ISRAEL (VINnews) — The High Court has ruled that women may serve on the committee that selects Chief Rabbis and the Chief Rabbinate Council.
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According to the Times of Israel, the court ruled that the term “rabbi” applies not only to those ordained by the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate but to all individuals (including women), with knowledge of halacha comparable to the men. However the ruling does not allow women to be considered as rabbis themselves.
Under the ruling, passed by a panel of three justices with one dissenting opinion, women–whom the Rabbinate does not recognize as rabbis–may nonetheless be appointed to occupy the position of “rabbi” on the Chief Rabbi Election Assembly.
The ruling also allows women to serve on the Chief Rabbinate Council, a governing body of 10 rabbis who act as an arbitration body in all halacha and Rabbinate-related matters.
In the case of the electoral assembly, the court found, the purpose of rabbis is not to decide a matter of halacha, but to represent the religious community, as part of the decision-making process for the election of Chief Rabbi.
In his dissenting opinion, Justice David Mintz wrote that “the point of departure is that this court does not wear the hat of the Chief Rabbinate, which has the ultimate halachic authority.”
Shimon Shmueli, a lawyer and treasurer of the Bat Yam Religious Council – the office of the Chief Rabbinate in Bat Yam, slammed the decision on Twitter. He wrote: “Another aggressive intervention and distorted interpretation by the High Court of Justice. The letter of the law explicitly says, in clause 7(8), that the appointees are ‘rabbis.’ But they [the court justices] twist the lawbook whichever way they feel like.”
According to TOI:
“As per a 1980 law, the assembly is made up of two categories of representatives: “rabbis,” who are all men because the term has been treated as pertaining to the Orthodox definition that precludes women, and “public representatives,” who account for all females in the Assembly. In its petition, Bar-Ilan University’s Rackman Center argued that women should be allowed to serve in the Assembly not only in the “public representative” category — which accounts for 70 out of the 150 Assembly delegates — but also as “rabbis.”
The court concurred, saying that the roles should be open to women. It stopped short of decreeing that women be appointed as rabbis to the Assembly or the Council.”
The court ruled that women are eligible for appointment to the committee that appoints Rabbis, not that anyone will be forced to appoint women to these roles.
Why shouldn’t women be involved in deciding who should be appointed communal Rabbi, whether it’s Chief Rabbi, neighborhood Rabbi, or synagogue Rabbi?
Isn’t that the case in the US, where women most definitely have a voice and a vote as to who becomes Rabbi of most large synagogues?
Why should women in Eretz Yisroel not have a say in these matters, including for Chief Rabbi?
Rachmana latzlan!
The court continues its coup
can’t anyone tell the court to look what happened to all that they were trying to do over the summer!! They caused oct 7 to happen! Every time the populace of Israel goes in this direction we have tsuros
Now can we stop pretending that the Jewish state is somehow Jewish?
Can anyone explain what’s wrong with women choosing rabbis ? This is a serious question .
It seems to me that the women are already able to be on the committee to vote for who might be a Rabbi. They are just trying to be counted as part of the group called “Rabbi” that does the same thing. So this isn’t a question of women being able to be part of a decision it is just women trying to be called rabbis which in my opinion is trying to be where you don’t belong.
Then Israel wonders why things like Oct. 7 happens ר״ל
They still don’t get it , !?
I guess I’ll have to put Devorah and Yael back into my texts, I redacted them all back when thissite wouldn’t print HillaryClintons picture.
Unbelievable self-destruction Within unfortunately and tragically it will be the whole Israel that will suffer..
I’m the one guy who says don’t force the stupid people to be quiet. I want to know who the morons are.
To the extent woman are disallowed court input, Aryeh Deri should be disallowed political input. How can our pure trustworthy women be less trusted than him!? I’m not suggesting to violate daas Torah and allow women where Torah forbids. I’m suggesting that the level of disallowance Torah applies to female involvement in court should be copied as the same standard for elected officials of frum parties in the government. Otherwise, what message does that send!?
At some point the Shomray Torah U’Mitzvos Like It Should Be will have to say this is יהרג ואל יעבור.
