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.
DeleteRackman starting kiruv in 1960
ReplyDeleteRabbi Emanuel Rackman, president of the Rabbinical Council of America, told the 25th annual convention of the Orthodox body here today that there must be “a revitalization of Jewish life in the United States and Israel.
https://www.jta.org/archive/orthodox-leader-calls-for-revitalization-of-jewish-life
America, until recently, was a nearly unprecedented challenge to Jewish survival. Like pre-communist China there was no vigorous or official Jew hatred. The method Jews used for centuries to survive Chrisian and Muslim hatred simply didn't work. Now Judaism had to compete with a competing framework that wasn't out to destroy it but offered its own version of a decent, meaningful life and Judaism didn't have an answer for that.
DeleteAny hareidi Gedolim learn 24 blatt a day?
DeleteR. Zalman Nehemiah mentions that R. Goren would complete seven pages of Talmud a day, and in this way would finish the Talmud in a year. In his autobiography, R. Goren mentions that it was R. Moshe Mordechai Epstein, the Rosh Yeshiva of the Chevron Yeshiva, who recommended to the young Shlomo Gorontchik that he learn seven blatt a day. R. Epstein said that this was what he himself did, and he recommended that R. Goren do this in the morning, while in the afternoon he study the Talmud in depth. This was not long after R. Goren entered the yeshiva, when he was not yet twelve years old.[2] Incredibly, he began learning seven blatt a day, and he tells us that during the winter he finished Yevamot twelve times. He also tells us that as he got older he would do 24 blatt a day with Rashi and Tosafot.
How does this statement show that this started Kiruv?.
DeleteAre you claiming that his statement galvanized or initiated the kiruv movfement or at least informed people of the issue meaning without it there would have been no kiruv movement?! Obviously nonsense!
If not what are you claiming?
There was no "kiruv" in that era from the yeshiva welt. Kiruv had actually been started 50 years earlier by Rav Kook, going to secular communities. Rav Goren spent most of his career as the Chaplain of the army - that is kiruv by definition, and indeed he started to get criticism for being in that position. Rackman was a chaplain in the US army in WW2, which mean she was interacting with Jewish soldiers.
DeleteHis statement was a program for outreach to the neglected communities in the west.
The gedolim opposed participation in the Synagogue Council of America. Rackman told me that Rav Eliezer Silver - to whom he was close - told him "don't listen to them!"
So the point is that he was involved in kiruv before it became fashionable amongst hareidim.
Note, that kiruv is not the same in each group. Ohr sameach , for example, do not do tefillin campaigns in the streets. Chabad do not do computer code seminars the way Aish do. In the 50s and 60s, the challenge was Conservative - so he was involved in presenting orthodoxy as something that could be seen as modern and relevant.
Great Controversy in Israeli Batei Din - The Langer Case Daf Hayomi today:
ReplyDeleteAnd Rabbi Ḥanina says: A person injures his finger below, on earth, only if they declare about him on high that he should be injured, as it is stated: It is of the Lord that a man’s goings are established; and a man, what does he understand of his way (see Psalms 37:23 and Proverbs 20:24).
Beautiful. The sources 1) Psalms 37:23 The steps of a man are made firm by the Lord, when He delights in his way. 2) Proverbs 20:24 A man’s steps are decided by the Lord: What does a man know about his own way?
BTW, TIAA is still paying me only 55% my pension from teaching 17 years in NYC (the last 3 at Lehman College 1988-1991) May 2026 $1,388. Thanks for asking. This is not fair. I make motions every month claiming 100% ownership with Yemima my beneficiary. Yes I have 9 children and 20 grandchildren thank God. Susan, my first wife, refused to join me to make Aliya 1991. I had a lawyer, Ian Anderson, who told me to come to Brooklyn court hearing before the late Judge Rigler and Law Clerk Larry Rothbart; which I did late October 1992. Susan was adamant she wanted a get, which she accepted at Rabbi Ralbag’s Brooklyn court February 17, 1993. I don’t know why, then and even today, why Susan wanted the get? Proverbs 20:24 A man’s steps are decided by the Lord: What does a man know about his own way? I hear nothing from TIAA, Susan, the NY courts, NY Commission on Judicial Conduct; but I do get UPS receipts of delivery of my legal papers.