State Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein is being called upon to evaluate the merit of yet another candidate seeking to become Israel’s next Rishon L’Tzion. YWN-ISRAEL reported that Weinstein is summoning Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu for a meeting to discuss his hashkafa, after which Weinstein will rule on his eligibility to remain a candidate in the race for the new chief rabbis. Now it appears the same may apply to Holon Chief Rabbi Avraham Yosef.
The daily Maariv quotes an “official in the Justice Ministry” anonymously indicating Weinstein will most likely summon Rav Avraham Yosef too since his piskei Halacha are at times quite radical too and he is viewed no less radical than Rav Eliyahu.
Maariv on Wednesday, 25 Tammuz 5773 reported on some of Rav Avraham Yosef’s extreme piskei Halacha pertaining to women, judges and non-Jews, painting him as a fanatic. The report resulted in a number of politicians coming out against his candidacy too, including MK (The Movement) Meir Sheetrit, MK (The Movement) Elazar Stern, and Minister of Sport (Likud) Limor Livnat, [a member of the 150 person voting body for the election] to name a few.
It would appear that being a talmid chacham and posek are not the main criteria for the post and one must be politically correct in the eyes of the 150 select few who will select Israel’s new chief rabbis.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
Since when does the attorney general decide someone’s hashkafa?!
Why on earth would the Israelis want a “talmid chacham and posek” for “Chief Rabbi”? That’s the last thing they would want. The job of “Chief Rabbi” has nothing to do with Torah – and while some talmidim chacham have filled the job (e.g. R. Ovadiah Yosef, though the people who elected him realized that was a giant mistake) the chief criterion for the job is to be a reliable political animal who supports whomever is running the country. No one who takes halacha seriously goes by the government’s “Chief rabbi”. The job is to run a government bureaucracy and hand out patronage to the government’s favorites.
“one must be politically correct” — Usually means the candidate can NOT be right-wing in political activism.
Akuperma, how do u have the time to read and comment on every piece of news?
The job is to run a government bureaucracy and hand out patronage to the government’s favorites.
On many occasions the Chief Rabbis were not in agreement and showed it regarding government decisions and the jobs handed out usually go to those who supported the Rabbis election. (Religious Parties)