November 28, 2013
http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=4898
 |
There was hardly a murmur when
former Chief Rabbi Metzger was arrested for the second time and placed
under house arrest on suspicion of money laundering, bribery and
obstruction of justice. This lack of reaction to such a scandalous event
reflects the depths to which the Israeli rabbinate has descended. Yet,
at the same time and despite a lamentable absence of spiritual
leadership, there has been an extraordinary renewal of interest in
Jewish religious values in recent years throughout Israeli society.
In its early days, the country
was dominated by aggressive secularism. Observant Jews were viewed with
disdain and there were harrowing tales of young immigrants from North
African religious families diverted to secular educational institutions
designed to wean them away from “religious superstition”.
Later years regrettably saw
many of the formerly moderate religious Zionists becoming obsessed with a
messianic vision of retaining a Greater Israel but neglecting the
broader religious issues affecting society. Against this background, the
ultra-Orthodox incitement against Zionism intensified, increasing the
polarization between the religious and secular.
Yet despite this and the
immigration over the past two decades from the former Soviet Union of a
million preponderantly secular Jews, mainstream Israelis are seeking a
Judaism that is meaningful and relevant. This is reflected both in the
mushrooming of institutes of Jewish learning and the increasing number
of observant MKs amongst most parties in the Knesset.
Two principal factors have
contributed to this. Firstly, unlike Ashkenazim, secularized Jews from
Sephardi backgrounds were nurtured by their families to respect Jewish
tradition and retain many family and lifecycle rituals. The
non-observant Sephardi Jew would frequently attend Bet Knesset on
Shabbat to say Kaddish for a parent even if he subsequently went to a
football match, and he would selectively adhere to Jewish rituals such
as fasting on Yom Kippur and eating matza on Pesach.
The second was the rise of
nationalist political parties which displayed respect of Jewish
tradition, in contrast to the passionate opposition to religion by many
of the socialists.
However, the state religious
leadership regrettably not only failed to respond to these trends but an
endless spate of ethical and social scandals involving rabbis has
brought it to an all-time low and made it difficult to identify more
than a handful of rabbis worthy of being considered inspiring spiritual
leaders.
The Chief Rabbinate and
religious councils are today dominated by the ultra-Orthodox, many of
whom are aggressively anti-Zionist and refuse to even recite prayers for
the state or the IDF in their synagogues. They lack both the desire and
skills to communicate with average Israelis and are separatists who
regard worldly knowledge as an assimilatory process. Maimonides,
recognized as a role model for a pious Jew steeped in Torah and
worldliness, would be denied a teaching role in most of today’s haredi
educational institutions.
They have spawned a community
whose values conflict with the national interest on two key issues:
economics and military service. The haredi yeshivas’ directive to
students to devote their lives exclusively to learning, at the expense
of obtaining a trade or profession, has created a dependence on state
welfare that is an aberration in Jewish history. This blatantly defies
Maimonides dictum “Whoever thinks he can study Torah and not work, and
relies on charity, profanes God’s name”.
The unwillingness to fulfill
their civic obligations by serving in the IDF or at least participate in
some form of national service is an anathema to the mainstream Israeli
experience. An example of the shameful depths to which opposition to the
draft has descended was a primitive outburst of the former Chief Rabbi
who claimed, “When Yeshiva attendance is low, as on holiday evenings or
prior to the Shabbat, more IDF soldiers are killed”.
The Chief Rabbinate sets the
tone for religion in the State. Whereas it could have spearheaded a new
religious mission, instead the ultra-orthodox - who until recently held
the institution in contempt - hijacked the Rabbinate. They have
exploited it as a vehicle to further their interests and impose
excessively stringent interpretations of halacha regarding the
fundamental issues of marriage, divorce, conversion, burials, Kashrut
and more. Of late they have also become obsessed with gender separation
and issues of “modesty”.
Their stringent attitude
towards marriage has led to thousands of Israelis traveling abroad each
year for civil marriages in order to avoid dealing with the Rabbinate.
Recently, a woman converted by Rabbi Adin Steinsalz, one of the world’s
outstanding Torah scholars, was obliged to marry abroad because her
conversion was not considered legal in Israel.
