So much for democracy — at least in the eyes of Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid. Following the victory of chareidi rabbonim in the Chief Rabbinate race he posted on his Facebook page “The institute that was irrelevant to the lives and world view of so many Israelis will continue to remain irrelevant.”
Lapid continues, acknowledging that one wishing to avail oneself of the services of the Chief Rabbinate has every right to do so, “but there must be an alternative. It is time for civil marriage to provide a solution for the non-Jews along with all the wonderful Israelis that prefer to get married without rabbinical intervention.”
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
17 Responses
So Lapid whats next ,
Its time for you to declare the name Israel discrimanatory for it offends the Arabs,
lets call it Israb or better or Rabis
The article is implying that Lapid is “anti-democracy”? Was the vote for the Chief Rabbis an exercise in “democracy” or perhaps in nepotism? Maybe the fact that these jobs are now becoming dynastic is proof that the institution no longer serves the people.
Gee, rasha ben harasha Lapid — just a few short days ago you were lobbying so that your ideological pal Stav should become CR. Apparently until two days ago the CR position was relevant enough for you to care about who holds it. Now that your man was utterly defeated you suddenly find an irrelevance you haven’t previously expressed.
Not sure what his opinion has to do with democracy?
His thoughts didn’t affect the voting process.
He clearly has no Kavod Ha Torah, but the democratic process still functioned.
hopefully pretty soon Mr lapig will be irrelevant as well
1. What does democracy have to do with this subject? – The Chief Rabbis were not voted in by the public; they were appointed by a committee.
2. Public polls showed that a massive majority of Israelis (nearly 90%!)hoped to see harav Stav elected; a somewhat smaller majority (around 70%) supported the candidacy of harav Eliyahu.
3. The tragedy of the charedi led Chief Rabbinate has been a growing disconnect between the clerks and rabbis, many of whom openly feel and show disdain for the public they are supposed to be serving. In all the decades that the Chief Rabbinate was D”L/Charda”l there was no significant call for civil marriage or for alternatives to the orthodox establishment. Over the last 20 years of the charedi led Rabbinate there has been a growing groundswell of rebellion amongst the general public with tens of thousands of Israelis voting with their feet every year and opting for civil marriage rather than dealing with the gratuitous unpleasantness of the charedi Rabbinate. And the rampant stories of corruption in the Rabbinate that have mushroomed in this period have caused much of the public to lose their respect not only for the Chief Rabbinate (which had been their primary authority for and connection with Jewish practice) but for the concept of Orthodox religious hegemony in general. The recent appointments of the new Chief Rabbis, which flew in the face of public opinion and which were badly marred by ugly politics and by stench of nepotism, have hardly improved the image of the Rabbinate in the eyes of the general public.
4. Having said that, let us all wish the new Chief Rabbis every success.
Prime Minister Lapid has a lot to learn. He comes across as an arrogant spoiled brat! As comment #3 has said, if the movie going, Facebook Rabbi would of won, Lapid would be singing a different tune.
I like how #2 accuses Rav Lau and Rav Yosef of winning by nepotism in a news article about a guy running an anti-religion party in Israel called Lapid.
For all those who have a issue with nepotism al pi halacha rabbonus is a yerusha from father to son.
Less than 200 people, in a country with more than 5 million Yidn, electing two chief rabbis who are both sons of former chief rabbis! So much for democracy indeed…….
The statement by Lapid is not “anti-democracy”. Lapid is expressing his view that the institute of the Rabanut remains irrelevant to most Israelis. This is one of the issues that was raised in the recent election – would the winners be able to make the Rabanut more approachable and relevant to the average non-frum Israeli?
I hope Lapid is wrong, and the two winning candidates do make themselves relevant to the general Israeli public.
an Israeli Yid
Yagel eat your heart out at your loss.
“Lapid is expressing his view that the institute of the Rabanut remains irrelevant to most Israelis.
anIsraeliGoy: The religion of the Judaism remains irrelevant to most Israelis. So of course the institute of the Rabanut remains irrelevant to most Israelis.
this is yet another proof that medinat yisrael has nothing to do with bnei yisroel
#6
Or maybe those in “the general public” who opt for civil marriages are increasingly marrying non-Jews or mamzerim to which any rabbinate won’t agree?
Nepotism? A charge invented by their opponents. Did it ever occur to them that the elected rabbis might actually qualified?
You people are sore losers, plainly and simply put. Get a life hopefully a more spiritual one.
Assuming he’s on Facebook, how’s that different from you rock throwers who are posting here, albeit a wonderful blog which incidentally allows for different opinions?( Yasher Koach YW) There are literally hundreds of web sites with divrei Torah,religious content, shiurim, and other non-threatening information .Weren’t there asifas that preached against going on line unless for emergency parnassah needs? Haposel, B’mimo Posel. Besides the fact that you’re reading and posting loshon hara.What about bitul Torah? You don’t really expect for anybody to take you guys seriously.
Chachom – it’s a weak argument that relies on name-calling.
To address your point, though – the job of the Chief Rabbinate is to provide a certain level of Yidishkeit to the general populace of Israel, most of whom have the Halacha of Tinokos Shenishbe’u. By making the Rabbanut more approachable, the chances of the standard Israeli deciding to at least follow some basic Halacha in areas of marriage and divorce, Kevura, etc. are enhanced, thereby (a) decreasing the chances for mamzerim/pesulei chitun, and (b) keeping alive the chance that they or their children may be impressed by the positive interaction to become more observant. I’ve yet to see any Kiruv that resulted from throwing rocks on Shabbos.
an Israeli Yid
PS – I’m Mochel you.