Rabbi David Stav, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin and MK (Yesh Atid) Dr. Aliza Lavie sharply criticized the Chief Rabbinate of Israel during a meeting of the Knesset lobby on religion and state. They called for internal privatization and immediate change.
Rabbi Stav, who heads Tzohar Rabbonim, explained the time has come to privatize the Chief Rabbinate from within, citing the marriage reform bill based on Tzohar’s plan does just this and he feels the same must now be done regarding divorce. He wants people to have a say regarding who they turn to for religious services.
“They must not think they are a monopoly and therefore, the state batei din, kashrus, giyur, burial and other areas must be privatized internally to provide the best possible service to the public. There is no problem in privatizing kashrus which can operate under Chief Rabbinate regulation. Zero flexibility regarding halacha and a hundred percent flexibility in shady business matters” stated Rav Stav.
Rabbi Riskin added to the attack against the Chief Rabbinate. “We must not give the chief rabbis more authority than they already have. The government give them more power and the State of Israel must say the chief rabbi is not the pope. They are endangering the Israeli tzibur and halacha”.
Lobby head MK Lavie added, joining the attack against the Chief Rabbinate. “The chief rabbis have forgotten their mission. How many people view them as the ‘achalta d’geula’? There is a policy of halachic chumros in the Chief Rabbinate today and this is splitting into smaller and smaller groups. Instead of thinking of the general population, Klall Yisrael, they think of a small group”.
Regarding private giyur, Rabbi Stav stated after thousands of children have been converted and the tzibur at large votes with its actions, these converts will be recognized. “If the Chief Rabbinate does not recognize these converts there will be thousands of children who are recognized by most of Am Yisrael and those who do not wish to view them as Jews will not”.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
1. The Hareidim have always been “private”. They have thrived. Presumably the Religious Zionists will as well. Letting a government, especially one run by anti-religious people, provide “religious services” is a dumb idea.
2. The Zionists always embraced the European (very un-American) idea that religion is there to enable the state to better control the population. Official government religion rarely thrives, whereas non-state religions thrive almost everywhere. But if the medinah stops paying the fiddler, they won’t be able to call tunes anymore.
Doing such will open the door to Reform, Reconstructionist, Conaervative movements, et al… You will no longer be able to give preference to authentic, real Judaism at whatever holy sites are not already under Arab control in Israel.
See who is calling for this change! The Reformers; the ones who want to convert everybody against the Halachah and now they want to divorce against the Halachah causing thousands of false geirim and many mamzeirim splitting the jewish nation in a way that we won’t be able to marry each other without long and difficult investigations.
No, these fony rabbits want to destroy the entire Am Yisroel like Paroh who wanted to keep the girls alive so they’ll have noone to marry chas vesholem.
Akuperma
Your opinion is very innovative and far from the truth. The zionists NEVER embraced any form of religion, not even to control the population. They very specifically stated they want to change the fact that Jews are ‘a nation of religion’. They want to make Jews a nation like any other. – As if other nations don’t have their own uniqueness.
555: From the very beginning, Ben Gurion insisted on having a “Chief Rabbi” responsible to the political leadership. The Kenesset enacted a “religious holiday” and specified how government synagogues would observe. As is the case in most countries, the government saw “organized religion” as a vehicle of social control. The government ran religious schools to tote the party line.
“The Reformers”
The rabbis mentioned in the article are all Orthodox, as is Dr. Lavie.