Former chief rabbi dies after illness - Haaretz

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Sat., September 29, 2007 ,

Israel Time: 01:15 (EST+7)

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Former chief rabbi dies after illness

By Nadav Shragai

Former chief rabbi Abraham Shapira, 96, died yesterday after an illness.

Students at yeshivas and religious schools, both Haredi and Zionist, had prayed for Shapira's health.

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Shapira was the chairman of the Merkaz Harav (Rabbinic Center) Yeshiva.

Rabbi Shapira, who was Israel's chief rabbi from 1983 to 1993, was seen at Rosh Hashanah services at the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva, sitting in a wheelchair and breathing from an oxygen tank. At the end of the service he went home, and was not seen in public after that. During the Fast of Gedaliah, a day after Rosh Hashanah, thousands prayed for him at the Western Wall.

Along with Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, Rabbi Shapira was the leading adjudicator of Jewish law among the religious Zionist movement. Tens of thousands of people adhere to his rulings.

Shapira will be remembered as one of Israel's most political chief rabbis. During the Oslo Accords, Rabbi Shapira ruled that handing over territories, even as part of a peace agreement, was against Jewish law.

He also called on soldiers to refuse orders, an instruction he reiterated many times over the years, including during the disengagement from Gaza in 2005.

Shapira was born in Jerusalem and studied at the Etz Haim and Hebron yeshivas. In 1956, at age 45, he was sworn in as a judge at the Great Rabbinic Court in Jerusalem. In 1971, he was appointed head of the court. In 1980 he was elected to the chief rabbi council, and three years later, along with Rabbi Eliyahu, he was appointed chief rabbi.

During his tenure, Shapira had a very hands-on approach, working to instate rabbis he favored as rabbinic judges and making many controversial statements on local religious and political issues. He was considered the unofficial spiritual leader of the National Religious Party.

Rabbi Shapira is survived by four sons: Shlomo Zalman, Ben Zion and rabbis Yaakov Elazar and Shmuel Zvi Shapira.

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