Rabbi Yosef Yashar's support for delusional tractor driver Rav [sic] Nir Ben Artzi

A while ago, some people sent me Rabbi Yosef Yashar's support for Nir Ben Artzi, and his condemnation of those who oppose him, under the assumption that the word of some random rabbi in Israel, whom neither I nor they had ever heard of before, and who does not seem to have a grasp of the situation, was the final say in the matter.

Before commenting on this, I want to present the article, which I translated into English, fixing up Google's translation. (Hebrew at the bottom of this post.) I am not sure if the video will come out. If not, click through the link and you can view the video in Hebrew. My analysis follows after the article:

Rabbi of Acre {=Akko} warns, "Nobody can hurt the Rav [sic] Nir Ben Artzi"

The Rabbi of Akko, Rabbi Yosef Yasher, joined this evening with the disciples of Rabbi [sic] Nir Ben Artzi  in Acre, and praised long the rabbi and his work ● "How fortunate we have the Rabbi [sic] Ben-Artzi. He is entirely burning and burning fire," said Rav Yashar, and hinting to the attacks against Rabbi [sic] Ben-Artzi, "What is punishment of a slanderer? We cast him outside the camp, toss him out" (Eretz)

"Rabbi [sic] Nir Ben Artzi has priesthood {kehuna}, has leadership, has the love of Israel. and against all these things - no one can touch, move, or hurt "- so said last week, the rabbi of the city of Akko, Rabbi Yosef Yashar, at a special evening conducted by Rabbi [sic] Ben Artzi in the city.

The rabbi's words are aimed at criticism leveled against Rabbi [sic] Ben-Artzi.

Rabbi Yashar respected the special evening in his presence, constantly praised Rabbi [sic] Ben-Artzi and suggested the recent attacks directed against it.

"What is the punishment of a motzi shem ra {slanderer}? We cast him outside the camp, toss him out. And we shave off all his hair - a shame, because lashon hara and motzi shem ra are the lowest of the low.

"This is the law of the leper. There is only one correction for one who slanders: 'and he is brought to the priest, and is cured of leprosy'. Only a process of contrition and repentance. And yet, even then, the damage is terrible."

Rabbi Yashar he added: "We know that terrible days have passed on the rav [sic]. There is here priesthood   who the rabbi difficult days. There's Cohen. There's a priesthood {kehuna} and leadership."

"How fortunate we have the Rabbi [sic] Nir Ben Artzi. He is entirely passionate, entirely burning fire, for only one thing: love of Israel."

Rabbi Nir Ben Artzi abundantly praised in his address to Rav Yashar, and said: "that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, will give Rav Yashaar great strength in order to overcome any revenge, those who wish to take revenge. That God will give him good health and strength, powerful force to strengthen the city of Acco."

Afterwards, Rabbi [sic] Ben Artzi arranged a "Mi Sheberach"  for the the large crowd who attended the conference.

This ends the article. The Hebrew original I reproduced at the bottom of this post.

So, who was this rav of the city of Acco opposing, precisely. Some people thought he was opposing me, Rabbi Joshua Waxman. That is rather unlikely. More likely, what sparked this was the opposition of the chief rabbi of Israel, Rav Shlomo Amar, a few days previous, blasting Nir Ben Artzi by name as a fraud. This made major headlines in the chareidi news-sites.

Still, Rav Yashar believed he was opposing one other rabbi, and saying that he should be cast out of the machaneh for motzi shem ra, slander, for spreading negative falsehoods about Nir Ben Artzi.

I doubt that he was fully aware of the situation, in which a good many other rather prominent rabbis have opposed the delusional tractor driver. Did Rav Yashar really mean to blast, and cast out of the machaneh, the following rabbonim? (See here.)

1. Rav Ovadia Yosef, the former Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel
2. Rav Eliyahu Bakshi Doron, another former Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel
3. Rav Shlomo Amar, the present Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel {OK, this one I think he did intend}
4. Rav Shlomo Aviner, the rabbi of Bet El and one of the spiritual leaders of the Dati Leumi movement
5. Rav Yosef Kapach, a leading Temani (Yemenite) rabbi
6. Rav Nebenzahl, chief rabbi of Yerushalayim
7. Rav Ariel {I am not sure if this is Rav Yaakov or Rav Yisrael Ariel), chief rabbi of either Yamit or of Ramat Gan
8. Rav Yigal Kaminetsky, chief rabbi of Gush Katif
9. Rav Shmuel Tal, head of Yeshivat Torat Chaim, and a rabbi in Nevei Dekalim, which is Nir Ben Artzi's area
10. Rav Yosef Zinni, the rav of Shchuna Daled in Ashdod
11. Rav Yosef Dayan, from Ashdod

Now, it is remotely possible that Rav Yosef Yashar intended to blast all of these rabbis, including Rav Ovadia Yosef, but I think it rather unlikely. More likely is that he was reacting to the most recent accusations that Nir Ben Artzi was a fraud, and was not aware of this array of rabbinic opposition.

