As Pesach swiftly approaches, the Chief Rabbanim of Israel on Wednesday sold the state’s chometz in a ceremony attended every year by Israel’s Finance Minister.

But in yet another sign of the Bennett government’s contempt for religion and Rabbanim, Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman chose not to attend the ceremony despite receiving an invitation to do. Instead, Accountant General in the Finance Ministry CPA Yali Rothenberg represented the ministry.

Another minister that normally attends the ceremony but was missing this time was Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana whom the Chief Rabbanim chose not to invite due to his past disrespectful behavior toward them.

Last year, the chometz selling ceremony was attended by former Finance Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud), former Religious Affairs Minister Yaakov Avitan (Shas), and former Deputy Finance Minister Yitzchak Cohen (Shas).

The chometz was sold to Abu Ghosh resident Hussein Jaber, who gave the Rabbanim an advance of NIS 20,000 for the chometz, which includes the thousands of Israelis who sell their chometz via the Rabbanut’s website as well as numerous organizations. According to the agreement, after Pesach, three appraisers will assess the value of the state’s chometz and Jaber will then have the opportunity to complete the transaction and buy Israel’s chometz. If he is unable or not interested in completing the transaction, the chometz will be returned to the sellers.

The first part of the ceremony opened with the presentation of an authorization letter from the Finance Ministry to the Chief Rabbanim which granted them responsibility for the state’s chometz and authorized them to sell it.

At the ceremony, Rav Yitzchak Yosef addressed this year’s chometz controversy, which triggered the likely dissolution of the coalition.  “At the time, I warned that people will avoid being hospitalized on Pesach…so the Supreme Court gave an order that [chometz] is allowed, but didn’t say that it’s required,” Rav Yosef said. “That’s why I call on the hospitals in the country and also on those who are hospitalized or come to visit to consider the feelings of others and avoid bringing chometz into hospitals.”

“Our country has existed for 73 years and we have a status quo – that everyone respects each other and tradition. So why violate tradition? Therefore, I and my colleague Chief Rabbi Lau call on the public not to bring chometz into hospitals, to respect the feelings of the people who are shomer the mesorah. There are people who aren’t shomer Shabbat but are very strict about chometz – most of the Jewish community in Eretz Yisrael are mapkid on chometz. Therefore we request from the public to consider the feelings of the majority of  the Am and of each other.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)