Chief Rabbi Yitzchok Yosef demanded that the attorney general cancel new rules for the election of city rabbonim.
“There is serious concern that these rules, signed hastily with no professional deliberation, are meant to serve political purposes which need not be detailed here,” Rav Yosef warned of new rules authorized by former religious affairs minister Matan Kahana.
Rav Yosef’s complaints included the following:
1) According to the rules, the board will elect only one rov for certain towns, breaking with the longtime norm of one Ashkenazi and one Sephardi rov for every town.
2) An option to appoint secular judges to chair the voting committee, instead of dayonim, is “an attempt to secularize the rabbinical institution and turn it from being a halachic spiritual institution to an institution devoid of any spiritual content, through the appointment of rabbonim mita’am (unqualified rabbis elected for political interests).”
3) Substituting shul representatives on the voting board with city council representatives “indicates a politicization of the process and the transformation of the rabbinical institution into laughingstock, which will not be recognized by the general public.”
4) Integration of “female rabbis” (women knowledgeable in halacha or heads of Torah institutions) in the electing body in slots heretofore reserved for rabbonim “means to turn the rabbinical institution into a Reform institution in every way, the violation of the status quo in the State of Israel, and a serious breach never seen before, which may nullify the legitimacy of the rov thus appointed.”
5) A new, “absurd” rule that the committee can nullify a candidate solely on the murky grounds of “suitability for the position” will enable a committee comprised mostly of politicians to “invalidate candidates as it pleases in accordance with the political opinions of mayors or ministers, and will turn Israeli rabbonim into conciliators who do the will of the government.”
6) Limiting the tenure of rabbonim to 10 years “completely neutralizes the rov’s independence to rule according to the dictates of his conscience, without any influence or external political pressure.”
7) The purpose of new rules leading to the early retirement of many city rabbonim is “to alter the face of the rabbinate in Israel and turn Israeli rabbonim into rabbonim mita’am.”
Rav Yosef concluded that consultations about the new rules did not include the chief rabbis or the Chief Rabbinical Council of Israel. Also, no one consulted with representatives of the city rabbonim or with shul representatives, who are to be removed from the voting panel.
he is a huge gadol
Zionism is diametrically opposed to Judaism.
It’s the same evil Matan Kahana who was the one behind last year’s massacre in Meron.
Rabbi Yosef shlita: KEEP STRONG. IF YOU CHAS VESHALOM GIVE IN TO A SINGLE NON-HALACHIC RULE, KLAL YISRAEL IS LOST. Abiding by this rasha’s rule is like going to a secular/non-Jewish court.