Years ago I was invited to perform in a small town not far from Jerusalem.
Let's call it "the hill", and how small it really is - the feeling was that everyone left their houses and came.
It was an excellent evening, and the audience laughed and responded and wanted more and more encores.
This made me happy, among other things because I knew that there were representatives of several other settlements in the audience.
They came more or less to check out the show, and to see if it's worth inviting me to them too.
I had no doubt that I passed the exam.
Soon the phone will ring and ring.
Indeed, a few days later I received a phone call, but not in the direction I thought.
That was my agent.
"Tell me, was there any problem on the hill?", she asked.
No!
What happened... there was an explosion.
why are you asking?
"The guys who came to see you are not at all ready to hear more about you. They said you were shallow and superficial."
Shallow and superficial.
Those words stung me.
I have already heard all kinds of reviews.
But for "shallow" I wasn't so ready, not least for "and superficial".
It was surprising and quite insulting.
But mostly weird.
Over time, I realized that these two words, "shallow and superficial", are part of the secret language, a kind of agreed upon code, of a certain and quite extreme current in the religious community.
The search words are "Har Hamor" and "Ko".
I understood that it was perfectly fine.
There is nothing to be offended.
You don't have to show up everywhere.
And, "shallow and superficial" means: caution!
Someone here is trying, with unbelievable brazenness, to explain passages from the Bible, and Judaism in general, contrary to Rabbi Tao's view.
Since the case of Rabbi Tao exploded, more and more articles are trying to tell the story of this group.
It's not an easy job.
It is difficult to clarify its details to an ordinary curious Israeli.
Following in the footsteps of the rabbi himself, his students, admirers and loyalists also tend to use vague and convoluted Hebrew that sounds like an unsuccessful Hamitzer riddle, and evokes thoughts along the lines of: Where the hell did I put the Advil?
Some of what has been written in recent articles suggests that this is not accidental.
Although fellowship is a fundamental concept in the Jewish Beit Midrash, these particular scholars have no interest in dialogue.
Some see them as an extreme faction of the ultra-Orthodox (national ultra-Orthodox), others insist that it is a cult after all.
***
Like everyone else, I also have no idea what really happened there, in the case of Rabbi Tau.
The stomach turns, it's true.
Apparently, this whole event shouldn't touch me.
After all, I don't know the people who work.
The religious spaces of the Har Hamor yeshiva and the Noam movement are also not my natural areas of living, and yet, the evidence - and no less than the reactions!
- Turns my stomach.
On the other hand, we get to be exposed to rare information about one of the least tolerant currents that ever appeared in the history of Judaism.
A current that precisely in the name of faith strongly opposes any attempt to find a relevant meaning in the verses of the Bible. For them, there is no difference between the less successful joke of "The Jews are coming" or Gil Koptash, or the baraka of Yoram Taharlev, and an in-depth book by rabbis and scholars such as Yuval Sharlo or Yoel Ben Nun. They are all "shallow and shallow". They are all impure or dangerous. Or both.
It is amazing to discover the complete inability to manage a dispute.
Do not agree and still do not erupt in a flood of insults and threats.
It's amazing, and even laughable, to hear about a current that tries to protect true Judaism from the clutches of Christianity, and at the same time despises humor like the last of the medieval cardinals.
But what is truly breathtaking are the moments when it becomes clear that Rabbi Tao's surroundings also know how to express affection and sympathy, and send a warm hug to people outside.
True, it doesn't happen often.
But it happens almost every time someone is accused of sexual assault.
Moshe Katsav, for example, who received a rare and moving letter of encouragement.
Or the late Haim Walder, which apparently helped him less.
***
So I have no idea what happened there.
But thanks for the exposure.
The next time someone calls me or my friends "religious lite", it looks like I'll have a word or two to say about it.
A few words about the innocence that has gone.
In the habitat where I was brought up, a rabbi was a person who stood up in his honor as soon as he entered the room.
Address him in the third person and with respect, kiss him next to him and wait for his mouth to come out.
True, from time to time we also encountered rabbis who spoke nonsense.
The late father would then lightly hit me with his elbow and whisper in my ears the ambiguous verse "You will also eat and have plenty of fodder with us."
Originally these were the words of invitation of Rebecca Amno, daughter of Bethuel, to Damascus Eliezer, who came to find a wife for Isaac.
There is plenty of food for your camels here, she says.
But in the humor of the Jerusalem Torah Talmuds that my father grew up with, this was the verse that hinted at the fact that men of straw and straw also become rabbis.
But even after father made sure that I wouldn't thirstily swallow all the vanity - we shared respect.
can think!
Everyone is allowed to spew some nonsense from time to time.
It's not like he's a criminal or anything.
Later it became clear that people with the title of "rabbi" may also break the law here and there in a way that makes it quite difficult to stand up for them.
Not to mention a third party.
But still, our feeling was that it was at most an abuse of the system.
Snow white collar.
Non-kosher appointments.
Maybe here and there some false registration of students who don't really exist, in order to increase the yeshiva's budget.
In the bottom line, you could even say that everything is for heaven's sake.
I wish I could not say this, but in recent years we have witnessed too many incidents where Torah figures have been accused of sexual offenses.
Some of the accused were charismatic and really admired.
About one rabbi in Mitzvah, I heard serious people who were ready to swear that "he has powers".
It was hard to digest the thought that these were predators.
After all, even those who spent a short time in the beit midrash know that the hallmark of a talim hacham is sexual shyness.
And again, I have no idea who is telling the truth in the last case, but we all already understood that almost anything is possible.
The script, oh how shameful, is always the same.
There is no shred of originality there.
There will always be fans who will claim that the accused is an angel in human form.
On the scale between "Salt of the Earth" and "Ish Elokim" and "Lamad-Vonik".
The accusations, and this too is suspiciously repeated, are always presented as crazy with receipts.
Madness all over the head.
Here and there even "publicity chasers".
And over the years, and in the many shameful cases that almost always ended in conviction or suicide, it became clear again and again how innocent we are, and how there is no research and no limit to the evil nature of the human race.
So right, I have no idea.
And I do not rule out for a moment the possibility that there is a malicious and defamatory plot here.
Until it is proven otherwise, Rabbi Tau Shalita is Rabbi Tao Shalita, and not any other title that may one day stick to his name.
But being much less innocent, there is no doubt that the rabbi's choice to remain silent, like the choice of his fans to remain silent, and even to threaten, does not fill our hearts with trust or empathy.
What's more, it's an opportunity to wonder about the mystery of charisma, and if it's not a banal compound of narcissism and sexual appetite.
And also to ask why anyone would even believe that religious charisma is fundamentally different from the charisma of a superficial and shallow rock and roll star.
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