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Vaad HaRabbonim LeInyonei Giyur reveals ITS agenda (while most of what it says is valid and true, it is sad that the Vaad feels that it must go to war against the Religious Zionist and Modern Orthodox rabbis in these "Geirus Wars" because that will only inspire the other side to fight back even harder, as is the nature of these kinds of struggles:
See Dei'ah Vedibur of 3 Iyar 5768 - May 8, 2008 at
http://chareidi.shemayisraelVaad HaRabbonim LeInyonei Giyur Backs Beis Din Annulment of Conversion
By Yechiel Sever
Following a precedent-setting decision at the Ashdod District Beis Din, headed by Dayan HaRav Avraham Attia, which was certified by the High Rabbinical Court (Beis Din Godol) in Jerusalem, the Vaad HaRabbonim Haolami LeInyonei Giyur founded by HaRav Chaim Kreiswirth zt"l clarified several points related to the matter, to dispel misleading information intended to undermine halachic boundaries set by leading poskim from the previous and present generations. The beis din in Ashdod ruled that conversions performed 15 years ago by Rabbi Chaim Druckman were not done according to halacha since the conversion candidates were not observant in any way.
According to Vaad HaRabbonim, the following points need to be made in order to gain a proper understanding of the issue.
A. Not agreeing — at the time of the conversion — to observe all the mitzvas renders the conversion invalid under all circumstances.
B. The Beis Din determined that presumably the conversion candidate never accepted ol mitzvos, which means the conversion was not annulled — but rather the original conversion was never valid.
C. The Vaad is deeply shocked by various individuals, officials and rabbis associated with the National-Religious camp who claim to cite various sources indicating that prominent dayanim supposedly ruled against the Rambam and the Shulchan Oruch. These individuals muddle the halachic tradition passed down since Har Sinai without demonstrating a minimal understanding of the Rambam and the Shulchan Oruch. Their status is stated explicitly in the Mishneh Torah (Hilchos Talmud Torah, Chap. 6).
D. According to directives from gedolei Yisroel in 5744 (1984), every conversion, whether performed in Eretz Yisroel or abroad, must be checked to ascertain whether the applicant did in fact accept Torah and mitzvas at the time of the conversion. This directive is aimed primarily at city rabbis and marriage registrars, since it is strictly forbidden to list the word "convert" on marriage applications before verifying the validity of the conversion.
E. According to both halacha and the law, every rabbi has the right to reject a conversion that appears dubious and to return the case to the district beis din.
[click the link for the full article]
Opposing view against Rav Sherman's ruling from a Knesset member:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/981965.html
Wed., May 14, 2008 Iyyar 9, 5768
A split from Israeli society
By Menachem Ben Sasson
The Supreme Rabbinic Court's ruling last week, which voided conversions carried out by the rabbinic courts of the Conversion Administration, only speeds up the collapse of rabbinic authority in the state judicial system.
The verdict may be framed in legalese, but it should not be misunderstood. Every one of its 49 pages may be headed "The State of Israel," but the pronouncement represents nothing less than a split from Israeli society, the state and the national justice system.
The rabbinic courts' opponents should be pleased with this verdict and wait patiently for a few others like it to topple the rabbinic court system altogether.
Institutional authority in modern society does not derive merely from an institution's official status, nor from its formal power. It is based mainly on public consensus and the understanding that without proper institutions, people would devour each other.
The Supreme Rabbinic Court's ruling does not only void a specific decision by the conversion court but stipulates that its judges, rabbis Haim Druckman and Yosef Avior, are unfit and all their conversions are null and void. The Rabbinic Court is invalidating a legal instance that derives its formal authority from the same source as the Rabbinic Court - an official state appointment. By so doing, it leads the way to having its own courts treated in a similar fashion.
From now on the demand not only to dismiss rabbinic judges but to declare their verdicts void will come up repeatedly in the Supreme Court. Such a demand is not imaginary. For some time now the claims that rabbinic-court verdicts are not reasonable have been increasing. The Supreme Rabbinic Court's verdict that completely voided a legal instance and its rulings will expose the Supreme Rabbinic Court to the same predicament almost immediately.
But this is only the formal-disciplinary aspect of the debate on the argument against the rabbinic courts. The elimination of their basis for authority is more important. Rabbinic courts have authority by law, along with the democratic majority's consensus to accept their authority in family issues. This authority is given by law, but it has been upheld mainly because it was considered important to preserve national unity. It was assumed that this unity could be preserved by the rabbinate and rabbinic courts, which are supposed to set the public standard for marital affairs.
The loss of confidence in religious institutions is being accelerated mainly because of the distress of non-Jewish immigrants. They were given a partial remedy in the form of the conversion courts. Now the Supreme Rabbinic Court is obstructing the only two ways some 400,000 Israeli citizens can integrate into Israeli society - marriage and conversion.
This obstruction is complete, because the Supreme Rabbinic Court has deprived the state institution dealing with conversion of the authority to carry out its goal not only regarding people waiting to convert, but retroactively, regarding those who have already converted in the legal and agreed procedure.
If these two moves gain political support, they will represent an extremely blatant infraction of the status quo in religious affairs.
This isn't the whole problem. Such a verdict is greatly damaging not only to the public's confidence in the rabbinic establishment, but also to the unity of the religious right-wing public, to whom the Chief Rabbinate's institutions are of value. These institutions cannot afford to renounce such a multitude of believers.
Pulling the rug out from under the feet of yesterday's converts and digging a hole in front of tomorrow's is unacceptable. It will shatter what's left of the public consensus that the Supreme Rabbinic Court is worthy of running family issues in Israel. The court's revoking past and future conversions is tantamount to destroying the house and everyone inside.
MK Menachem Ben Sasson (Kadima) is the chairman of the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee.