Following a meeting on Tuesday 18 Cheshvan, officials in Israel’s Chief Rabbinate announced a vaad is being established to address the recent controversy surrounding the certification of rabbonim authorized to perform chupah and kedushin, the result of the ongoing conflict with Tzohar.
YWN-ISRAEL reported that the head of the Rabbinate’s unit dealing with marriages, Rabbi Ratzon Arussi remains opposed to changing the current regulations towards accommodating Tzohar and other rabbonim who are not part of the system.
It would appear however that Tzohar, with its connection to the Bayit HaYehudi Party in Knesset, has succeeded in applying enough pressure to even compel the Chief Rabbinate to take some form of action, for the latter is generally impervious of such public pressure. Not only has Tzohar come out against the Rabbinate, but the organization is supported by MKs and cabinet ministers from many parties, all sharing the feeling of disdain for the Rabbinate’s handling of young couples wishing to get married.
The new committee will be headed by Chief Rabbi Moshe Shlomo Amar Shlita, and will look into the claims of Tzohar and the growing demands to permit certified rabbonim to circumvent the state agency to register and perform marriages in accordance with Halacha.
In the interview reported by YWN-ISRAEL, Arussi admitted that the insistence of the Rabbinate on maintaining control of marriages is not just due to Halachic concerns, for other qualified rabbonim can safeguard Halacha as well, but he is concerned with the status of his rabbonim, fearing that if their authority is taken away, “they will become mayors, not chief rabbis of cities”.
Rav Arussi explained that if responsibility for kashrus, weddings, eruv and mikvaos is taken away from his rabbonim, they will be nothing more than figureheads, and this is not acceptable for a mora d’asra as he put it.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
1. What will the status be of a “glatt” kosher wedding (everyone frum, all halachas followed) that isn’t “approved” by the government?
2. How can you have a reliable halachic determination based on a “Mora D’Asra” who is appointed by a government dominated by people who are frum and in some cases aren’t Jewish.
3. If two frei (not Shomer Shabbos, etc.) Jews are married by the rabbanut, even though neither has any desire to be married according to “Daas Moshe v’Yisrael”, and the woman has a child by someone other than the husband (either to prove using DNA), will the government insist that the child is a “mamzer” and will the government prosecute the woman for adultery. What I suggest is more likely that if the child becomes a Baal Tseuvah, it will be held that the mother’s marriage was void since she had no intention of being married and was going through a meaningless ceremony to make the population registrar happy and to get a better tax deal.