Dei’ahVedibur:

With the blessings of Maran HaRav Eliashiv shlita this year a mechiras chometz will be conducted for business owners and neighborhood residents by the Association of Neighborhood Rabbis of Jerusalem. The sale will be carried out by HaRav Binyomin Adler, who was in charge of the sale at the Jerusalem Rabbinate for many years under HaRav Y. Kulitz zt”l, as well as by HaRav Y. Efrati, HaRav A. Schlesinger, HaRav D. Yosef and other prominent rabbonim. Recently, representatives of Jerusalem’s neighborhood rabbonim met for a special gathering during which it was decided to hold an independent mechiras chometz for the city’s business owners and residents, based on the blessings and encouragement of HaRav Eliashiv. Shortly before the decision was reached, one of the rabbonim employed by the Jerusalem Religious Council (Moatza Datit) paid a visit to Maran and was told that it is prohibited for him to cooperate with the mechiras chometz carried out by the Religious Council. HaRav Eliashiv holds that the Religious Council is intended as an administrative tool to serve the rabbonim in their work. Because the Jerusalem Religious Council acts against the opinion of the rabbonim, from a halachic standpoint its activities are posul. When Agudas Yisroel of America held a Yarchei Kallah at a Jerusalem hotel, he instructed them to hire private mashgichim. Likewise he has now rejected the Jerusalem Rabbinate’s mechiras chometz under the current conditions.