HaGaon HaRav Yosef Efrati spoke prior to HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Yosef at his weekly shiur on Motzei Shabbos and excoriated Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana (Yamina).
“This is the way of HaRav Kook, zecher tzaddik l’bracha?” HaRav Efrati said and elaborated on the kashrus issues that will be caused by the reforms Kahana advanced, saying that now anyone who doesn’t want to adhere to the standards of the Rabbanut will simply find any three Rabbanim who will agree to his kulos.
“It’s true that this won’t affect people who rely on Chareidi hechsherim but the millions of Jews whose kashrus will be taken away from them will come as a prosecutor,” HaRav Efrati said, referring to traditional Israeli Jews who rely on the Rabbanut and will not necessarily question the hechsheirim of non-reliable Rabbanim, such as Tzohar Rabbanim.
“Every one of us knows that there’s a war on Erev Chanukah. ‘We have no chelek in Elokei Yisrael – no kashrus, no giyur,” HaRav Efrati bemoaned.
“Of course, there are times that one can be meikel according to the Torah. But not according to the Torah?!”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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One Response
Umm . . .
In all fairness, it should be pointed out that Rav Efrati (who may or may not be correct in this assessment) is probably the last person who should be commenting on this development, as he had a major hand in bringing it about.
He was a major force in intentionally undermining respect for the Rabbanut in the haredi campaign to insert the scandalously corrupt and menuval Yona Metzger as Chief Rabbi in 2003. (He did this to prevent the ascension of the widely-respected Rav Ariel, who would have given the Rabbanut and its hashgochos great prestige, which the haredi faction did not want to happen.)
Metzger’s term was the beginning of the Rabbanut being seen as corrupt and the object of disgust and ridicule, which ultimately led to the reforms currently being done.