumbai attacks Obama's first test? 02:12 Israeli experts: Slow operation meant 'no chance' for hostages at Mumbai Chabad house 00:40 Israeli survivors: We used our cell phones to keep in touch with each other 19:57 What do Israeli sex tourists in Thailand really think? 01:48 IDF soldiers: We tried to no avail to have base near Nahal Oz relocated 17:40 Two Palestinians, two settlers injured in clashes in Hebron 21:40 Likud MK calls for using Palestinian prisoners as human shields against Qassam rockets 14:38 Ahmadinejad blames West for spreading economic crisis to world 03:14 First U.S. ambassador to Libya in three decades to arrive in December 22:02 Police suspect elderly couple in Haifa attempted to commit suicide Previous Editions Select Day 28 nov 27 nov 26 nov 25 nov 24 nov 23 nov 21 nov 20 nov 19 nov 18 nov 17 nov 16 nov

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