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Last update - 11:34 30/09/2007 Divorce the Chief Rabbinate By Haaretz Editorial Tags: Tzohar, shmita, Kashrut  The declaration of religious Zionist rabbis, led by the rabbis of the modern Orthodox Tzohar organization, that they would grant kashrut certificates to any farmer or marketer hurt by dependence on the "sale permit" of the shmita (sabbatical) year, comes at the right time. The Chief Rabbinate has misused its powers regarding shmita, as it has done with other important issues (especially husbands who refuse to grant their wives a religious divorce, as well as conversion). The Chief Rabbinate should have had the good of the general public in mind and continued to support the solution to the sabbatical year that has been the accepted practice in this country since the beginning of the Zionist settlement: Work the land as usual by selling it to non-Jews. Any other halakhic solution deals a critical blow to farmers or consumers and does not suit the general public. Instead of the time-honored practice, local rabbinates in some major cities, first and foremost Jerusalem, have threatened to revoke the kashrut certificates of those who depended on the permit - a permit that the Chief Rabbinate at least formally continues to support. This is an absurd situation that should not be tolerated due to some ostensible "autonomy of the municipal rabbinates." Municipal rabbinates have the right to allow observers of the sabbatical year to act according to their understanding of halakha. They do not have the right to force on the general public an arguably stricter interpretation of the sabbatical year, while scorning other considerations. Since the Chief Rabbinate refuses to fulfill its duty in this matter, the religious Zionist rabbis have done well to volunteer to take its place. They should not be afraid of future attempts to pressure them and of musings of how dare they strike at the institution established by the spiritual father of religious Zionism, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. A Chief Rabbinate that opposes Kook's most important halakhic innovation (the sale permit), and thus hurts the public in the name of a narrow religious interpretation, is a Chief Rabbinate whose official status is a misrepresentation. Tho rabbis seeking a way around it are the ones presenting the real public stance. Advertisement Moreover, it is to be hoped, as a number of Tzohar rabbis have said, that initiating an alternative system in the matter of the sabbatical year is only the first step in detouring the Chief Rabbinate on other even more important matters - like the establishment of alternative religious courts on matters of divorce and conversion. (There are "special rabbinic courts" for divorce and conversion, but the Chief Rabbinate's control over them is still decisive.) After all, these courts render judgment on issues not only of monetary significance but also of life and death. The ultra-Orthodox leaders controlling the Chief Rabbinate will only realize that their halakhic strictness could boomerang if the public, even the religious public, moves to establish internal systems to bypass it, granting it the final divorce decree it deserves. This activity should also restore religious Zionism to its central historic role (instead of the extreme political role it has taken on itself for the past 40 years): not "a bridge between the Orthodox and the secular" along the lines of the saccharine Tzav Pius dialogue organization, but rather a bridge between Judaism and Israeliness, translating the great, millennia-old halakhic and spiritual world of Jewish heritage to meet the reality and needs of contemporary Israeli sovereignty. