Jerusalem – Shas chairman Arye Deri said progressive Judaism has no connection with the Torah during a conference of Sephardi rabbis from around the world in the Knesset on Tuesday.
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The conference was also attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Speaking to over 100 Sephardi rabbis from 30 countries, Deri said that the only way to unite the Jewish people was around the Torah, and said that recognition of the progressive Jewish denominations in Israel would be detrimental to Jewish communities around the world.
“If we want the Jewish people to be united then we need to strengthen it around something that has united it for years, the Torah of the Jewish people,” said Deri.
“Any recognition by the Knesset of communities with a different type of Judaism will create questions that you will have to deal with which come from recognizing something that is not the Torah of the Jewish people,” he continued, adding that the assembled rabbis were “on the front lines of assimilation.”
“We will not compromise with the Reform [movement] on anything,” the minister declared.
Deri and other haredi (ultra-Orthodox) politicians and rabbis have been fighting a bitter political and rhetorical fight against the progressive Jewish movements, stymieing the Western Wall resolution and denouncing them on numerous occasions in the last 12 months.
Implementation of the resolution, which would create a government-recognized pluralist prayer space at the southern end of the Western Wall, has been totally frozen and the High Court now looks set to intervene.
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein was also in attendance at the rabbinical conference and said that it was “moving and exciting” to receive the delegation of spiritual leaders and educators in the Knesset, saying that the Israeli parliament “is the clearest and most symbolic expression of the restoration of our sovereignty here.”
Netanyahu addressed the rabbis, saying that they were protecting the “glowing embers for the Jewish people.”
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can’t VIN Id any of the rabbis instead of saying “ultra othodox jewish men”?
What is the German reform movement to sfardim???
Nothing. And it should stay that way.
A Sfardi, Taimeni, Moroccan etc. may or may not be religiously observant. But he knows what religion he choses to observe. He knows there is one Judaism with one Torah.
Recognizing this is the way to keep the Kossel and all other mokam haKodesh in Eretz Yisroel.
The Sfardim can honestly say what are these foreign European religions called; reform, reconstructionist, conservative and even orthodox. By saying orthodox Jew we imply that there is another kind of Jew. There isn’t.
A Jew follows the Torah.
Everything else is foreign.
There is no such thing as a Sfardi-reform congregation. Good. Ashkenazim need to take the same approach to anything other than Torah Judaism.
Any sofer that sells sifrei torah should be in Cherem. Any dealer in tashmishi kadisha that sells to fake Jewish organizations or stocks women’s taleisim etc should also be given cherem.
No authentic connection…they obviously have “a connection.”
Deri, the entire Yidisha Medinah has no worth when they desecrate the name of the almighty every second of its atanding. U have a problem w progressive judaism? Of course its a prob. But whos at the helm of your “yidishe medina”??? To put it mildly a non practicing totally secular jew! And u hava problem with the progressives?! Of course H despises the way of the progresssives. But at least their showing their true color. As opposed to the Zionist charedim like you who r naively thinking that theyre doing H will. YOU ARE NOT! Look at these hundreds of othodox clowns listening to a mechalel shabos בפרהסיה and again the prob is progressive judaism?? Its the entire medina hasheker that is desecrating the name of G D with its every min of existence! Put things in perspective. Ur attacking a fraction of so called practicing jews, when the so called REAL jews are what?? Sitting with מינים & כופרים all day. Is this Hashems wantings? Its the opposite. Wake up Deri!
The reform and conservative people have to be asked if today they would recognize a temple and sacrifices to be established again.In the beginning of their establishment, they cast off the connection of jews to the land of israel and the idea of a temple where sacrifices were offered,calling each congregation a ‘temple’.