The rav of Haifa’s prestigious Technion University, Rabbi Rachamim Zini, is angered over the decision of the institution’s directors, permitting the to’eva that has prompted him to order mezuzos removed from dormitory rooms of same gender couples, now permitted and recognized by the school’s administration.
A number of days ago, the university decided to make dormitory rooms intended for married couple available to the same-gender couples, a move that has resulted in protests.
Rav Zini is taking an active role in the protests against the to’eva, which he and the religious student body members insist mar the campus of the prestigious institute of higher learning, insisting they will not permit the decision to pass.
There have been clashes on campus as a result, with the to’eva activists decrying the rav’s call to remove the mezzos from the rooms of the couples.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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7 Responses
g-d’s name written on the door..what a disgrace. if there were some semblance of busha, just some, these people might be able to do teshuvah. but honestly, isnt it a total stirah to have a mezuzah while doing something the same torah calls toeva?
1. Since when do we hold that doing an aveira in one area prohibits one from doing a mitzvah(unless they are in someway connected, making it a mitsva she’ba be-aveirah). If someone eats cheeseburgers or discusses business on Shabbos, they are still required to put up a mezuzah. Unlike certain goyim who hold it is a toggle between “saved” and “dammed” (one you are a “sinner” you are dammed), we have always held that one is rewarded for the mitsvos one does, and punished for averios one does, and it isn’t for us to know how things are weighed. There is no aveirah that renders a Jew exempt from the mitzvah of mezzuah (or any other mitzvah).
2. Given what the Rav is getting outraged over, it appears he has been ignoring hiloni culture for a great many years. Such behavior is very common among the hilonim. To expect a state institution to get outraged, he might as well complain about not wearing tefillin or not waiting between milk and meat – hilonim engage in that sort of to’eva on a routine basis. The hilonim have been in charge of the yishuv in Eretz Yisrael for about 100 years, and this is what to expect.
Sounds like a great way to encourage them to stay connected… If someone doesnt keep shabbos we dont make them take down their mezzuzah, why should this be any different. We are starting to sound less like Jews and more like Catholics!
#2, right on the money. Shouldn’t these people, whatever their failings, be given the opportunity to do whatever mitzvos they can? We are taking too many steps toward the fundamentalist xtian route, and it is very dangerous.
For me, what has always been beautiful about Yiddishkeit is that we are open and welcoming, even of people with flaws, people who aren’t perfect. We recognize that even the person that sins openly and willingly can be brought back, and that we are not only to believe that, but it is our duty to try to bring it to bear. Pushing people away and telling them that they are not “fit” to be Jewish is not going to help anything. It only hurts us.
@ akuperma- Do you happen to have Mezuzos on your bathroom as well? Or maybe you don’t know the Halacha that a Beis Medrash doesn’t require a Mezuza because of the Seforim contained within it? Whatever the case, the actions occurring inside the room have VERY much to do with the rooms Mezuza requirement.
Akuperma-of course they should take down the mezuzos, bcs thats showing we disagree with them, by doing nothing we’re admiting they don’t care, and if they’re sinning that way, they prob could care less about the mezuzos anyway. Having G-ds name on the door shows it’s a holy place, and that’s not a holy place.
Take em down.
Forget for a second about if you’re “pushing them away from yiddishkeit”, or if it’s required to have a mezuza, or if we need to show that we disagree with them. There’s another point that you’re all missing. It’s a bizayon to the mezuza which could be comes before anything else. This is not a 2 minute decision. It’s more like a big question for a rav (who would weigh the different sides) and not for us to decide!