Wednesday evening, bus stations in Bnei Brak. Thousands of haredim (ultra-Orthodox) are waiting for buses to Jerusalem, hoping to attend the funeral of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, the generations leader, who died on Tuesday at the age of 102. A group of yeshiva students waits for a bus, frustration evident. Look what a mess this is, says one of them. Everythings ruined. Where you live, youd call it chaos. The rabbi is dead, the terror attack in Burgas and even public transportation is collapsing, and its all because of the law mandating the draft for haredim. If you think that theres no connection between these things, youre very wrong. Elyashiv was the leader of the Lithuanian haredi community and the highest-ranking rabbi in Israel. From his modest home in Jerusalem, with hard-line positions on issues of Jewish religious law and almost without opening his mouth, he toppled governments and put together coalitions, led important haredi struggles, directed the decisions of high-ranking rabbis and was responsible for almost every issue of religion and state on the current agenda. He was born in 1910 in the Lithuanian city of Siauliai, the scion of a well-known rabbinic dynasty. He was an only child, born after 17 years of marriage. When he was 13, his family came to Israel and settled in Jerusalems Mea Shearim neighborhood. At 20, he married Sheina Chaya, a daughter of Rabbi Aryeh Levin, the well-known rabbi of the prisoners during the British Mandate era. From then on, he lived in the same modest, old apartment at 10 Hanan Street, where he and his wife had 12 children. His relatives say proudly that he has more than a thousand descendants. He is one of the few people who lived to see a fifth generation of offspring a grandchild of a great-grandchild though he did not know most of his descendants personally. Even his most zealous opponents respected him Two of his children died young under tragic circumstances. His daughter Rivkah was killed by Jordanian shelling during the 1948 War of Independence, and his son Yitzhak died shortly after he was born. Afterward, three other daughters died: Shoshana Zilberstein, Leah Auerbach and Batsheva Kanievsky. It is said that he never mentioned Rivkah and her unborn child at home, as part of the absolute self-control that was one of his most outstanding traits. Among his followers are pragmatic people, at least as much as he was, including Rabbi Dov Halbertal. But he, too, uses the superlatives of haredi language as he explains from where Elyashiv drew his strength. Halbertal speaks of an enormous influence on the entire world and the first time in Jewish history that all the various Jewish communities agreed upon one person, and everybody recognized him as the greatest of the generation. Halbertal continues with his praises: He led the Jewish people because he was compelled to. Even Rabbi Ovadia Yosef [the spiritual leader of the Shas political party] recognized his greatness. There were instances when Rabbi Ovadia submitted to his dictates and religious rulings. Even his most zealous opponents, who had to oppose him ideologically, were full of respect for him. Unlike other prominent rabbis, Elyashiv never gave speeches or classes. He never expressed himself in public. He did not attend political conventions or other public forums, nor did he head any well-known yeshiva. Very few people actually heard him speak. Elyashiv began his public career as the rabbi of the city of Ramle. His reputation as a Halachic decisor with rare abilities reached then Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog. Wishing to add to the existing number of religious judges in Israel, Herzog appointed Elyashiv to the rabbinical court in the Jerusalem region. From there it was only a short step to the national rabbinical court. The first incident in which Elyashiv was publicly involved was the conversion of Helen Zeidman at the beginning of the 1970s. Zeidman, a Christian who grew up in Maryland and developed close ties with the Jewish community, underwent a Reform conversion. She later immigrated to Israel and asked to be registered at the Interior Ministry as a Jew. When Zeidman was turned down by the clerks at the ministry, which was then controlled by the National Religious Party, she petitioned the High Court of Justice. Then Attorney-General Meir Shamgar recommended that the state recognize Reform conversions and created a coalition crisis. Rabbi Shlomo Goren, who was then the chief Ashkenazi rabbi of Israel, was asked by Prime Minister Golda Meir to resolve the issue. When he investigated, he found that there was nothing to prevent Zeidman from undergoing an Orthodox conversion. For this purpose, he convened a special rabbinical court. Goren hoped to protect the rabbinate and avoid a situation in which the High Court of Justice would set a precedent that would grant approval to the Reform movement. While the main part of the media dispute took place between rabbis Goren and Yosef, the judges of the national rabbinical court recalled later that they had received instructions from Elyashiv as to how to invalidate the conversion process. This was done by mentioning again and again that Zeidman lived on a non-religious kibbutz, Nahal Oz. In the end, the war led by Elyashiv failed. Zeidmans conversion was recognized not only by the Interior Ministry but also by most of the rabbinical establishment, including Yosef. Several years later, a major rift came between the states official institutions and Elyashiv. A brother and a sister each found themselves prevented from marrying their respective fiances because they had been declared mamzerim, the Jewish legal designation for the children of prohibited unions (such as adultery or incest). Goren was asked to examine the problem. The siblings were considered mamzerim because their mother had apparently not been divorced from her first husband before she remarried and had the children. It was learned that the first husband, whom she had married abroad, had been an unconverted non-Jew who had been listed as a convert due to pressure from the womans haredi family. Goren ruled that because the first husband was not a convert, the first marriage was invalid and therefore the children from the womans second marriage were not mamzerim. But in this instance the haredi establishment, unable to back down or admit its error, waged war. Elyashiv quit the national rabbinical court as a result, and some say that this was when his opinions on issues of religion and state solidified under the slogan, Respect them and suspect them, with the emphasis on suspect them. In 1988, Elyashiv began his official public involvement in Israel when he accepted Rabbi Elazar Shachs invitation to serve as one of the leaders of the Degel Hatorah political party. There, too, Elyashiv