RCA, Apologize to the Gadol Hador Already!

As noted in an earlier post, the Rabbinical Council of America leadership has done a great disservice to itself and its reputation by saying nasty things about Maran Rav Ovadia Yosef, Shlit"a. Things that I would have likely found in the talkbacks on a YNET article or on a Shmarya Rosenberg post, I found surrounded by their letterhead and signitures.

Sadly and shockingly, the head of the organization stands by his words:

According to Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, president of the RCA and one of three people who signed the letter, the missive was written to support Rabbi Stav during a potentially difficult period.

“This was sent by the leadership of the RCA to encourage him in the face of what we felt was an unwarranted attack,” Rabbi Goldin told VIN News. “The RCA has not taken a public position on the race for chief rabbi, nor will we. This letter was never meant to be made public. Nevertheless, we stand by it.”

This is truly shocking for an organiztion for which I have much respect.

Here is how R' Pinchos Lipschutz puts it:

A member of Yair Lapid’s team has carved a niche for himself, using his black velvet yarmulka as a fig leaf to cover his participation in a party whose banner is the destruction of Torah and halacha in the Jewish state. This charade has earned him a top speaking slot at the RCA convention and at other Orthodox venues.

That same rabbinic organization has now written a letter supporting the man Lapid and Naftoli Bennett are pushing, because if elected as Israel’s chief rabbi, they are confident that he will further their anti-halachic agenda by compromising the Israeli rabbinate.

In their letter, they mock Chacham Ovadiah Yosef, a most brilliant, classic talmid chochom, posek and leader, whose long life has been wholly devoted to Torah and Am Yisroel.

If this is what they do to assist a hypocritical charlatan, what does that say about them and their entire organization?

Their keynote speaker, whose yarmulka covers his hubris and callous disregard for the enabling role he plays, prides himself that he learns Mesillas Yeshorim every day before he begins his Knesset work. He says that his colleague, Education Minister Rabbi Shai Piron, whose mission is to destroy yeshivos, begins his work day with the Igeres HaRamban.

We are to be impressed with their tzidkus. Like Bilam, they cloak their agenda in religious terms, thinking they can fool their victims into willing submission.

I won't go so far as him since I know that their organiztion does a lot of wonderful work. However, I reiterate my demand for an apology to Rav Ovadia. This is utterly anti-Torah and will not be stood for. If they ever want to be respected by the non-Modern Orthodox world in any way, shape, or form, an apology must be forthcoming.  And the sooner, the better.

I urge everyone - and especially RCA members - who value Kevod Hatorah to comment below in support of an apology by the RCA leaders.  No matter what you hold about Rav Stav, we all should agree that saying nasty things about Rav Ovadia, the greatest Posek alive today, is way, way, way beyond the pale.

I will, Beli Neder, be posting on this topic every week throughout the summer until I am made aware of an apology from the RCA leaders to Maran Rav Ovadia, Shlit"a.