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Friday, 2 November, 2001, 18:34 GMT
Influential Israeli rabbi dies at 103
Thousands of Orthodox Jews attended the funeral
Rabbi Eliezer Shach, a spiritual leader of Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, died of heart and kidney failure in a Tel Aviv hospital early on Friday morning.
The influential rabbi, who wielded power over several of Israel's political leaders, was over 100 years old. Some reports say he was 103, while others say 107.
A political as well as religious leader, Rabbi Shach co-founded the influential Shas party and was the spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Degel Hatorah party, which has two deputies in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.
Thousands of Israelis flocked to his funeral in the religious city of Bnei Brak in central Israel.
'Pig eaters'
To many Orthodox Jews, Rabbi Shach was a religious icon and one of the most prominent figures in the ultra-religious community.
He used to openly condemn the secular lifestyle of the majority of the Israeli public, once denouncing the left-wing Labour party's secular supporters as "pig eaters" - a reference to the Jewish dietary law that forbids pork.
Rabbi Shach kept governments in power
In order to advance religious observance in Israeli society, he openly advocated political involvement by the ultra-Orthodox communities.
His support was crucial to several Israeli prime ministers. In 1996, he backed the right-winger Binyamin Netanyahu, who secured a narrow election victory.
Six years earlier, Shach had blocked a move that would have toppled the right-wing government of Yitzhak Shamir.
Shach was born into a poor family in the 1890s, in a village near the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius.
 Helping to restore Jewish scholarship after the Holocaust was his most important contribution |
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| Yisrael Meir LauChief Rabbi |
He studied scripture under the leading Jewish scholars and teachers of the age.
He left Lithuania shortly before the outbreak of the World War II and emigrated to what was then British mandate of Palestine.
He later became the head of a prestigious Jewish seminary in the town of Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv.
One of Israel's Chief Rabbis, Yisrael Meir Lau, said Shach helped to restore Jewish scholarship after the Holocaust.
"That was his most important contribution", Rabbi Lau told Israel Radio.
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The BBC's Stephen Gibbs "Thousands of mourners crowded into the small town of Bnei Brak" |
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