Note that he also refers to Nir Ben Artzi as "HaRav Nir Ben Artzi", where Nir lacks semicha. And he simply refers to the various allegations against Nir as motzi shem ra, slander -- that is, false negative accusations. But he does not back this up. Rav Shmuel Tal or Rav Yigal Kaminetsky were much closer to the happenings on the ground. They could know about the shalom bayis issues and divorces sparked by Nir Ben Artzi's 'psychic' advice. They could know what the followers were saying, and so on and so forth. Did this Rabbi Yashar consult with them before labeling it all falsehood and slander? I rather doubt it.

Shkoyach! I never doubted that one can find a random rabbi or two, especially in over-the-top and often radical Israel, to support apocalyptic and superstitious nonsense. Just as there are plenty of folks in the comment section who unthinkingly labeled it motzi shem ra. (Indeed, one or two who proudly informed me that they had semicha, as if that was relevant.) That was never the question.

Frankly, I generic statement that all allegations are motzi shem ra does not suffice. He should spell out specifically which allegations people are making, and explain what evidence he has that the allegations are false. (I would guess he meant R' Amar's statement that it was for love of money that Nir started acting as a  con-man.) But for example, if people are saying that he does not in fact have semicha, tell us who his rebbe is. If people are saying that he is an am haaretz, let us know that you gave him a farher on and he passed it with flying colors. If people are saying that he gave X advice to women, saying bad things about their husbands and causing shalom bayis issues, let us know that you investigated this and found it to be baseless. Frankly, if someone were to do this, I wouldn't care if it were the chief rabbi of Acco who did it, since it could be evaluated on its merits. But this does not seem to be what Rav Yashar did.

Also, that Nir Ben Artzi has the best of intentions, if this is true, is irrelevant. What is relevant is whether he is leading an apocalyptic cult; whether his 'psychic' advice has led to real problems; whether people should practically listen to him about global disasters and move immediately to Eretz Yisrael, something which, absent catastrophe, is NOT the best course of action, on a physical, emotional, or spiritual level, for all people.

Here is the original article, from Kikar Shabbat:

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רבה של עכו מזהיר: "איש לא יכול לפגוע ברב ניר בן ארצי"

רבה של עכו, הרב יוסף ישר, השתתף בערב של תלמידי הרב ניר בן-ארצי בעכו, ושיבח ארוכות את הרב ופועלו ● "אשרינו שיש לנו את הרב בן ארצי. כל כולו אהבה יוקדת ואש יוקדת", אמר הרב ישר ורמז על ההתקפות נגד הרב בן ארצי: "מה עונשו של מוציא שם רע? אנחנו מוצאים אותו מחוץ למחנה, זורקים אותו" (ארץ)

אברהם הלוי

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ו' בניסן תשעא   09:36  10.04.11

הדפסה

צפו במדור וידאו

"לרב ניר בן ארצי יש כהונה, יש הנהגה, יש אהבת ישראל. ונגד כל הדברים הללו - אף אחד לא יכול לגעת, להזיז, או לפגוע" - כך אמר בשבוע שעבר רבה של העיר עכו, הרב יוסף ישר, בערב מיוחד שערך הרב בן ארצי בעיר.

דבריו של הרב ישר מגיעים על רקע ביקורת שהוטחה ברב בן ארצי.

הרב ישר כיבד את הערב המיוחד בנוכחותו, שיבח ללא הרף את הרב בן ארצי ורמז על המתקפות האחרונות שכוונו נגדו.

"מה הוא עונשו של מוציא שם רע? אנחנו מוצאים אותו מחוץ למחנה, זורקים אותו. וגילח את כל שערו - בושה וחרפה, משום שלשון הרע ומציאי דיבה הם הגרועים ביותר.

"זו תהיה תורת המצורע. יש רק תקנה אחת למוציאי דיבה - "והובא אל הכהן, והנה נרפא נגע הצרעת". רק תהליך של חרטה ותשובה. ולמרות הכל, גם אז, הנזק הוא נורא ואיום".

הרב ישר הוסיף ואמר: "אנחנו יודעים שעברו על הרב ימים קשים. יש כאן כהן. יש פה כהונה והנהגה.

"אשרינו שיש לנו את הרב ניר בן ארצי. כל כולו אהבה יוקדת ואש יוקדת, לדבר אחד בלבד: לאהבה של עם ישראל".

הרב ניר בן-ארצי הודה בנאומו לרב ישר ואמר: "שהקדוש ברוך הוא יתן לרב ישר כוחות גדולים מאוד, כדי להתגבר על כל ההפרעות, מה שרוצים להפריע. שה´ יתן לו בריאות טובה ואיתנה, כוחות חזקים לחזק את העיר עכו". 

אחר-כך, ערך הרב בן-ארצי "מי שברך" לקהל הרב שנכח בכינוס.