continued to stand out with his unequivocal religious rulings, and mainly his influence on life in Israel. He was like a fortified wall In 1999, Elyashiv decided that his people would join the left-wing coalition that Ehud Barak had formed with Meretz to prevent yeshiva students from being drafted to the army. Several weeks later, he instructed his people to leave the government in the wake of the Turbine Affair, in which the Israel Electric Corporation transported an enormous generator on the Sabbath to prevent the blocking of traffic routes on a weekday. Elyashiv was sharply criticized for instructing his people to join Ariel Sharons government against the background of disengagement. His people said that he had instructed his representatives to vote in favor of postponing it. Right-wing officials claim that he agreed that Degel Hatorah would enter the coalition after he received a promise that core curriculum subjects would not be taught in haredi schools. Accusations of political bribery were also made against him. To think that the rabbi would have agreed to allow such subjects in haredi schools is twisted, Halbertal says. Theres no question about it. All the education ministers think that they can impose the core curriculum on the haredi sector, but theyre very wrong indeed. He would not have allowed it to be touched. He was like a fortified wall. The issue of the core curriculum was not the only subject in which Elyashiv was involved. He definitely had the greatest influence on relations between the haredi and non-religious populations. With a word he could get 400,000 people out into the street one example of this is the demonstration against the Supreme Court and the rallies in support of the prisoners from Emanuel, said Halbertal, recalling the uproar about the discrimination against Sephardic girls in the haredi school there. Elyashivs politics were also clear. The rabbi was not a man of war, but a man of peace who could assess the political situation on the ground. One of the things that disturbed him was the situation with Iran. He also understood our dependence upon the United States, says Halbertal. While the rabbi was firmly opposed to army service, he was careful to show sensitivity to the soldiers. When he was asked during the Second Lebanon War whether yeshiva students could go on summer vacation with things as they were at the time, he wisely said, Go to hospitals, see the wounded soldiers and then you decide what should be done. But Elyashiv was not quick to participate in every struggle. According to a close associate, The public can tell when the struggle is important to the rabbi and when it is not. They asked him to sign a call to protest against the parade of abomination [the Gay Pride Parade], but he thought that it was not a good idea to give that subject publicity. It was clear that he could not refuse to sign, and when I asked him whether the yeshiva should be closed and the students sent out to demonstrate, he said, Protest at home. Zionism was a particularly sensitive subject for Elyashiv. While the rabbi had no good word to say about Zionist values, he accepted the concept of dina demalkhuta dina [the Talmudic concept that the law of the state is binding and must be obeyed] in everything that had to do with running the country well, such as taxes, land law and such, Halbertal said. He opposed anything that might cause a decline in piety, and feared that mixing with the non-religious world would cause that. It sounds aggressive, and it needs to be said that he respected every human being as a human being and behaved respectfully toward the high-ranking figures who came to visit him, such as President Shimon Peres. But he was completely opposed to idea of relationships between religious and non-religious people. And now the war over the succession In recent months, Elyashiv was hospitalized with his final illness. During that time, dramatic and even historic incidents occurred in the haredi community. The first was the ruling by the High Court of Justice that the state must allocate funds to non-Orthodox rabbis, an event that occurred quietly, with no large demonstrations, but only a small protest in the haredi press. The second incident that might be described as historic is the confrontation over the haredi draft. The dramatic issue that can already be felt on the ground, and will have a strong effect on issues of religion and state and on relations between the haredi and the non-religious populations is the question of who will succeed Elyashiv. The two main candidates, whose names have come up only secretly over the past several months (out of respect for Elyashiv) are Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach of Jerusalem and the elderly Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman of Bnei Brak. During Elyashivs absence from public life, Shteinman's control over the haredi world grew stronger thanks, among other things, to his close connections with representatives of United Torah Judaism and Shas. The choice of Shteinman as a successor is very significant. Shteinman advocates a quieter policy. He is not militant and is not quick to participate in excommunications or large demonstrations. Several weeks ago, he met with Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, with whom he discussed the planned rabbis demonstration against the decision to allocate funds to non-Orthodox Jewish movements. During the conversation, Shteinman mentioned the legend about the plague of frogs in Egypt before the Exodus. According to this legend, the more the frogs were struck, the more they multiplied. He used this story when he came out against public demonstrations and protests, which would only give such movements more status and publicity. Because of his unique approach, extremist elements connected to groups within the Edah Haredit put up posters against him containing the ultimate insult: Reform Jew. His approach has not won him the unanimous support of the Lithuanian stream. Haredi elements connected to various well-known rabbis even say that the Lithuanian stream may split. To the non-religious, all the haredim are the same, but there are actually extremely significant differences among them. Its not far-fetched to say that we may see one Lithuanian group in control in Jerusalem and another Lithuanian group in control in Bnei Brak, Halbertal says. However, he believes that when it comes to crucial decisions like the draft, Shteinman will be the one to set the tone. He is easier for the non-religious to take, Halbertal says. For Rabbi Elyashiv, the issue of allocating funds to Reform Jews would never have gone by quietly. He would have ordered a protest immediately. Rabbi Shteinman's approach is different, and that will affect everything that has to do with issues of religion and state.
