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The Idolatrous Politicization of Israel's Chief Rabbinate

By Dr. Samuel Lebens
The Haaretz
June 24, 2013

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/the-jewish-thinker/the-idolatrous-politicization-of-israel-s-chief-rabbinate.premium-1.531759

The Chief Rabbi should be the leading teacher of Torah, not a creation by an atheistic government for reasons of political gain.

Apparently, Rabbi Joseph Soloveithchik, the great Modern Orthodox leader and scholar, was practically offered the position of Chief Rabbi of Israel. Legend has it that he was assured that if he wanted the position, David Ben-Gurion would personally see to it that he would be selected. As the story has it, Soloveitchik declined the offer partly because it was the case that Ben-Gurion, a secular prime minister of a secular government actually had the sort of power to appoint whoever he saw fit to preside over the Rabbinate of Israel (for a more historically accurate account of Soloveitchik’s potential candidacy, see Rabbi Jeffery Sack’s article on the issue). Certainly, Prof. Isaiah Leibowitz refused to support Soloveitchik’s candidacy for the following reason:

“I view the very institution of the Chief Rabbinate in Israel – religious leadership established by an atheistic government for reasons of political gain, religious leadership functioning with the authority of such government and entwined in its bureaucracy – as a prostitution of religion, destruction of the Torah, and desecration of God … I wish to further point out that I’ve heard from friends in the United States that R. Soloveitchik himself has privately expressed his complete agreement with what I have written … regarding separation of religion and state.”

Indeed, without going quite so far, Soloveitchik did later say himself that, “the Chief Rabbinate is ensnared in the political net ... It proves that this holy institution is nothing more than a ball for the political parties to play with.”




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