According to the Yom L’Yom newspaper, affiliated with the Shas Party, party leader Minister Eli Yishai is calling on IDF Chief Rabbi Avichai Ronsky to consult with Gedolei HaDor regarding the status of IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.
Yishai stated that to date, Rav Ronsky has not done so, adding the IDF’s chief rabbi is not qualified to make such a ruling on his own. Yishai suggests that Rav Ronsky consult with Rav Ovadia Yosef Shlita, considered an expert in the field of dealing with the issue of agunos.
Yishai’s statements contradict earlier reports that Rav Ronsky has already consulted with Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar Shlita, and plans to meet with other gedolim, including Rav Ovadia Yosef Shlita.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN)
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2 Responses
This is all political. If Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev are declared dead by the military before Sunday then it would be politically impossible for the Israeli cabinet to vote to trade Kuntar, who murdered a 4 year old Israeli girl by bashing in her head with the back of a gun after shooting her father infront of her.
The Israeli intelligence services all believe the soldiers are dead and that trading a live child-killer and others for corpses sets a precedent that will lead to more kidnapping attempts in the future.
Hezbollah plays up that the price will only go up in the future; regardless if that’s true its a negotiating tactic. The victim’s families are concerned that the soldier’s might still be alive and that they could get lost politically as happened to Ron Arad who was captured alive and now is no more. And even if dead, of course they want their loved ones back. The government of Israel has a duty to the soldiers but an even stronger one to look out for everyone.
R’ Yosef might be concerned because if Goldwasser and Regev are dead then their spouses are halachically allowed to remarry (I don’t know if Regev was married). But this is something they can resolve with their own rabbis or that would get determined by the Chief Rabbinate. I’m not sure what the IDF chief rabbi’s determination would have on that.
Why does he have to check in with the CHachem, he can speak to the Chief Rabbis also?