There are 350,000 Israelis,
including young soldiers in the IDF, who are not halachically Jewish and
who have been actively dissuaded by the Rabbinate’s conversion
tribunals from becoming Jews. Alas, there is no Ashkenazi or Sephardi
rabbi today of the stature of the late Rabbi Ovadia Yosef who refused to
be intimidated and courageously addressed the halachic problem of the
Jewishness of the Ethiopian aliya.
The current leadership of the
Chief Rabbinate itself symbolizes the decline of the institution. In the
past it was headed by distinguished Zionist rabbis like Rabbi Herzog
and Rabbi Goren who were certainly more learned and no less pious than
recent incumbents.
Rabbi David Lau, the haredi son
of former chief Rabbi Israel Lau, was recently elected Ashkenazi Chief
Rabbi. It was subsequently disclosed that he had entered into a pact
with the extreme ultra-Orthodox Rabbi Sherman, giving him the power to
veto any changes in the Rabbinate’s position on conversion, marriage or
divorce. Rabbi Sherman had previously achieved notoriety when he had
retroactively disqualified thousands of conversions recognized by the
Chief Rabbinate – a move unprecedented in Jewish history.
But these problems extend even beyond the ultra-Orthodox
anti-Zionists and encompass “hardal” elements within the Tekuma faction
of the religious Zionist Bayit Yehudi party – who whilst totally
committed to Zionism and excelling in military service - share similar
approaches with the haredim on halachic stringency and a worldview.
Their role model is Rabbi Dov Lior, Kiryat Arba’s Chief Rabbi, who
described the mass murderer Baruch Goldstein, perpetrator of the 1994
Cave of the Patriarch’s massacre in Hebron, as “holier than all the
martyrs of the Holocaust”.
Despite promises to launch
major reforms in the rabbinical arena, Bayit Yehudi has been remarkably
silent on these issues. Under pressure from his right wing elements,
Minister Naftali Bennet seems to have soft-pedaled from his commitment
to involve the haredim in the workforce and contribute towards the draft
or national service. Moreover, if implemented, the initiative by some
of the “hardal” elements to form a religious Zionist counterpart to the
Shas Council of Torah sages, would spell the death knell of the
traditional religious Zionist movement which adamantly insisted that
rabbis should not be in a position to veto or influence political
decisions.
One major positive change has
been the passage of the “Tzohar Bill” which allows couples to register
with rabbis of their preference for their marriages.
Tzohar is an extraordinarily
important and constructive organization of devoted rabbis who reach out
to the disenfranchised masses in their effort to imbue compassion and
understanding and counteract the prevailing negative rabbinical image.
Other dynamic organizations like Bet Morasha and Itim are also seeking
to build bridges and actively address such major issues as conversion
that have been woefully neglected and even violently opposed.
If the status quo is
maintained, we will suffer further polarization. With haredi parties
currently lacking the political leverage to impose their will on the
nation, there is now an opportunity to introduce major reforms and
bypass the bureaucratic and corrupt rabbinical administration.
The Chief Rabbinate should be
decentralized. This will prevent cronyism, allow reform of the current
structure of the religious councils and their grossly inflated salaries
and enable individual Jewish communities to create their own rabbinical
tribunals (batei din). Haredim should be free to practice their
lifestyle but not to impose their standards on the nation. Orthodox
Jewry survived throughout thousands of years in exile scattered in
different parts of the world without a centrally controlled rabbinate.
We have the opportunity today
of establishing a compassionate Zionist rabbinate, well versed in
worldly knowledge as in sacred texts, to respond to the needs of the
entire nation.
The writer’s website can be viewed at www.wordfromjerusalem.com.He may be contacted at ileibler@leibler.com
This column was originally published in the Jerusalem Post and Israel Hayom
Some of my recent articles:
Chaotic Government Undermines Our Global Standing (November 21, 2013)
No Illusions Concerning the Obama Administration (November 10, 2013)
An End to Jewish Life in the Diaspora? (November 4, 2013)
Turkey’s Erdogan - an Autocratic Islamist Bigot (October 28, 2013)
No comments:
Post a Comment