Marathon coalition talks continued through the night motzei Shabbos as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is anxious to close the deal and announce his new coalition. While there remain a number of areas of dispute, Yesh Atid can undoubtedly claim victory in a number of areas to date, including the fact that schools not including core subjects in the curriculum will forfeit state education funding. According to the daily Maariv, other areas in which great progress was achieved by Yair Lapid are regarding couples viewed as פסולי חיתון by the Chief Rabbinate, those couples ineligible to get married in the state’s religious system. This includes same gender couples R”L and others who for one reason or another may not get married כדת משה לישראל. Maariv adds that Lapid’s demands for bus service on Shabbos were met in some part, but no explanation is given at this point. It appears there will be limited bus service to and from entertainment centers on Shabbos.
The details of the coalition agreement are not being announced at present, but Bayit Yehudi’s Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, who is in line to become minister of religious services, stated public bus service on Shabbos is a non-starter and his party would not sit in such a coalition.
If the Maariv report is accurate, then Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu also gave in to Lapid regarding state conversions and “leniencies” in this area are part of the coalition agreement too, once again without citing details.
The question also remains if these reports are indeed accurate, what will be the response of the dati leumi rabbonim vis-à-vis Bayit Yehudi’s inclusion in such a coalition, one that appears to be heading for a program of trampling Halacha in a number of vital areas.
Coalition talks are scheduled to resume on Sunday 28 Adar 5773 at 15:00.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
State conversions and “leniencies” is the least of the problems. Chareidim will just threaten them that one who undergoes such conversion will have to redo it if they want to be accepted among chareidim.
its not gonna be a threat by the chareidim its going to be a metzious that a medinah giyur is unacceptable for entry into mainstream yiddishkeit. and it will be known that if you really want to gain acceptance you better go to those rabbis and ask them whether or not you qualify
The rift which appears to be widening between the various elements of the observant public is a tragedy of immense proportions.
Has PM Netanyahu Sold Out Yiddishkheit to Yair Lapid? In one word, yes
This goverment won’t last long, maek ny wodes
to the previous posters: So-called “state conversions’ have been around since the beginning of the medinah- for obvious purposes- to know who is Jewish. All it means is that there are no “private” conversions by private Batei Din. I am not sure how such “gyurim” (by private batei din) are considered by the government. So, that is actually a status quo. As far as “leniencies” , this has been a major bone of contention ,even within the chareidi world, what conditions are needed for a valid conversion. It has been the present Chief Rabbi Amar who accepted the “leniencies” and he is a member of the chareidi world.