by Nechama Tzivin
Why did Ex-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decide on the age issue in 2005 concerning the election of the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv? Why does Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leave the matter to the Knesset?
At the end of 2004 and beginning of 2005, Rabbi Lau, who was about 67 years old, ran for the position of chief rabbi of Tel Aviv when Rabbi Yehuda Deri of Beer-Sheva was also a Shas candidate.
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His brother, Aryeh Deri, most likely tried to promote his candidacy as chief rabbi of Tel Aviv by blocking Rabbi Lau due to his age. They convinced Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to agree to pass a personal regulation. Indeed, it was published in the records, as part of the regulations for the election of city rabbis (amendment 2004), that those who turn 65 cannot be elected city rabbis. Ariel Sharon, the Prime Minister at the time, signed the regulation as follows:
“City Rabbinical Election Regulations” (Amendment)-2004. By the power vested in me according to section 15 of the Jewish Religious Services Law [combined version], 1971, I hereby enact the following regulations:
Amendment of regulation 66/6 in regulation C to the city rabbinical election regulations, 1975, after paragraph (3):
(4)”Those who have turned 65″ (November 23, 2004).
Regulation No. 44-3 Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister.
Book of laws, 1971, p. 130: 2004, p. 70.
Regulatory file, 1975, p. 532 : 2000, p. 822.
Due to repeated appeals by attorney Nechama Tzivin -Zivin, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon canceled in just a month and a half!!! (an extremely rare occurrence) the regulation, and accordingly, it was published in the records on 6/1/2005 that the age limit will be erased, as follows:
“City Rabbinical Elections Regulations” (Amendment No. 2) 2005
By the power vested in me according to section 15 of the Jewish Religious Services Law [combined version], 1971, I hereby enact the following regulations:1971, I install these regulations:
Amendment of regulation 10 1. In regulation 10(c) of the city rabbinical elections regulations, 1975, paragraph (-4) shall be erased (January 6, 2005).
Regulation No. 44-3 Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister.
Book of laws, 1971, p. 130: 2004, p. 70.
Regulatory file, 1975, p. 532 : 2000, p. 822
Accordingly, Attorney Tzivin-Zivin issued a statement: The Prime Minister today canceled the regulation limiting a candidate for the office of city rabbi to the age of 65
A few weeks ago, without any warning, many good, talented, and worthy rabbis were subjected to a decree that came from the swampy political ground, which concocted the regulation to pave the way for the position of city rabbi for connected and not necessarily talented rabbis.
The decree stated that “the candidacy for mayor of a person who has turned 65 will not be presented to the election committee”, a decree that blocked the path of Rabbis such as Rabbi Lau from becoming Rabbi of Tel Aviv and Rabbi Halperin as Rabbi of Jerusalem. Today, after vigorous protests, the Prime Minister announced the cancellation of the regulation in a message he delivered to the legal advisor in his office, as follows:
“After I reviewed the claims made in the petition of the Movement for Governmental Fairness against the amendment of the regulations in question, which limited the candidacy for the position of city Rabbi to the age of 65, and I went back and reviewed the memorandum sent on November 1, 2004, by attorney Eyal Yanon, senior deputy to the acting legal advisor, to Mr. Lior Goldstein, advisor to the PM, which detailed the problematics involved in the amendment, I hereby decide on its cancellation.”
The Prime Minister’s decision is a victory of common sense over the distortions and folly of a number of stakeholders who initiated the regulation to pave the way for their associates and to exclude those who were scornful in their eyes. Attorney Nachama Tzivin said that: “The prime minister, 76 years old, realized that he was being used by parties who had interests, who did not act for the honor and benefit of the rabbinate, but rather out of ill will and misguided personal interests, and decided after about a month to cancel the aforementioned age limit. The time has come for rabbis in Israel to be chosen solely based on their skills and public spiritual authority, not on the whims of people who have turned the rabbinate into a place for their personal benefit”.
Adv. Nechama Tzivin, active in the movement for governmental fairness, added that she welcomes the Prime Minister’s decision, which has removed the disgrace from the rabbinate in Israel. Adv. Tzivin said that “the regulation which limits the age of city rabbis, has been unlawfully amended. It does not sit well with a worthy purpose test, it constitutes discrimination based on age and it is contrary to the tradition of Israel. Indeed, the opinion of the wise is not comfortable with it.
Also, “this is in addition to the fact that the regulation was received in the Prime Minister’s office in secrecy, without being brought before the Torah elders, before the Chief Rabbinate Council, before the Rishon Letzion and without the opinion of the Legal Advisor to the Chief Rabbinate of Israel being sought.”
Tzivin also said, “The fact that the Prime Minister canceled a regulation that he enacted only about a month ago raises suspicion and speaks volumes about the very enactment of the regulation in the first place and from the beginning. It is possible that it disappeared from the gang behind the enactment, those who crown Rabbis, that this restriction is contrary to the norm accepted by those responsible from generation to generation.
To say: “The eyes of the people” are the “elders of the people” and “the elders of Israel”; “What old man (notrikon) is the one who has acquired wisdom,” “time will tell and many years will pronounce wisdom,” “The elders of the wise men as long as their minds grow old their opinions become settled.” “In the elderly, wisdom and longevity are wisness.”
Attorney Tzivin said: “The prime minister’s original decision was a fundamental mistake since he served in a responsible position and was 76. In addition, at 82 years old, Shimon Peres joined his government. This is absurd. Furthermore, several judges, who retired from the Supreme Court at the age of 70, obtained some of the most responsible positions in the country, aka the position of State Comptroller. Why did the Prime Minister initially consider discriminating between city rabbis and judges.”
*Recently, it was announced that MK Moshe Saada of the Likud party would submit a bill to raise the age of candidacy even for those over 70. This will allow Rabbi Shapira to run for the position of chief Rabbi.
*The struggle to establish an age that allows candidacy concerns several Rabbis, among them members of the tribunals, Chabad rabbis in Israel, serving as city rabbis to apply for the position of chief rabbi of Israel: Rabbi Yochanan Goor Aryeh, Rabbi of Holon, Rabbi Moshe Havlin, Rabbi of Kiryat Gat and Rabbi Yosef Hecht, Rabbi of Eilat.
*The question being asked is why this issue constitutes a political act of struggle between religious Zionism and various groups as well as the Shas party, at a time when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu could have taken a sharp and swift step, i.e., established a regulation regarding the age that allows one to be elected as Chief Rabbi, something that Ariel Sharon did in one swoop when he cancels one regulation and enacts another one.
* In the margins of the discussion, Attorney Tzivin emphasizes: “In all honesty, who am I, and what am I to put my head between these high mountains? I am not fit to express an opinion on issues concerning rabbis and halachic. However, regarding the issue of exclusive dedication to the role of the chief rabbi of Israel, I humbly say that the efforts to allow Rabbi Shapira to be elected as Chief Rabbi there is a flaw in them.
Rabbi Shapira, if elected, will, so they said, divide his time between the chair of the Rosh Yeshiva and the chair of the Chief Rabbi of Israel, something that will harm his ability to devote himself entirely to the issues heavyweights standing at the door of the Chief Rabbinate and waiting for a solution, such as Kashrut, conversion, and other matters in the halachic core.
One should not compare Rabbi Shapira with his father or the late Rabbi Kook, which served as the head of the Yeshiva of Merkaz Harav, and Rabbi Unterman, who served as the head of the “Shever Me’Yehuda,” while serving as chief rabbi of Israel.
The writer, Nechama Tzivin, is an attorney who resides in Kfar Chabad and is an active member of the Governmental Fairness Movement.
