The Chief Rabbis’ Shame

by Editorial Committee

In recent years the Chief Rabbinate of Israel has become an embarrassment even to the small portion of the Jewish world that honors and respects the office, namely religious Zionists. While the haredi (fervently Orthodox and non-Zionist) and chasidic segments of Orthodoxy have little use for the state-run agency, which controls religious matters from marriage and divorce to kosher certification, non-Orthodox and secular Jews harbor a deep resentment for the Chief Rabbinate, seeing it as closed-minded and restrictive, rather than welcoming.
Now a controversy has further upset the one segment that had supported the Chief Rabbinate, pitting a group of Zionist Orthodox rabbis against the rulings of the Chief Rabbinate.
The issue of the moment is the shmitta year, or sabbatical, which began on Rosh HaShanah.

According to the Torah, every seven years the Jews of Israel must “release” the land of ownership and “let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat” (Exodus 23: 10-11). It is a noble principle, but with the creation of the Jewish state and the problems of maintaining an agricultural economy in the modern world, the leading rabbis created a halachic loophole. Called a heter mechira, or permission of sale, it permitted a symbolic sale of Jewish land to a non-Jew for a year, thus allowing Jewish farmers to work the land.
Now, though, after decades, the Chief Rabbis have disallowed the heter mechira and insisted that produce be purchased from non-Jews cultivating non-Jewish land. Some attribute the change of policy to the widespread assumption that the Ashkenazi chief rabbi, Yona Metzger, follows the dictates of the haredi community in general, and Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashuv, 97, in particular, who opposes heter mechira.
As a result, a group of more modern Zionist rabbis, called Tzohar, has decided to defy the Chief Rabbinate and permit heter mechira in order to help the Jewish farmers and bring down the price of produce for consumers.
While the case makes its way through the courts, there is a growing sense of frustration and anger among Orthodox Zionist rabbis here as well as in Israel over the diminished standing of the Chief Rabbinate in recent years. Allegations about the moral and sexual behavior of Rabbi Metzger led to his agreeing not to run for chief rabbi of Tel Aviv. But he later surprised the religious community by running for chief rabbi of Israel instead, which many saw as an act of great chutzpah. Some believe Rabbi Elyashuv helped orchestrate Rabbi Metzger’s victory so as to diminish the stature of the office.
Rabbi Shlomo Amar, the Sephardic chief rabbi, was involved in a scandal two years ago when a 17-year-old haredi boy who was dating the rabbi’s daughter was beaten by members of the rabbi’s immediate family, apparently while the rabbi was in the house.
In addition, the chief rabbis have been criticized for separating themselves from the overwhelming majority of Israeli Jews, not recognizing non-Orthodox movements and not making conversions more readily available, especially to the hundreds of thousands of Russian immigrants married to or living with Jews.
Bottom line, one must ask whether Israelis, the majority of whom feel alienated from and bitter toward religious life, would have a more positive attitude toward Judaism if they didn’t have to deal with a state agency that controlled matters of their personal lives, from marriage to death. And it surely doesn’t help matters when those chosen to represent the height of spiritual character and religious leadership are perceived by most Israelis as uncaring if not downright unethical.

Westchester Jewish Conference

Westchester’s Jewish Community Relations Organization