Following a meeting held on Tuesday between Rabbi Yitzchak Shapira, mechutan of the Rebbe of Gur, and the chairman of Yesh Atid, Yair Lapid, outgoing MK Yaakov Litzman issued an unusual announcement in which he renounced the meeting.
The meeting between the two revolved around the city of Arad, where Shapira was appointed by the Gerer Rebbe to deal with local issues the residents have dealt with and even managed to bring about a few significant results.
A picture of the meeting was published, coming against the background of reports last month that Rabbi Shapira has tried to bring calm to the religious struggles in the Israeli government and to bridge the gap between the chareidi community and the government.
Rabbi Shapira said that the meeting was intended to “thank Lapid for his cooperation and the good relations between the local authority in Arad and the community of Gur in the city.”
Rabbi Shapira also stated that “the two discussed the chareidi public in the cities living together with the general public while adhering to uncompromising Torah principles and maintaining the values of Yiddishkeit.”
Rabbi Shapira clarified that he is not concerned about the issue of national politics, stating that he dealt only with the local issues for which he was sent by the Rebbe of Gur.
A day after the meeting, MK Litzman shunned Rabbi Shapira and clarified that he has no involvement in national issues: “Rabbi Yitzchak Shapira is a private person who contributes much of his time and skills, and while it is important, he is not related to the political system. It should be noted that all his activities with the Chairman of Yesh Atid are of his own initiative. Ger will continue to obey the Moetzes Gedolei Torah, who ruled that there should be no cooperation with the government and its members at all.”
{Matzav.com Israel}
Very smart move Rabbi Litzman.
To say we will cooperate will spark harsh criticism, but lemaasa we have to ….
And the groundhog came out to the surface! Spring is just ahead!
The bum doesn’t have the decency that a goy would have to wear a kippah.
Cry baby, let something good happen
Nu nu. Inner politics. What else is new?
What is Litzman afraid of? That someone might do an “end run” around the religious-political machine and actually get something done without the typical self-aggrandizing? Is Litzman worried about his fiefdom??
this is terrible that he met with such a rasha.