Wingnuttery in Israel

First, in case anyone wasn't sure the "New Sanhedrin" hadn't already lost its mind, take a look at this:

A group of worshipers, some of them from New Sanhedrin,
a group headed by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz that sees itself as the successor to the
original Sanhedrin (religious court that ruled ancient Israel), violated Jewish
law by blowing the shofar on Shabbat during Rosh Hashanah services.

Rabbi Akiva Yosef Schlesinger blew the shofar on
Shabbat 101 years ago, but did so almost clandestinely out of fear of
ultra-Orthodox zealots in Jerusalem. Schlesinger was a Zionist Haredi who
believed that blowing the shofar on Shabbat would halt the spread of the pogroms
in Russia.

Let's see, 101 years ago would be 1905. Well, that totally worked. Well done, Kiv-ster! I wonder what the Sanhedrin thought this would cure. Gays? Arabs? Pork products?

One of the people behind Saturday's shofar-blowing was Prof. Hillel Weiss of Elkana, a major figure in the movement to establish a Third Temple in Jerusalem.

The shock, oy.

A press release issued before Rosh Hashanah by the planners
said that, "Now, when we are facing the war of Gog and Magog (the apocalyptic
war described in the Book of Ezekiel), shall we not postpone the decree ... by
sounding the shofar?"

Well, that answers my question. And who wants to bet that the great apocalypse HAS, in fact, been pushed back for at least another year? Who knew?

For those who don't know, the Sanhedrin is the "Council of Sages" that was the governing body of Jews back in ancient Israel. To use a non-Jewish comparison, the "new Sanhedrin" is to the "old Sanhedrin" what New Coke is to Plutonium. I have to say, I'm happy they managed to restrain themselves and ONLY blew a ram's horn, instead of, say, butchering a cow and sprinkling its blood around. Or stoning a rebellious son (Meir Amar?).

So, ok, I get why it would be totally impractical to excommunicate Chabad as some people like David Berger would like. But can't we at least agree that Steinsaltz has passed out of normative Judaism? I'm not saying we have to burn his books, but I'd at least like to know that guilt-ridden kindly Reform grandparents aren't giving the Steinsaltz Tanya to their grandkids at their B'Nai Mitzvahs.

Or is that throwing the (bearded) baby out with the (insane) bathwater?