RCA sides with apikorsim

PBA: It depends where. I expect a Rabbi in Lakewood to be significantly more learned than his congregation and therefore more learned than other average Rabbis in 100-member Shuls. All else equal, I expect the average Rabbi in random out-of-town places to be equally learned, “modern” or “Yeshivish”. In my experience, that pretty much holds true. There is a higher expectation in more learned places for the Rabbi to be more learned. And I do think that it’s a misconception (especially nowadays where even “modern” guys spend a year or two learning in Israel and continue learning on some level forever) that the average “modern” Baal Habayis is significantly less learned than the average Yeshivish Baal Habayis. It’s certainly true in the more Baal T’shuvah modern communities, but is much less true in average communities.

In short, in my experience, the average young new Rabbi coming out of YU, Ner Yisrael, Chofetz Chaim, and even Lakewood has about the same level of knowledge, both in Halachah L’ma’aseh and in general Shas knowledge. (Actually, the YU and Ner Yisrael Rabbis usually are slightly better on the daily L’ma’aseh stuff but that is counteracted by being slightly behind in general Shas knowledge; but the differences in both, on average, are negligible.)

Their position that the current state of Israel (I do not mean the land, I mean those governing it) is somehow holy. It is not. True Torah Jews would be working to bring the state to Torah in a Torah fashion, not sit back and wait for it to happen when some etherial peace with the Arabs gives them the chance.

They probably don’t mind if the Rabbanut has standards, as long as they’re higher than their own.

Because by rejecting an RCA member’s eidus, the Rabbanut is maintaining higher standards than the RCA.

They want the rabbanut to have lower standards than the RCA?

I’ll be dan l’kaf z’chus. The same would also be okay.

(FTR, I will reiterate what I wrote earlier in the thread – I am in no way demeaning any individual talmidei chachomim in the RCA, just questioning some policies and statements of the organization, which they don’t necessarily control.)

This is terrible. A case of politics determining what should be solely a religious determination.

Right up Weiss’ alley, who, based on the drivel coming from his students, his congregants and his school think that current politics should decide halacha, not what is written the Torah or that which has been passed through the mesorah. Because it feels good to dance with priests in shul.

A sad day for Israel and for mankind.

“This is terrible. A case of politics determining what should be solely a religious determination.”

I agree as well. The problem is that the position of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate is inherently political, and is therefore influenced by political considerations. If the Rabbinate was not funded by the government, then they would not have needed to bend to the pressure, as they would not be seen as an arm of the Israeli government.

I don’t know if he is pasul for eidus. For me, that’s not the issue. If the Israeli Rabbinate is willing to accept his word on conversions, it means there’s a lowering of their standards.

Here’s an example. I don’t use the Triangle K hechsher, because I disagree with some of their standards. So if a Rav from that hechsher tells me, “It’s kosher because it meets these standards!” I don’t think he’s wrong – I just have a different set of standards.

For a geirus to be done, there must be an acceptance of Torah and mitzvos. Even though there are differences of opinions about different derachim, such as chassidish, litvish, MO, etc. I’ve never heard someone say that the standard used by them is not acceptable for the acceptance in a conversion.

Now let’s get to Rabbi Weiss. His standards have been decried by many Rabbonim as being past the bounds of Orthodoxy. So when he says a conversion was done properly, it’s not a matter of not trusting him. It’s a matter of trusting him that the person accepted his standards, which others do not accept.

If he were to be a witness to an event, I wouldn’t have an issue with it. It’s not a trust issue. It’s just the standards he has are different than others.