Tens of thousands of Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) and Hasidic Jews defied their religious leaders' orders and thronged to a performance by ultra-Orthodox "rock stars" in Jerusalem's Teddy Stadium last week. However, their disobedience runs deeper than this and is more threatening than their rabbis and associates would like to admit.

The concert organizers, the two ultra-Orthodox singers and the crowd publicly trampled the Haredi community's tradition of following the rabbis' edicts to the letter. It does not follow, however, that the rabbis and their associates will hold an open debate on the mass disregard of the ban imposed on attending the concert.

The contempt toward the rabbis was a clear reflection of the privatization of Hasidic Judaism and rabbinic authority, a change that is gaining momentum in Israel and in Haredi and Hasidic communities in the United States.