When popularity breeds envy
The ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate is cutting off the branch it's sitting on. Too bad that its self-destructive sawing will take a long time, provoking a lot of tears and sadness all around. Fortunately, at the end of the day, the rabbinate will shrink down to its proper proportions.
The institution of the Chief Rabbinate, which at the outset, under the leadership of Rabbi Avraham Itzhak Hacohen Kook, served as a symbol of Israel's unity in its homeland, will not be undermined by Jews choosing to leave their national affiliation behind. Nor will it be eroded by novelist Yoram Kaniuk, who petitioned the government for extra-national status, and is now listed in the population register as having no religion. Nor will the rabbinate be done in by secular Israelis who conduct private weddings despite having positive feelings toward Jewish tradition and heritage. All these are bit players in the unfolding story.
The cause of this conflict is unique. With their pleasant manner and tendency to be discreet where the privacy of happy young couples is concerned, Tzohar rabbis, headed by Rabbi David Stav, conducted 2,000 to 3,000 weddings for secular couples every year. All the weddings were 100 percent kosher. Many couples are perfectly happy to have an Orthodox ceremony, but if they can't do so through Tzohar then they will enlist the services of a municipal clerk in Nicosia, Cyprus.
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Tzohar's popularity has incensed the rabbinate as well as Religious Services Minister Ya'akov Margi, of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party. When our leader and greatest teacher, Moses, was asked to stop Eldad and Medad from prophesying inside the camp, he refused, telling Joshua that he was not envious of them and that he would not mind if all God's people were prophets. But Margi and the Chief Rabbinate are as green-eyed as they come. So they came up with a clever ruse, declaring that a rabbi is not a rabbi unless he works for the government. Consequently, they issued a directive whereby only rabbis who live off the government have the authority to marry young couples. What about an ordained rabbi who serves on a municipal council but does not receive a government paycheck? Absolutely not. Margi will under no circumstances allow him to hand out marriage licenses.
Under these new conditions, Rabbi Uriel Ganzel said on Tuesday, Tzohar rabbis can't get hold of licenses. Why don't they just marry young couples, and then somehow obtain an official license afterward? They don't want to break the law, said Ganzel, and that's why the work they are doing -- which is truly wonderful -- will have to stop.
On Tuesday night, MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) quickly proposed a bill stipulating that any ordained rabbi could officiate at weddings, even if he doesn't live off taxpayer money. If only. But anyone familiar with politicians knows that Shas and United Torah Judaism will stonewall Hotovely and wear her down. It's like the famous story of the Jew forced to teach a Polish nobleman's dog to speak within a year. "A year is a long time," he reassured his wife. "Either the nobleman will die or the dog will die." The ultra-Orthodox Knesset factions are hoping that the nobleman dies before the proposed law reaches the Knesset plenary. Or maybe the dog. Or the love of the betrothed couple.
Tzohar rabbis and their sympathizers have a long row to hoe. But ultimately, they will emerge victorious, despite the fact that they are nice people and not sufficiently aggressive. When the anger rises up from within, when revulsion bubbles up from the ranks of young knitted-kippah wearers, or from bareheaded sons who have left the fold but not the family, it cannot be stopped. Such emotion is stronger even than a head-to-head confrontation in the public square.
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