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Beit Shemesh.
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
It seems there is a limit to rabbinical influence and perhaps even an erosion of their authority, if it has happened in the Beit Shemesh municipal election can be used as a barometer of such things.
The mayoral election in the city is, at press time, very delicate between incumbent haredi mayor Moshe Abutbul (Shas) and his religious-Zionist challenger Aliza Bloch.
Regardless of which way the election has finally been made, it seems that it is a significant number of members of the world.
And it seems that there are many who, despite the instructions of the rabbis to go out and vote for Abutbul, either at the municipal council and not for mayor.
This phenomenon is somewhat surprising and inexplicably influenced by the entire spectrum of haredi rabbinic leaders – Sephardi, non-hbadidic and hbadidic alike.
Political activists in the city are pointing to the Ramat Beit Shemesh Gimmel neighborhood – which is overwhelmingly haredi – but it does not matter how much it works.
The neighborhood is very new, but lacks communal infrastructure including synagogues, mikvaot (ritual baths), kindergartens, schools and bus lines, which has many residents, especially given the financial investment they have put into their properties.
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Although polling-booth is not yet available, it is possible that it is fragile in the first place.
In addition, corruption allegations, reports of rampant nepotism and poor financial management within the municipal council have been made that many cities have grown weary of the Abutbul administration.
According to one activist, hundreds of haredim voted for Bloch. Her adviser for the haredi community Yaakov Amar said that as many as 4,000 haredim could have voted for her, which would amount to a staggering 10% of all votes cast in the city.
So what explains the fact that many haredi in Beit Shemesh defied the instructions of the leading haredi rabbis, especially when adhering to their instructions?
It seems that the limit to rabbinical power may be the hard reality of sincere, real-life difficulties faced by people leading normal lives, who also happen to be haredi.
When such people weigh up the instructions of the government of the United States, they have had a detrimental effect on their lives for the purpose of normative, effective and uncorrupt municipal administration, it appears that many have elected for the latter.
Such people are less dependent on the rabbis and the various forms of financial support, and they have more of a stake in their city than they own their property, as many in Ramat Beit Shemesh Gimmel do.
A similar phenomenon could be the battle of the rabbinic leadership against the internet and smartphones.
The first step in this process was to ensure that the goals of electronic communications in today's world could not be overcome.
Reality confronted rabbinic authority, and the authority lost.
Why then did they do so in their Haifa, where Degel Hatorah and its rabbis even backed up a woman who emerged victorious, Einat Kalisch Rotem.
Largely, it would seem, it's because the issues are most important, or there is no experience of mismanagement by the candidate endorsed by the rabbinic leadership.
When the issues are not restricted to non-haredi neighborhoods – or if, as in a mixed city to vote for the rabbinically-endorsed candidate.
So what has happened in Beit Shemesh does not presage any mbadive rebellion against the authority of the leadership haredi; that authority is still alive and well.
But what does it do, however, is to show the limits of this power – in particular when they are involved in the field of Israeli life, and particularly in the work force.
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