Demystifying The Amnon Yitzhak Affair

Many may now be familiar with the well circulated video clip of a former Israeli singer receiving lashes (malkot) by a rabbinic court (Beit Din). The story had appeared in several news outlets including the Jerusalem Post and caused quite a stir amongst many people throughout the Jewish world. There are two aspects to this story that need to be clarified for people to truly understand what transpired.

First, there is the personality of Rav Amnon Yitzhak himself. Rav Yitzhak is a tremendous public figure in Israel who has dedicated his life to bringing Jews closer to halakhic observance through his Shofar organization. His typical events can draw anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand people and that is because he utilizes outlandish skits and routines in order to simultaneously entertain while educate the crowds. The former singer who became the center of all this talk was not coerced into receiving lashes but rather he volunteered and asked for the treatment to assist him in achieving repentance. [It's another discussion altogether why performing for a mixed-gender audience should warrant such feelings of severe repentance.]

Second, one needs to understand the nature of these lashes. The lashes that were administered to this singer were essentially taps on his back and were entirely symbolic. The Beit Din did not severely beat him but rather gently struck him. The only sort of rabbinic court that can administer actual lashes is one comprised of rabbis possessing authentic ordination (semuchim) that was lost millenia ago through persecution. However, Jews have been using the instrument of honorary symbolic lashes for hundreds of years to serve as an impetus for repentance. This is especially true during the period of time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. For example, the Shulchan Aruch in O"H 607:6 explicitly states that "All the congregation receives 40 [symbolic] lashes after the afternoon service [before Yom Kippur] because through this their heart will turn away from transgressions that are close to them." Both the Magen Avraham (9) and the Mishnah Berurah (18) are quick to point out that these are in no way obligatory nowadays nor do they serve to actually mitigate the need to do the work of repentance but they can serve as instruments towards that repentance.

Therefore, the request of that former singer to receive symbolic lashes was actually quite in line with rabbinic tradition as practiced for centuries. What was not quite in line with rabbinic tradition was the broadcasting of that moment over the Internet by the Israeli celebrity rabbi Amnon Yitzhak.

Whether we choose to follow this custom or not, may this season of introspection and reflection be a meaningful and transformational one.