Likud MK Galit Distal-Atbaryan on Sunday met with the Rav of Petach Tikvah, HaRav Michah HaLevi, a senior Dati Leumi Rav, to discuss the danger the giyur reform approved in a Knesset committee on Sunday poses to Am Yisrael.
Distal-Atbaryan described the meeting as “shocking” and said that HaRav Levi “explained to me the consequences of the giyur law that Yamina is passing. The most significant consequence is that as soon as this law passes, the State of Israel ceases to be a Jewish State and de facto becomes a state of all its citizens.”
“What Yamina is doing here is an earthquake – Israelis have never had to search through records to know (if it matters to them, of course) whether the person they are marrying is Jewish, but thanks to Naftali and (Yamina MK) Nir Orbach, from now on Israelis in the Jewish State will have to deal with the same phenomenon that the Jews of the Diaspora have been facing for years.”
“From now on, every minor from a non-Jewish family will be able to declare himself a Jew thanks to Matan Kahana’s law.”
“Who imagined that the elimination of Jewish identity would come from a party of kippah wearers,” she sadly concluded.
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7 Responses
This has nothing to do with Jewish identity. It’s about the arrogance of the Rabbanut. By what right did they ever declare that city rabbanim can’t do giyur? Who gave them that right? The Torah did not. The Torah says any beis din, anywhere, has the same right to convert people that the Rabbanut does. Nobody’s permission is needed. Even if three ordinary kosher Jews, who aren’t a beis din, decide to convert someone, the giyur is valid. So long as there was milah, tevilah, and kabalas ol mitzvos, the person is a Jew, and it is an issur d’oraisa to act as if he were not, just because two jumped-up civil servants didn’t give permission.
Why aren’t these people screaming from the plenum? Meeting with Rav HaLevi can’t accomplish much. The voices at the Knesset and especially the plenum haven’t been loud.
My husband always said אז .עס טוט וויי שרייעט מען
Loosely translated, you scream when it hurts
“de facto becomes a state of all its citizens”
If Israel isn’t a state of all its citizens, then the Apartheid meme isnt’ a lie!
“will have to deal with the same phenomenon that the Jews of the Diaspora have been facing for years”
That is how halachah works! Any three rabbis can perform a conversion. Chazal and Rishonim codified that.
Party of Kippah wearers? they can also be without kippah its only proforma.They call them self modern orthodox
instead of liberals.that not the party of Dr Burg s.l anymore.They do every thing to destroy Judaism.
Only to keep the gouverment.I do not trust Bennet and Kahane at all.They are am Haaretz
My good friend Rav Meir Kahana Ztzl used to say “Israel is not a Jewish state, it is a state of Jews”.
Milhouse, your point negates to recognize that given the world as it is today, where pretty much all do as they wish, unless there is a supervision to the giyur process there will be issues that are far-reaching: they will spiral out of control chalila. A supervising governing body is all too important! Look at the story of two days a go when a mother finally admitted that she wasn’t Jewish. If everyone is free to act and convert non-Jews with the authority of a governing body, the identity of the Jewish people will be dissolved. You can’t disagree with that. Thankfully there is/was an oversight authority.
Milhouse, charliehall, unfortunately the Zionist state has usurped the role of “Jewish state” and claims to represent Jews the world over. When a random reform “bet din” out in Wichita, Portland, or Memphis recognizes a giyur process, it lends zero credence to that geirus. But, as much as it pains us to acknowledge, when the secular, anti-chareidi state of Israel recognizes a giyur process, as illegitimate as it may be, this lends that geirus a lot of credence amongst non-affiliated Jews around the world in ways that we can’t even fathom. It is almost as if the Israeli secular government is the ordained Chief Rabbi of the Jewish nation. “If it’s good for Israel, it’s good enough for us.”
An anti-chareidi, anti-religion government has no business deciding which geirus should be acceptable and which should not. Either geirus should not be a requirement for any governmental purposes, or the Torah-true rabbis in Israel should be the sole arbiters of what constitutes geirus according to normative, Torah-based halacha.
The mentality (recently gaining traction in the fringes of our communities) that Torah-true rabbis should not have a monopoly over halachic processes in Israel is naïve, ignorant, and dangerous. Torah is not a democracy and does not lend itself to democratic processes. Only competent, Torah-true rabbis have any business meddling in halachic affairs. To believe otherwise is to subvert basic principles of our mesorah.