What are the Rabbis waiting to say that the Supreme Court by mixing in into something that doesn’t pertain to them disqualified themselves from having any jurisdiction over any Rabbi or Rabbinical tribunal and psak? This is the golden opportunity to become completely independent. Everyone understands that a Jewish state means Jewish as Jewish gets which is defined solely by the Torah as explained by and the verdicts of our Orthodox Rabbis as opposed to the state deciding the meaning of Jewish ( in this case the judges of the so called Supreme Court)
Every time they push us in a non Jewish way we need to push back so hard in a way that there is no compromise until they’ll regret even trying.
What makes Israel’s communities different than other communities, that people should not have a say in who their Rabbi should be? In Israel, it’s not just the leftists who are disgusted by the Rabbis forced upon them by the current corrupt process, but the Dati Leumi world as well. This is true as well for Chief Rabbi, where the current qualification is that they belong to an elite family and also sell their souls to haredi politicians. What does that have to do with Torah or halacha?
People commenting here should learn a bit more about the dirty process through which Rabbanut Rabbis get their jobs.
The non-frum DO vote for Chief Rabbi.
In fact, not only the non-frum, but the anti-frum.
That’s how the haredi politicians succeeded in appointing Yonah Metzger, who they knew to be a menuval and a laughingstock.
The haredim wanted to make sure that the Chief Rabbi would be someone who would not add prestige to the position (they wanted someone they could manipulate) and they got the anti-religious Meretz Party to team up with them in having him appointed.
Meretz shared the same goal, that the Chief Rabbi would be a laughingstock who would not be taken seriously.
Both the haredim and Meretz feared the appointment of Rav Yaakov Ariel, who is a serious posek and likeable human being who would have been well-respected, would not have been the haredi politicians’ puppet, and would have been difficult for Meretz to ridicule.
So they joined forces towards their common goal, which was to make sure that there should not be a Chief Rabbi who would be a Kiddush HASHEM.
Some of you, who ganged up on Judith, with your nasty personal attacks, are in my opinion, misogynistic. There were comments which showed a lack of derech eretz.
Another Jewish state needs to be formed – that is run on Halacha – Jewish law – and not by a small judicial oligarchy of secular atheist
the high rabbinical court should issue rulings banning women from being justices, should ban men who are not religious from sitting on the high suprime court, etc…
A. the subprime court considers itself above the government and above God.
B. the Time of Israel will say anything to slander religious Jews.
It still is not a valid excuse for you and many others for not coming on Aliya. Imagine how much you and your friends would be able to contribute to the big changes we so desperately need. I know Lakewood has private homes, but that’s the Nissayon
Finally: a new generation of rabbis who stop and ask for directions.
I received a נבואה that the next rocket launched from Gaza shall probably fall on the Supreme court and not not get intercepted by patriac
Baruch HaShem we now have learned women Orthodox Rabbis.
Rabbanut rabbis, most of whom are haredim due to the political arrangement where haredi politicians control rabbanut appointments and hand these high-paying jobs to their relatives, should resign and give up their government salaries over this.
Most of the country, including most religious people who are forced to use their services, would be THRILLED if the haredi rabbis would resign from the rabbanut, form an independent body, and that rabbonim more in touch with the population they serve would replace them.
The Israel Supreme Court is the last vestige of undemocratic Secular Zionism. It feels its mission is to preserve the secular state at all costs. The reason is simple, as a democratic state, the government and ultimately its laws and culture are elected by the majority. The Zionist tried to cheat by bringing in goyim, like the ones from Russia and Ethiopia to dilute the demographic trend that the Orthodox would take over the country. They may have delayed the trend by 10 or 20 years, but that is all. The secular Jews want between 0 and 2 children. The Traditional Jews have between 2-4 children. the Orthodox have between 6-15 children. I think the easiest solution to the problematic ISC is that once the Knesset has the numbers of Orthodox and Traditional Jews, they enact a law creating a quasi-Sanhedrin whose decisions supersede the ISC. Alternatively, they enshrine the Torah as the Constitution of Israel with that quasi-Sanhedrin as the highest court that interprets the Torah/Constitution as the Law of the Land.
It’s good that women are involved in choosing the rabbis . The majority of Israeli women want a public voice . If some people are against this , they can choose their own rabbis apart from the government’s .