re: #22 researchok

He’s comparing Iran to Israel.

Iran is the state with religious police, forces women into certain dress and behaviors (I won’t get into the stoning and other punishments just yet) a regime that used 13 yer old boys as mine detectors, and so one.

There is the matter of the Green Revolution, treatment of gays and Baha’i and routine summary executions.

And that’s just for starters.

Jerry Falwell was probably just as crazy as Khomeini. He was also politically influential. And yet, there is a difference.

Rav Ovadia is a challenge to me. His reputation as a scholar is almost as wide-spread as his reputation as a nut, and I know many left-wing Mizrahim who greatly respect him as a Torah scholar and a champion of Mizrahi communities in Israel, while still shuddering at the horrible stuff that comes out of his mouth periodically.

Mostly he puts me in a blind rage. The only times I’ve ever really approved of him thoroughly was when he told people to stop smoking, and when he supported the Ethiopian olim’s Jewish status.