Late Monday night, without prior warning, the three active members of the Council of Sephardic Torah Sages: Rabbis Reuven Elbaz, David Yosef, and Moshe Maya met secretly in Rabbi Elbaz’s office, apparently behind the back of Shas Leader, Minister Aryeh Deri, BeHadrei Haredim reported (ללא ידיעת היו”ר דרעי: חברי המועצת הספרדית התכנסו לדיון סודי).
It appears that Deri learned about the secret meeting from BH reporter Yair Levy. This was an exceptional event, seeing as the Council has not met without Deri’s knowledge since the latter returned to politics.
“The mere preservation of secrecy indicates an unusual event in Shas and turns the encounter into a mystery,” BH reported, adding: “Even after the meeting those who know about its content keep it a secret and no one knows what came up in the conversation among the rabbis.”
A knowledgeable source who is familiar with the content of the meeting told BH it was not about the appointment of Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana who is gay, nor was it about the IDF draft law.
This reporter must therefore conclude based on the evidence above that the topic of the secret meeting was Aryeh Deri. Last week, the Knesset plenum approved the amendment to Basic Law: The Government, a.k.a. the “Deri Law” in the second and third readings, thus allowing the Shas chairman to be appointed to the position of minister, despite his recent tax evasion conviction. The legislation was followed by a wave of appeals to the High Court of Justice which intends to rule on it with a panel of 11 justices.
It stands to reason that the Sephardic sages discussed what to do should the high court dismiss Deri, including whether or not to start vetting a new leader for Shas.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle put it best, speaking through his immortal character, Sherlock Holmes: “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
