Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas political party, is still being wooed by Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, despite making a speech at the weekend in which he called the prime minister a fool, made racist remarks about Arabs, and provoked outrage with insulting comments about Holocaust victims.
Mr Barak desperately needs to bring the 17-man Shas party - the third largest in the Knesset - back into his government in order to rebuilt a coalition majority to support a hoped-for peace deal with the Palestinians. And it is an unmistakable sign of Shas's power that, despite the rabbi's speech, behind-the-scenes political contacts between Mr Barak's aides and Shas officials are still continuing.
The rabbi's speech saw him accuse Mr Barak of "lacking sense" for offering to compromise with the Palestinians in a peace deal. In stronger language, the 80-yearold sage then called the Palestinians "snakes" and said God had "regretted" creating them.
Mr Yasser Abed Rabbo, the Palestinian Authority's Information Minister, retorted that "the statements of this idiot and racist are a disgrace to every Israeli".
The comments that have caused the biggest stir in Israel, however, concerned the Holocaust. The Jews who were killed by the Nazis, Rabbi Yosef declared in the Saturday night address, broadcast by satellite to supporters across Israel and abroad, were "reincarnations of earlier souls, who sinned time and again and did all sorts of things that shouldn't have been done, and were reincarnated so that things could be set right."
Mr Yossi Lapid, a secular Knesset member and Holocaust survivor, castigated the rabbi as "senile" and "a fool . . . When I hear Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef's words, I feel as if my father has been murdered a second time". Holocaust survivor organisations in Israel and abroad also criticised the rabbi, and said they had received hundreds of phone calls from distressed survivors.
The rabbi later issued a "clarification", insisting that "I did not mean to say that the six million [Jews who died at the hands of the Nazis] were sinners. Heaven forbid! They are all holy and pure and completely righteous".
But even before that climb down, the rabbi had been only mildly rebuffed by Mr Barak and by the opposition leader, Mr Ariel Sharon, each anxious to court the crucial support of Shas. Mr Barak made no reference at all to the barb the rabbi had directed at him, merely branding the speech unworthy of the rabbi and damaging to the memory of Holocaust victims and the feelings of their families.
Privately, Mr Barak is said to have postponed making public efforts to draw Shas - which bolted from his coalition before last month's Camp David summit - back into his coalition. Mr Barak's immigration minister, Ms Yuli Tamir, apparently spoke for him when she remarked, "The things that Rabbi Ovadia said are reprehensible, but they shouldn't influence the coalition negotiations".
But there is a huge irony in Mr Barak's position: While he has kept his response moderate because he needs Shas to secure a parliamentary majority for peace making, Rabbi Yosef's remarks would suggest that, even if the prime minister can reach a deal with the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, the dutiful Knesset members from Shas will likely be instructed by their rabbi to vote against it.