After listening to criticism from inside and outside of the dati leumi community, Rabbi David Stav, among the founders of the Giyur K’halacha independent giyur beis din returns fire.
Rabi Stav opts to speak with the dati leumi Kippa website, criticizing Hamodia, Yated Neeman, BaKehilla and Yom L’Yom, all guilty of attacking him personally instead of addressing the issues at hand.
“I am not surprised” he begins, “For we remember how they referred to Rav Kook. They do not reference him to this very day for chalila if they did one might learn from him. We remember how they referred to Rav Goren, to the dati leumi community and its rabbonim. How they referred to Rav Ovadia Yosef”.
He directed his remarks at BaKehilla which quotes Maran HaGaon HaRav Ovadia Yosef ZT”L and the comments the gadol hador made regarding Rabbi Stav. Despite all of this, Rabbi Stav states unequivocally “this is not the chareidi tzibur and not even its rabbonim. I regularly receive telephone call, SMS text messages and emails from members of the chareidi community around the world expressing their outrage over this dialogue. It is clear most of the tzibur wishes to maintain an honorable dialogue”.
“On erev Rosh Hashanah people are busy digging up dirt on a personal level. This is also true regarding chareidi writers and some chardali writers. For Har HaMor it is not comfortable for them to come out against a Torah giant such as Rabbi Nachum Rabinovitch so they decide to besmirch me instead. I have been turned into a target. Rabbi Rabinovitch told me he is sorry that he dragged me into this but he has no reason to be sorry. I have the zechus to be a partner of his in this historic process that he is leading along with senior rabbonim in the Zionist community. I have no kavona to apologize over this”.
Rabbi Stav adds the incitement has a price and afterward they will not be able to say one did not have bad intentions or that he was unaware. He states it is legitimate and proper, the way of the Torah to argue the point and the facts at hand but not to launch personal attacks against individuals. “When they continue to warn that someone is dangerous, at the end someone is going to decide to harm him. One may disagree with a decision. Baruch Hashem we have big rabbonim who can say the penetrating message in a respectable fashion. No one thinks Rabbi Druckman favors this process, but he said his words honorably, without uttering a word against one person or another”.
Rabbi Stav cites the importance of conducting the dialogue without incitement and lies. He warns that one who levels personal attacks must understand there are people who will interpret these words in a fashion that may be regretted later on. “We are continuing on our path amid the knowledge most of Israeli society stands behind us, including in the chareidi and chardal communities…”
He insists allegations that he is doing this because he lost in his bid to become Chief Rabbi of Israel are unfounded. He points out that he is not a member of this new beis din, simply one who supports it. The beis din he explains is composed of Rabbi Rabinovitch and Rabbi Medan, who are not being attacked. He points out that Rabbi Rabinovitch did not run for Chief Rabbi yet he is behind this so the allegations this is a substitute to being Chief Rabbi are absurd.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
The accusation that the Chareidi newspapers do not respect R’ Kook because they “do not reference him” is so ridiculous that it would be funny if it weren’t so sad.
Tell me, R’ Stav, when is the last time you referenced R’ Yoel Teitelbaum or R’ Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld? Shall we accuse you of disrespecting them?
And then he mentions R’ Ovadya Yosef. The vast majority of Chareidim have always treated R’ Ovady with the utmost respect (unlike the RCA in their infamous letter to none other then R’ Stav, but of course that he fails to mention), even when they disagreed with him.
However, R’ Ovadya did famously say that making R’ Stav Cheif Rabbi would be “like planting an asheirah in the Bais HaMikdosh.”
For Har HaMor it is not comfortable for them to come out against a Torah giant such as Rabbi Nachum Rabinovitch so they decide to besmirch me instead. I have been turned into a target.
Yes, people actually respect R’ Nachum, even if they think he is wrong. But R’ Stav has been taking extreme liberal positions for far too long for anyone to not notice. His goal is to make Judaism more palatable to the masses by making it as easy as possible, and then some. And just like the Haskalah and Reform movements that had the same goal, he will fail miserably.
If you change one iota of the Torah, even if you’re trying to make it easier for people to keep, you have abandoned authentic Judaism.
Someone who truthfully requests dialogue should not take unilateral action and then request dialogue. Dialogue should be first in sequence. If it is subsequent to the unilateral action then that action can be viewed as terrorist and the request for dialogue inherently false.
This is nothing like reform. Only fools think that ruling like an unpopular opinion in halacha or breaking a derabanan in order to keep people Jewish is similar to Reform. You can’t force the stringent halacha on people who can barely handle the basics! Reform doesn’t necessarily believe in God nor the Torah. Being lenient, even breaking derabanans (when necessary) has nothing to do with Reform. I suspect it is the jealous frum people who can’t stand their stringent lives (and secretly want to throw off the yolk of Torah but can’t because they will be shunned by their chashuveh community) who want to delegitimize any Jew who keeps less than they do, in order to feel righteous and holier than thou. If you want to live a strict lifestyle, so be it, but don’t compare those people to Reform etc.
galicianer,
There has been attempts at dialogue with the CR for years, possibly decades. Power corrupts, absolute power absolutely corrupts.
Yes, one should seek expert opinion. But who are the experts? There is a Dati Leumi Rav Melamed who appears on the Arutz7 website. I used to read his column which was generally well-reasoned opinion on current isues. Then, one day, he launched an attack on the Gedolei Yisroel, asserting that however great a talmid chacham may be, if he doesn’t subscribe to Rav Kook ztz”l’s philosophy, he cannot be considered a ”leader” of Klal Yisroel. That was it for me. I could not accept this Rav’s viewpoint anymore. So who are the experts in the eyes of the truly frum, even learned, Dati Leumi? This Rav will not even take direction from an acknowledged talmid chacham if he doesn’t share his philosophy!
shalom,
do you know how reform started out?
i’ll give you the answer
slowly and with baby steps
you think reform started with a bunch of guys saying they want to drive to shul on shabbos?