https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/320542
Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef strongly criticized Rabbi Chaim Druckman, one of the leading rabbis of the Religious Zionist movement, over his personal support for the authority of municipal rabbis to perform conversions in Israel.
Rabbi Yosef said: "Rabbi Druckman said he agreed that there could be conversions of city rabbis, but only with the consent of the Chief Rabbinate. I wonder about him. How can you agree to this? Rabbi Elyashiv objected to it. My father (Rabbi Ovadia Yosef) objected to it. All the leaders of the generation objected to it. With all due respect to Rabbi Druckman, is he like [my father] when it comes to Torah? Is he like Rabbi Elyashiv? What a gap [exists between him and them] ..."
"So how can you disagree with [my father]? How can you disagree with Rabbi Elyashiv? They are against the [increased powers] for municipal rabbis because they want to give to the municipal rabbis like the rabbi of Shoham. That's their goal, so how can you say 'it's good?' What's good about it? It's the worst, and it must be fought," he said.
A Rav of mine once told me a story about his Rav. His Rav had been looking over a particular teshuva from Rav Moshe, zt"l, and didn't agree with the conclusion. My Rav asked "Well, I guess you can't really disagree with Rav Moshe?" And his Rav answers, "Of course I can disagree. It's just that I better have really good support for that disagreement before I state it."
ReplyDeleteSo does Rav Druckman have that support?
They can disagree for a number of reasons,
ReplyDeletefirstly, there was a great authrotiy named Rav Uziel, who allowed some leniency
secondly, the great authorities that R Yosef names are no longer with us. The the question is whether R Yosef jr is so great himself or not?
In any case, Druckman is oppsoed to the new kahane proposals.
Finally, a Talmid hacham can disagree or act independently, he does nto need to bow to another BD - if he does not sit with them.
Even R Riskin argued against Rav Uziel
ReplyDeleteOf course you can disagree but that doesn't mean you are right or even intelligent to do so
R Riskin?
ReplyDeleteit all depends on the situation.
SOme people have relied on on Rav Uziel.
When there are individual conversions, there appear to be leniencies. Thsi situation has not been faced before, becasue in the diaspora, there were various small communities, so conversion was relatively rare.
The state of Israel has huge population, and everybody hears about everything . Olim come in huge numbers. There are good reasons to assist the conversions, and good reasons not to.
http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2008/05/rav-riskin-rav-goren-supported-chareidi.html
ReplyDeleteAt least according to this authority [Rav Uziel], it would seem that conversion is – if only post facto – a pro-forma ritual of circumcision and ritual immersion which takes effect even without the judges having informed the would-be proselyte of the particulars of his Jewish status. This is the basis of the responsum of UzieI, and this might lead us to believe that acceptance of Commandments is a desirable but not necessary constituent of conversion.
I must strongly disagree with the conclusion, and a more intensive study of the sources will demonstrate that the acceptance of commandments is a far more integral part of conversion than might appear.