{"id":28808,"date":"2018-08-06T14:07:55","date_gmt":"2018-08-06T11:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toravoda.org.il\/?p=28808"},"modified":"2018-08-06T14:07:55","modified_gmt":"2018-08-06T11:07:55","slug":"68-israelis-support-civil-marriage-poll-finds-2-2-2-2-3-2-3-3-2-2-2-2-3-2-2-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toravoda.org.il\/en\/68-israelis-support-civil-marriage-poll-finds-2-2-2-2-3-2-3-3-2-2-2-2-3-2-2-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Klal Yisrael Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published By Rabbi Avi Shafran\u00a0

,\u00a0Click here for the article<\/a><\/p>\n

A \u201cscandalous letter\u201d in the files of Israel\u2019s official rabbinate \u201creflects ignorance,\u201d delivers \u201ca severe blow\u201d to Israel\u2019s relations with Diaspora Jewry and \u201cabandons the religious system in Israel to haredi hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thus spake Assaf Benmelech, whose organization, \u201cNe\u2019emanei Torah Va\u2019Avodah,\u201d seeks to promote \u201copen and tolerant discourse\u201d within Orthodoxy.<\/p>\n

Indeed.<\/p>\n

Mr. Benmelech, a lawyer, is representing one Akiva Herzfeld, who was ordained by the \u201cOpen Orthodox\u201d institution Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (\u201cYCT\u201d) and whose certification of a woman\u2019s Jewish status was rejected by the Israeli Rabbanut. The letter at issue, he asserts, based its rejection on the rabbi\u2019s affiliation with \u201cmodern Orthodoxy.\u201d<\/p>\n

That assertion has led to loud criticism from America, where the official Israeli rabbinate is being characterized as maintaining a \u201cblacklist\u201d and bowing to what one critic called \u201cthe more extremist elements among them\u201d the dreaded\u00a0chareidim, of course.<\/p>\n

Mr. Benmelech\u2019s characterization of YCT as representative of \u201cmodern Orthodoxy\u201d does a grave disservice to Jews and institutions that have worn that latter label for decades. The movement with which the lawyer\u2019s client is affiliated has indeed tried of late to shed its titular skin, exchanging \u201cOpen\u201d for \u201cModern.\u201d But (to shamelessly mix wildlife metaphors) the leopard has not changed its spots.<\/p>\n

The \u201cOpen Orthodox\u201d movement, whatever it calls itself, is, simply put, not Orthodox at all. That is to say that it is theologically indistinguishable from the early Conservative movement, which at least had the honesty to admit that it was a new, divergent, endeavor.<\/p>\n

The Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah has declared the movement \u201cno different than other dissident movements throughout our history that have rejected [Judaism\u2019s] basic tenets.\u201d<\/p>\n

For its part, the Rabbinical Council of America does not accept YCT\u2019s rabbinic certifications as credentials for membership; neither does the National Council of Young Israel. And\u00a0Roshei Yeshivah\u00a0at Yeshiva University have likewise rejected the appropriateness of \u201cOrthodox\u201d as descriptive of YCT.<\/p>\n

The movement and its supporters\u2019 prevarication is evident too in the use of the word \u201cblacklist\u201d to describe what is, in the end, a simple insistence on standards. Medical students who have not demonstrated the knowledge or ethos needed to earn their accreditation have not been \u201cblacklisted\u201d; they have simply not made the grade. And if a medical association considers a particular medical school to be deficient in its training of doctors, the school\u2019s degrees will not be recognized. It hasn\u2019t been \u201cblacklisted\u201d; it has simply failed to meet the required standard.<\/p>\n

And so, the Israeli rabbinate has every right, and responsibility, to reject the credentials of those affiliated with YCT. Harav Moshe Feinstein,\u00a0zt\u201dl,\u00a0whose\u00a0teshuvos\u00a0are duly cited by YCT leaders when they feel something in the\u00a0Gadol\u2019s decisions comports with some position they espouse, was clear that a mere affiliation with the Conservative or Reform movement invalidates a rabbi\u2019s ability to offer testimony (Igros Moshe,\u00a0Yoreh De\u2019ah\u00a01:160).<\/p>\n

Over most of Jewish history, individual Rabbanim\u2019s testimonies were all it took to establish Jewish credentials, and\u00a0geirus\u00a0and\u00a0gittin\u00a0overseen by a\u00a0beis din\u00a0were not generally challenged.<\/p>\n

There were days, too, though, when\u00a0halachah-observant Jews could judge the\u00a0kashrus\u00a0of a processed food by just reading the ingredients.<\/p>\n

Today, though, Jewish life is more complicated. Food products contain a laundry list of obscure colorings, flavorings and preservatives, from a multitude of sources. That\u2019s why\u00a0kashrus\u00a0organizations were established, and why they are necessar<\/p>\n

Tragically, in America today, there are, in reality, a multitude of \u201cJewish peoples,\u201d born of the variety of definitions here of \u201cJewishness.\u201d What is called \u201cJewish religious pluralism\u201d has yielded an irreparable fracture of the American Jewish community. Innocent people, due to non-halachic conversions and invalid\u00a0gitten, have become victims of the \u201cmulti-Judaisms\u201d American model.<\/p>\n

That disastrous situation is largely not the case today in Israel, due to the single standard upheld by the country\u2019s rabbinate, no matter how imperfect the institution\u2019s bureaucracy may seem in some eyes. Were things otherwise, the largest Jewish community in the world, the one residing in Eretz Yisrael, would be as divided and incoherent,\u00a0chalilah, as the American one. The maintenance of halachic standards are what have prevented that frightening scenario.<\/p>\n

Hamodia\u00a0readers know that, of course. But our fellow American Jews need to realize that, if they truly care about\u00a0Klal Yisrael,\u00a0they need to move past umbrage-taking and political positioning and confront the Jewish future with honesty.<\/p>\n

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