Shas, Sans The Gemara

It's no secret that Israel's Orthodox political factions do not send their best and brightest talmidei chachamim to sit in the Knesset. More often than not, a sizeable majority of Orthodox Knesset members are what one would dub "street smart" rather than being "book smart."

However, in the case of the once vaunted Shas Sephardic Party, the holy moniker "SHAS" (shisha sidrei mishna) shouldn't even be thought of when mentioning both Shas Knesset members or senior party officials.

Many upper echelon Shas politicos are chozrim b'teshuva (or baalei teshuva) having alledgedly chucked their chequered backgrounds for the holy life. Yet, during the past year alone several Shas Knesset members and high-ranking officials have found themselves under investigation for a series of alleged criminal offenses that have embarrassed both party leader Eli Yishai and the party's spiritual mentor-Harav HaGaon Ovadia Yosef.

To make matters worse, those Shas Knesset members or senior ranking officials who haven't been targeted for investigation have made utter fools of themselves in front of the Knesset and the mass media by paskening (uttering halachic edicts) as to why the Almighty is punishing Eretz Yisroel. Those Shas officials who have uttered these ridiculously divisive "divinely inspired" edicts, probably couldn't pass a farher (Talmudic spot test) in front of Rav Yosef.

There was a time when the Shas Party served a vital function in Israeli society. Secular Ashkenazic business and political factions made life miserable for poor Sephardic immigrants.

Ironically, this form of racism is still practiced today by many Haredi Orthodox Ashkenazic educators who have established anti-Sephardic "quotas" within their booming girls high school and seminary school systems. However, on the flip side, the upper crust of Sephardic society including some Shas Party officials, send their sons to elite Haredi Ashkenazic yeshivot, which has angered Rav Ovadia Yosef's sons and rightly so. In this case, the Haredi Ashkenazi yeshivot will only accept the "best and brightest" of the Sephardic elite.

Rav Ovadia Yosef's sons are also at the forefront of challenging Eli Yishai and his cadre of political clowns to leave PM Ehud Olmert's government before the Israeli leader gives away the heart and soul of the Jewish people-JERUSALEM.

Then again, many Shas Knesset members might have been absent from school when their rebbes gave shiur about the holy city. In fact, many of them probably never attended a religious school to begin with.

Shas, sans the Gemara...