Rabbis who signed a
ruling against leasing to Arabs have put an end to the notion of
rabbinic authority and have freed us to be Jews on our own terms.
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Rabbi Shlomo Aviner.
Photo by Tomer Appelbaum
|
A year ago at this time, I wrote a piece which I
ultimately decided was too venom-laced, too cruel, and too socially
un-redeeming even for this often problematic space.
An end of the year feature, it was called "The Top 10 Rabbis Judaism Could Do Without." No one saw it. I threw it out.
It
was a time for new beginnings, I believed. A time for granting the
benefit of the doubt. A time for giving a chance, for hoping against
hope. A time to refrain from tarring all rabbis with the refesh - the
filth of a few.
If
for no other reason than respect for Judaism and the vast majority of
rabbis who are forces for good in this world, I decided to learn to live
with the rest. Even those whose rulings contravene some of the most
fundamental moral precepts in Judaism, and also those who issued bans on
living with non-Jews, as well as those who have declared it moral to
kill Arab innocents, even infants, and those who preach the destruction
of Palestinian property, and those who have advised IDF soldiers that
mercy toward Arabs is cruelty, and those whose ardor for settlement is
such that it has bent and broken the principle that the saving of human
life takes precedence above all else.
What
can I say? After a year of waiting and watching, I now realize that I'd
been wrong in more ways than I knew. Not only was the list of 10 Rabbis
that Judaism Could Do Without, mean-spirited and presumptuous, it also
turned out to be much, much too short.
By
290 rabbis, at least. Those who have gone out of their way to endorse a
written religious ban on selling or renting homes, apartments, and lots
to non-Jews, particularly Arabs.
At
this year's end, then, let me begin anew, with this preamble. In my
house, growing up, a true Yid, a person with a Jewish soul, was
synonymous with that of a mensch, a genuinely human being; a person who
is sensitive to the difficulties of others, and appreciative of the
differences between people. That is to say, a Ben Adom, a descendent of
Adam and Eve – who were, by the way, and certainly by Orthodox
definition, not Jewish.
It's
the end of a terrible year. A time to take stock. To rethink. And to
realize that the Jewish People as a whole owes a special vote of
gratitude to these hundreds of rabbis and their colossal ill will.
These rabbis have set the rest of us free.
In
their newfound candor, these men, many of them municipal chief rabbis
and heads of rabbinical academies – that is, the people who get to
decide who is Jewish and who is not, who may marry and who may not, who
may be buried where and with whom - have at long last told us what they
have for years been quietly telling their rabbinical students, their
parishioners, each other.
In
so doing, they have effectively put an end to the notion of rabbinic
authority. They have done the Jewish People an invaluable service.
They have freed us. Freed us to be Jews. Not on their terms. On ours.
Just
listen to how the letter ends: "The neighbors and acquaintances [of a
Jew who sells or rents to an Arab] must distance themselves from the
Jew, refrain from doing business with him, deny him the right to read
from the Torah, and similarly [ostracize] him until he goes back on this
harmful deed."
In
their level-eyed bigotry, their ironclad insensitivity, their
untouchable, corrupting, bureaucracy-based immunity, they have taught us
finally to pay no attention to that man behind the curtain of Oral Law.
At
the same time, they have helped us to see where Jewish leaders the
world over truly stand on issues of fundamental human consequence. The
mumbling and the silence of the many who have ducked a response to the
rabbis' action have made the strongest statement of all.
This
month, even as the country was engulfed in flames, some of the same
rabbis were busy in back rooms, deciding who could decide who is a Jew,
and making sure that they would retain more and more of the say.
We no longer have to go along. They've lost the franchise.
We
should thank them for showing us how they can take a period focused on
disasters and personal tragedies and turn it into one more opportunity
to threaten the government with dissolution. The issue this time?
Ultra-orthodox
rabbis – who are only too happy to allow immigrant soldiers to keep
them safe – now want to disallow the Orthodox conversions these same
soldiers have undergone during their military service.
No
one has to go along. And if this is about giving thanks, this is surely
an opportunity to mention the more than 700 rabbis who have already
signed a
petition against the ban on selling or renting to Arabs.
No longer need we listen to the Gang of 300 when they tell us what the Almighty wants.
From
apocalyptic rulings shielding settlements, to the brutal stranglehold
on conversion policy, they are making up Judaism as they go along. And,
in the process, by stating that non-Jews have no place here,
annihilating the democracy that pays their very salaries.
How
are we to understand these public remarks by officials of the state of
Israel? What is it that they are telling us, these apparatchiks in
Armani? That non-Jews can no longer be Israelis? That Arabs can no
longer live here?
That Zionism turns out to be a form of racism, after all? Or, is it Judaism itself?
For
years, we let this go on. We paid their salaries in taxes, in Jewish
Federation contributions, in bribes disguised as clerical service fees,
in bribes disguised as donations.
Does
it surprise anyone that it would be these men who, in the space of one
rabbinic open letter, would declare Israel's Declaration of Independence
invalid?
These are the people whom we allow to decide who can be a Jew.
No more. Let people decide on their own.
Who am I to say this? A nobody.
But
one who believes that it's hard enough already to be Jewish in this
world, and a person who cares about Israel in this world, without having
to run the gauntlet of self-elected Torah Jews whose Judaism is a
product of, by, and for, a stateless people.
I'm
a nobody, like the people who stood at Sinai, every Jew in this world,
who received the Torah every bit as personally as the members of the
Gang of 300.
Oh,
and one other thing. I was once a Dayan, a rabbinical court judge.
Years ago, newly in Israel, newly finished with my IDF service, bearded
and short-haired because of it, I donned a skullcap and sat in the Beer
Sheba Rabbinical Court, waiting to vouch for the Jewishness of a friend
who was about to be married.
The
Beer Sheva institution being what it is, that afternoon a divorcing
couple came together one last time to physically assault one of the
dayanim hearing their case. He wound up in Soroka hospital, and I was
abruptly plucked from the bench and pressed into service as an
appropriately bearded, if bewildered, alternate.
It’s
the end of a very tough year. As a Dayan B'Yisrael, I say, if you tell
me you're Jewish, that's good enough for me. And if you're not, let's
talk real estate.
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/a-special-place-in-hell/we-all-owe-israel-s-racist-rabbis-a-vote-of-thanks-1.330565
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