When Chava seeked to remarry, the status of her children became known, and they were declared Mamzerim by the Beit Din. This status was upheld until 1966, when Chanoch Langer, then a soldier in the IDF, approached Beit Din to get married. When the Beit Din ruled he was a Mamzer, he brought the case to the Supreme Rabbinical Court of Appeals. He argued that Avraham Borokovsky did not undergo a valid conversion and that he was still a practicing Christian. Borokovky’s rabbi, however, testified he was a regular attendee in Shul on Shabbat, and Borokovsky was able to answer some basic questions about Yahadut while unable to answer some others. After multiple hearings, the high Beit Din, composed of leading Torah authorities Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, Rav Sha'ul Israeli and Rav Ovadiah Yosef concurred that the Langer children were, unfortunately, Mamzerim, based on the fact that Avraham Borokovsky was assumed to have had a Kosher Geirut since he had been witnessed performing Mitzvot. [1]
Upon election, Rav Goren approached his Sephardic counterpart Rav Ovadiah Yosef to join a Beit Din to review the Langer case. Rav Ovadiah, who had sat on the original hearing, refused to hear the case again as he felt the matter had been resolved. As a result, Rav Goren took matters into his own hand, and formed a Beit Din that reversed the ruling of the past Batei Din who had ruled on the case. However, in order to maintain confidentiality, Rav Goren did not disclose the fellow members of his Beit Din.
Rav Goren later faced severe criticism in light of his ruling. Rav Elyashiv, who had ruled in the original case, left the Rabbinate Beit Din system after Rav Goren’s decision, as he felt that his ruling violated Halachic norms. A group of top tier Rabbanim including Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, Rav Yechezkel Abramsky, Rav Yaakov Kanievsky, Rav Eliezer Menachem Man Shach and Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz condemned the decision as consisting of “lies and deception” and that the Psak “endangers the survival of the nation.” [7] The Lubavitcher Rebbe also called for Rabbi Goren’s resignation. [8]
The Rebbe's criticism was the mildest, it simply asked Goren to resign because he believed the Government had undue influence on him.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.jta.org/archive/lubavitcher-rebbe-to-goren-resign
Rav Goren has a book of essays on Torat HaMedina. He mentions that he had a discussion with the Rebbe on the halachic status of the State of Israel. The Rebbe held like the principle of the Rambam (in one of his shorashim in intro to the Yad) that there is no halachic status until the Moshiach and a Sanhedrin permit wars and building the Temple.
ReplyDeleteRav Goren held that the Yerushalmi in Maaser Sheni states that it is possible for the Temple to be rebuilt before the Moshiach as well as wars etc being fought.
This was the machloket and source of scandal between the Hareidim and Rav Goren. Had nothing to do with giur or mamzerut.
Lubavitch has a simple system - nothing happens until the Rebbe resurrects, announces he's Moshiach and then bang! 770 flies to the Har Habayis, lands and tranmogrifies into the Beis HaMikdash and the redemption is done. They insist that this is the only acceptable understanding of what will happen.
DeleteReading other seforim like Derishas Tzion, the Gemara and, um, the Bible itself, show that it's actually not that way.
Bottom line: Rav Goren, zt"l, was a major posek but there has been an ongoing effort to define him solely by the Langer scandal and ignore his gadlus.
They used to claim that the Rebbe has made everyone frum, as per the Rambam's identifiers. When pointed out to them that it has not happened, they would say "oh, it says yikof", he will do so in the future.
DeleteR Goren's autobiography mentions how he was attacked by Lubavitch in Israel as well/ He said that the Rebbe was angry at him because he stood against the rebbe's [excellent] candidate for Chief Rabbi [Rav Zevin ztl].
Don't forget that the rebbes of Lubavitch, maybe starting with the Alter Rebbe who never actually was in Lubavitch all viewed themselves as the Nasi haDor whose rule was to be accepted by everyone. So no wonder the Rebbe, z"l, was mad at Rav Goren, zt"l. In his eyes, he was mored b'malchus.
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