In a speech unprecedented in its severity, the Chief Rabbi of Israel HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Yosef slammed Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana for the changes in the religious status quo he is planning on implementing.
Speaking at a Rabbinical conference last week, HaRav Yosef related how Kahana came to speak with him and told him: ‘I respect the Chief Rabbis but we have differences of opinion.'”
“Did you hear?” Rav Yosef cried out. “He has differences of opinion with the Chief Rabbis who spend their days immersed in Torah, who author Sefarim, who spread Torah? What is this?”
HaRav Yosef then addressed the issue of kashrus, noting how he ensures that the Rabbanut is not overly machmir but at the same time not everything can be muttar either. “Our Torah is a Toras Chaim,” Rav Yosef said. “But the halacha like Beis Hillel wasn’t determined on the streets, it is determined in the Beis Medrash, everything is determined in the Beis Medrash. Talmidei Chachamim, our poskim are the ones who determine the halacha.”
“If they privatize kashrus [as Kahana says he plans on doing], I don’t know how people will be able to eat at these places,” Rav Yosef cried out. “The Rabbanut will have to gather and announce that it’s not possible to trust all the kashriyot.”
“Furthermore, all the Batei Din of giyur operate according to every heter. Any heter beyond what they do would already be against halacha. How can you be matir more than this? They want to allow municipal rabbis to carry out giyur.”
“When I was elected Chief Rabbi, it was when Bennett was the Religious Affairs Minister and his deputy was Eli Ben-Dahan and they fought with us with all their might [to allow municipal rabbis to carry out giyur]. Ben-Dahan came to us with the proposal for the law and told us that whether we want it or not, the law will be passed so it’s better that it will pass with your approval. Ultimately, it wasn’t passed. Abba, z’tl, [HaGaon HaRav Ovadia Yosef, z’tl] supported us. Hakadosh Baruch Hu helped us.”
“We’re worried about the next generations. What will be in another 50 years? People who want to be chozer b’teshuvah will suddenly find out that the giyur of their Saba or Savta wasn’t according to halacha. What will be then?”
“I’m having trouble falling asleep in the last month,” Rav Yosef lamented. “I think a lot about…what will be with civil marriage? What will be with kashrus?
“If Maran Abba [HaGaon HaRav Ovadia Yosef, z’tl] was here, he would have raised a great and bitter cry on what’s happening here – on giyur, on kashrus and other things they want to do. We must unite.”
Chief Rabbi Dovid Lau also slammed Kahana for the changes he plans on implementing.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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13 Responses
its time to get rid of a politicized government controlled rabbanut Individual yidden are fully capable of deciding whether a private hashgacha is consistent with their hashkafah
I also have a problem sleeping. Ambien works very well.
“We’re worried about the next generations. What will be in another 50 years? People who want to be chozer b’teshuvah will suddenly find out that the giyur of their Saba or Savta wasn’t according to halacha. What will be then?“
IyH moshiach will be here soon
Hashem wants us to fight for Torah , May Hashem give koach to us for this battle.
“If they privatize kashrus [as Kahana says he plans on doing], I don’t know how people will be able to eat at these places,”
The same way they can now. And the same way we can everywhere else in the world. People will decide for themselves which hechsherim they’re comfortable relying on, exactly as they do now. Where does he get the chutzpah to claim that the Rabbanut’s kashrut is more reliable than the private hechsherim?
In any case, when was there ever such a thing as one body having a monopoly on kashrut in an entire country? What halachic basis could there be for such a thing? That’s not how the Shulchan Aruch says to conduct ourselves.
And the same applies to giyur. For thousands of years any beis din had the right to accept gerim, and nobody ever had the chutzpah to demand that they must obtain permission from some other beis din, until the Israeli Rabbanut, with the utmost in sheer arrogance, appointed itself over the whole world and FORCED all the botei din in the world to bow kor’im to them and kiss their ring, and await their arbitrary and capricious decision on whose giyurim will be accepted in Israel and which won’t be. Who ever heard of such a thing? Where is such a thing in halacha?
And within Israel, why should the rov of a city not be able to do giyurim? What makes him less than the so-called “chief rabbis”? Is he soon going to need their permission to write a get too?!
I was reading this with my friend until we got to a picture of R’ Eli Stefansky(ad) and my friend yelled (while pointing the picture) this Kahana will pay the price for messing up with gedolei ha dor! LOL
He obviously didn’t recognise who was in the picture
This is Yemina for me Smola they call them self religious what is there religion modern orthodox against halacha
shame of them.they are even not belonging to the former Misrachi anymore ther unfortunately are no more Dr.Josef Burf sl and Zerach Wahrhaftig sl they all had kavod.
Y
“If they privatize kashrus [as Kahana says he plans on doing], I don’t know how people will be able to eat at these places,” Rav Yosef cried out.
Maybe someone here can explain to Rav Yosef how kashrus works in the US, with highly respected organizations like the OU, the Chof K, etc ensuring high standards while running as private organizations. Perhaps that will calm him down a bit.
We are going back choliloh to the times of the Tzedukim who said מה אהני לן רבנן? or even worse!
Warm goat milk. You look like a goat.
The truth is, the fabric of reality is different in Israel. This is holy land and given to us, the Jews, as an eternal gift. Hashem, the creator of everything gave it to us. If you have a problem with that then you have a problem with the truth, G-d is real.
All the natural laws, all the economic realities that govern the rest of the world are for the goyim. We do chessed, we do tzedakah. We study and learn Torah for no reason other than Hashem told us to.
If people really knew the value of Torah study, students of Torah would be inundated with jewels and gold. The blessings they bring down are the lifeblood of this world.
TO Gadolhadorah: You’re making a fatal error, you need those that know Torah better than you to guide you, you’re off the road.
Valium would have helped that bash – Lewis Allan Rabinowitz