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Survivors and pioneers Yad Vashem exhibit shows how Holocaust survivors helped shape Israel's identity Researching bacon Lahav's pig breeding gained widespread notoriety because of its legal loophole.   1.   Divorce Tzohar. 11:46  |  Another Jew 30/09/07   2.   Divorce the secularists? why? they are brothers. 11:56  |  Joe Jew 30/09/07   3.   Ho hum. who can divorce what? 12:00  |  Another Jew 30/09/07   4.   Secularists pin their hopes on the ignorant 12:01  |  A jew 30/09/07   5.   Divorce? when was the marriage??? 12:08  |  Alexa 30/09/07   6.   Silly Editorial - The Rabbis of Tzohar have no status 12:29  |  S Judah 30/09/07   7.   THE SAME RABBIS THAT TEMPORARILY GAVE THE HETER ARE REVOKING IT. 12:33  |  Ben 30/09/07   8.   Re Ben say it simpler 13:45  |  Not a rabbi 30/09/07   9.   LET THE LAND REST. STOP THE MUMBO JUMBO!!!!!!!!! 15:40  |  isaac haroun 30/09/07   10.   tommy lapid once said, hitler convinced world 16:19  |  topanga 30/09/07   11.   Divorce is harsh - Rebuke more appropriate. 16:32  |  Pray for them 30/09/07   12.   Allies by the Grace of God 18:11  |  Never forget 30/09/07   13.   Chief Rabbinate 18:40  |  Golan 30/09/07   14.   topanga is right 18:56  |  adi 30/09/07   15.   Haaretz editorial is nonsense 19:47  |  Leo 30/09/07   16.   Haaretz editorial is nonsense 19:55  |  Leo 30/09/07   17.   Haaretz editorial is nonsense (II) 19:56  |  Leo 30/09/07   18.   Haaretz editorial is nonsense (II) 20:06  |  Leo 30/09/07   19.   Topanga and hate: did you burn the sukka in Haifa 20:35  |  Alexa 30/09/07   20.   Golan you almost got it right. 20:40  |  Another Jew 30/09/07   21.   Adi blinded by hate: who do you give a fig for? 20:43  |  Just A jew 30/09/07   22.   Solution 21:05  |  Avi yerushalmi 30/09/07   23.   The solution 23:04  |  Yonatan 30/09/07   24.   The Chief Rabbinate 23:40  |  Avi Yerushalmi 30/09/07   25.   the real solution 01:18  |  noneedtoknow 01/10/07   26.   thanks 14, but #19 where do you live? 03:19  |  topanga 01/10/07   27.   "Taliban" Rabbis 07:34  |  guy 01/10/07   28.   Deal with the people not the institution 08:50  |  ארי 01/10/07   29.   you can`t hold a stick by the two extremities 09:10  |  A.M. 01/10/07   30.   Shmita and Pukuach Nefesh 09:34  |  Matti 01/10/07   31.   yonatan we are happy to let you go- to cyprus 10:19  |  Another Jew 01/10/07   32.   No need to know- why you want them to follow you? 10:20  |  Alexa 01/10/07   33.   topanga and hate incitement 10:23  |  Alexa 01/10/07   34.   topanga you are part of a steadily decreasing minority 10:25  |  Just A jew 01/10/07   35.   Guy unlike you the rabbis always explain their reasoning 10:27  |  Alexa 01/10/07   36.   A.M. who exactly says what are rules? 11:18  |  Jewboy 01/10/07   37.   Matti there are thousands of Farmers who ARE keeping shmitta 11:20  |  A jew 01/10/07   38.   #30Matti-You ignoramus-it`s NOT chumra-It`s called Torah 11:37  |  Ben 01/10/07   39.   To: "A jew" 11:46  |  Matt 01/10/07   40.   To: ben 11:57  |  Matti 01/10/07   41.   To: Ben, interview 11:58  |  Matti 01/10/07   42.   Matt how many farmers do you know? 16:36  |  A jew 01/10/07   43.   Matti if more farmers would keep Shmitta properly 16:43  |  Jewboy 01/10/07   44.   Matti please learn Torah from those who keep it 17:40  |  Another hareidi Jew 01/10/07   45.   kedushat Sheviit 18:24  |  Matti 01/10/07   46.   Otzar beis din 18:28  |  Mattias 01/10/07   47.   The ones who suffers 18:33  |  Matti 01/10/07   48.   Matti leave halacha to Rabbis 20:25  |  Another hareidi Jew 04/10/07   49.   Matti and stubborn ignoring of the facts: 20:27  |  Jewboy 04/10/07   50.   the rabbis who began agriculture in this country 20:31  |  Another hareidi Jew 04/10/07   51.   Matti you sound like a cossack shouting thief 20:34  |  Joanna 04/10/07   52.   Marry Torah 21:09  |  Scott 28/04/08

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