My translation of a letter of Rav Moshe Sternbuch, shlita which appeared in the Yated. This is to protest the horrible decision to permit thousands of non-Jewish soldiers who serve in the Israeli army to be given the full status of Jews. This despite the indisputable fact that these soldiers have never agreed to observe mitzvos. In addition the majority of the conversion instructors are Reform or secular Jew who have taught them views that are total heresy. There is absolutely no justification to permit these conversions. In addition issuing a halachic ruling that these are valid converts is itself a terrible chillul haShem because it gives the false message that with proper pressure it is possible to change our holy eternal Torah We today are in great danger surrounded by enemies and therefore we are in great need of Heavenly mercy. Our Sages (Yevamos 109b) state that accepting gerim is an enterprise fraught with danger. And at a time when Jews do not have the proper relationship between them - the Divine Presence departs from us as is stated in the fourth chapter of Kiddushin. If we remain silent to this great travesty then we are truly endangering our existence in Israel. Therefore we need to be aware that if we stand by silently it is tantamount to not keeping the Torah. On the other hand all those who act and make efforts are included in those who are blessed. Therefore we need to encourage and praise all activities to ameliorate this matter and support those who make efforts to improve the situation. Our spiritual welfare is truly dependent upon how successful we are in dealing with this matter
Rav Shternbuch shlit"a is 100% absolutely correct! (Not that he needs anyones haskama.)
ReplyDeleteThe zionist enterprise has been in the fake conversion manufacturing business for a very long time.
Where are the Raavad's comments on the gaavad's sending letters to Weingarten?
ReplyDeleteMany more things happened where he stood by silently.
ReplyDeleteSo why is exactely this the biggest problem?
This letter is not very convincing. It makes sweeping statements that are not proven anywhere, like "This despite the indisputable fact that these soldiers
ReplyDeletehave never agreed to observe mitzvos."
I think it would be more constructive to look at the giurim and to inspect them on a one by one basis and to point the finger at every single case he does not deem worthy.
But I suppose this would be too much work. He says he does not want to "stand idly by", but he is not ready to examine thousands of cases either....
The letterhead says that rabbi Shternbuch beis din is for the ashkenazi communites. Rabbi Yosef and Amar are not Ashkenazi and can posek their way. They eat rice on passover and rabbi Shternbuch does not.
ReplyDeleteThere were cases where beis shamai considet people as mamzerim and beis hillel did not and permitted marriage to those people.
Woe, woe!!!! What's this about secular instructors for the conversion course? I hate to ask but where are the sources for this?
ReplyDeleteSome bold claims are being made regarding conversions, yet if one looks at the history , one sees the clear contradictions and hypocrisy involved.
ReplyDeleteIf you go back 38 years, when R Shlomo Goren became Ashk. Cief rabbi, and R' Ovadiah Yosef the sef. Chief rabbi.
There was a Bet Din comprising of 3 Gedolei Torah, including R Shaul Yisraeli (Mizrahi), R, Yosef, and Rav Elyashiv. They held children of Langer were mamzerim, becasue the mother had not gotten a divorce fom a "ger" called Borokovski.
R' Goren wrote a Teshuva which disqualified the giur of Borokovsky, based on the fact that he knew nothing about Judaism, could not complete "Shema Yisrael..", was completely treif, and had no proof that he ever converted, or knew the name of the rav that converted him (in Europe).
The Entire Haredi world was up in arms, since the IDF Chief Rabbi Goren had disqualified a conversion. The Haredi world said it is impossible to ever cancel a conversion.
The only person who is consistent in this is R' Yosef. He hasnt changed his position in 40 years.
In the Haredi (ashkenazi) world, the positon of Rav Elyashiv is self contradictory.
So is it a case that Haredim can do whatever they like, even if they call others apikorsim when they do they same exact thing?
Whilst I have the utmost respect for R' Shternbuch, the translation given in English is inaccurate.
ReplyDeleteThe Letter in Hebrew makes reference to "Tzeva" , whereas the translation says "Israeli Army".
I do not wish to say anything negative about HaGaon R' Sternbuch. However, I have a lot of things to say about the Eda Haharedis. This Eda doe snot recognize the legitimacy of a modern State of Israel, under any circumstances. It is essentially the same ideology of the NK. Like Iran, it does not use the term Israel, but refers to Medinat Yisrael as the Zionist entity.
And whilst the Tzadikim of the Eda have distanced themselves from Neturei Karta, the same NK went to Tehran to the Holocaust denial conference, and some of these NK people actually denied that 6 million were killed, reducing the number to 1 million.
Interesting that for all the rhetoric, we see very little halacha in this letter. Indeed, this doesn't even seem to be a real psak anyway.
ReplyDelete