JERUSALEM — Israel President Ezer Weizman last Thursday remedied the latest case of foot-in-mouth disease afflicting the country’s public figures, when he apologized less than 24 hours after saying that there are parts of the Bible “not worth reading.”
“I am willing to apologize if my words did not sound good,” Weizman said in a statement that was broadcast on Israel Radio. “It is not my honor that is at stake, but rather that of the Torah.”
Weizman, at an Education Ministry conference last week titled “The State of Israel – a State of the Jews or a Jewish State?” said, “It is necessary to read the Bible. But sometimes it is not worth reading it all, because there are some things that are not nice, not very nice at all.”
Weizman went on to say that Moses, “who in my eyes is the greatest Jewish leader, said a number of things we should be a bit wary of saying. Especially at the end of the poem in Ha’azinu.” Ha’azinu is the second-to-last portion of Deuteronomy, and at the end of the poem Moses speaks of the revenge God will extract on Israel’s adversaries.
Weizman’s words sparked an angry outburst of protest from various religious party leaders who said he should be more sensitive to the feelings of the religious. Shas and United Torah Judaism threatened to support another candidate in next year’s presidential election in the Knesset if Weizman did not apologize.
Weizman, who hinted at the conference that he is interested in another term, apologized almost immediately. Following the apology, Shas Knesset member Shlomo Ben-Izri said that from his standpoint the matter is now closed.
Weizman’s remarks are the latest in a series of statements made by key public figures that have offended large segments of the population.
Recently, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef said essentially that the country’s secular courts are not fit for Jews, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Rabbi Yitzhak Kadouri that people on the left have forgotten what it means to be Jewish.