Yesh Atid leader Finance Minister Yair Lapid is on the war path, determined to unseat Chief Rabbis Yitzchak Yosef and David Lau. It would appear that Lapid is angered over a decision by the Chief Rabbinate, but interestingly, that decision was made over 65 years ago.
Lapid used his Facebook page on erev Shabbos 9 Shevat 5774 to cry out, stating how the Chief Rabbis of Israel must go and that he and his party backed Rabbi David Stav in that election. “The chief rabbis have announced that it is prohibited for women to serve in the IDF. This is a chutzpah of the highest order, a national disgrace. I will work in Knesset, the cabinet and via legal means if need be to have them fired.”
Lapid is not done. “We are talking about state employees with very good salaries, who sit in comfortable offices, have state vehicles and they now announce they do not approve of women serving in the mud, as combatants in the cold, in pilots training course, as border police and in the navy.”
“Does the female commander of the Eitam unit now have to resign? What about [Chief of Personnel Branch] Major-General Orna Barvibai? Or what about all the IDF female instructors? What about female soldiers in the intelligence corps with whom I met in Northern Command two weeks ago, those watching monitors to prevent infiltrations via the border. They are not permitted to serve?”
“David Lau and Yitzchak Yosef and not fit to serve as Chief Rabbis of Israel” concluded the senior cabinet minister.
It appears that no one bothered to explain to Mr. Lapid that the chief rabbis since the founding of the state in 1948 opposed women serving in the IDF and the current chief rabbis just decided to give their backing to the long-standing Halachic ruling. Since it does not fit within the hashkafic parameters of Lapid’s secular far-from-Torah life, their words are pasul and the rabbonim are therefore unsuited for their post in his eyes.
It was just last erev Pesach that Lapid refused to sell the state’s chametz to the chief rabbis, deciding to sent an assistant. Now he has taken a step forward, demanding they step down, vowing to oust them from their positions. It would appear the derech eretz for rabbonim is not a component of Lapid’s mantra.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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8 Responses
This only emphasizes the shmad that is Zionism and the State of Israel.
The concept of being a holy nation, one that is careful about guarding from violating arayos, is completely antithetical to Zionism.
Lapid is overriding even his State’s own Rabbis (and, as the article pointed out, their predecessors as well) simply because he is a Zionist and Zionism is all about creating a new Hebrew goy, and NOT keeping Judaism.
Hopefully hashem will get rid of this rasha soon
So who died and left Lapid in charge? Does the fact that people disagree with him so enrage him?
There’s a guy in the White House that also has an ego larger than life and can’t stand when anyone disagrees with him but that’s life.
So Mr. Lapid if every time someone who doesn’t have the same opinion as you is to be fired I doubt there would be anyone left. If you can’t stomach that then as they say if you can’t stand the heat then get out of the kitchen.
avi732 i think what enrages him most is that these rabbis are part of the medinah and dare try to raise the level of kedusha of lapids state when his main agenda is to remove any sembelage of kedusha from the state and eretz yisroel. an emese menuval and probably not jewish
Lapid is a bigger danger to eretz yisroel than ahmidinigad was (whatever the spelling)
YMS!
Don’t read Lapid but read LaPig. May he have an unhappy ending for his party like his father. We don’t normally talk bad about the dead but as bad as his father was he is worse
The primary function of a “chief rabbi” in Israel is to keep the religious under control. Occasionally a gadol ends up as “chief rabbi”, but to the people who run Israel that’s an unfortunate accident. They want a toady to give heters on demand and hand out patronage to pacify the frummies who might otherwise make trouble for the regime – though they sometimes have to settle for someone who stands up to the government. With an “official” state rabbi the Shomeri Mitsvos in Eretz Yisrael will all to to their respective gedolim rather than a government minder.
When one looks at other countries, it is clear that the reason for separation of religion and state is not to prevent religious influence on the state (if their are free elections that happens if the religious people vote), but to keep the government from controlling religion and turning it into a tool of social and political control.