Ignoring the elephant in the room

I've been putting off writing this post since midway through last week. I still don't want to write it but how can I call myself an Israeli blogger if I keep ignoring the elephant in the room?

Early last week the press latched on to a truly unfortunate story. One of the most respected and admired rabbis in Israel had finally admitted to an uncontrolled compulsion for inappropriate relations with boys who were studying under him.(I'm not being intentionally vague, but until the details are clear, I am trying not to put words into anyone's mouth.)

According to the top-ranked listing in Google for his name: "Rav Mordechai Elon is a highly regarded rabbi and a teacher of enormous popular appeal. Not only is he renowned for his learning, he is a distinguished leader, admired and respected by people in all walks of life. With his ready smile and attentive demeanor, he is never too busy to listen to others, to explain, to advise and to teach."

I think you can fairly assume that that posting is going to have to come down.

I am not going to discuss what the rav did. If it turns out to be as bad as it seems, he is going to have to answer to a much greater power than me and my blog. The ripple effect of his actions will be felt far and wide for a very long time. Anyone sharing his last name might want to consider changing it.

What I am going to discuss is some of the fall-out that I did not initially consider. In greater Israel, this has more to do with religious people covering up for each other rather than a person in a position of authority and respect taking advantage of weaker individuals. The organization that came forward with the story is comprised of some very impressive rabbis who may, in fact, have taken the risk of a professional lifetime by publicizing it. They did the exact opposite of what they are being accused of doing.

What the secular Israelis are focusing on is the belief that the rabbi's proclivities were known to them three years ago and that, instead of going public then, they gave the rabbi the option of moving out of the center of the country and into what I like to call the suburbs of Syria. They also insisted that he was no longer able to interact or teach children.

While that may not have been enough --and if it was your child who was harmed, it surely wasn't enough -- it was better than the Catholic Church in Canada who simply move their deviant priests to another diocese and let them loose on other innocents. Interestingly enough, the parents of the victims did not want the religious authorities to go to the police sooner than they did.

What this one man's poor choices have done -- besides all the obvious damage to the victims, their families, his family, his followers and his friends -- is drive yet another wedge between the two factions of Israelis: the religious and the secular.

For a rabbi who was considered by many as the the most popular rabbi in Israel, his abrupt departure did not go unnoticed. Everyone assume that he was sick or emotionally tapped out. No one considered the sexual deviance option because he was just too big and too holy.

Some people are now saying that he should have controlled his urges. I am not defending the rabbi in any way, but I think that that is much too simplistic an answer. I can't even turn down a bowl of ice cream.

I think the bigger lesson is that even the biggest of the big and the holiest of the holy are still people. We can't put them on pedestals because absolutely no one deserves to be placed there. It's a dangerous practice whether you are religous or not. This includes sports stars, religious leaders, doctors, entertainers, volunteers -- everyone.

People in glass houses should not throw stones and as it turns out, everyone lives in a glass house. Even the elephant in the room.