Editor –
Religion and State in Israel is not affiliated with any organization or movement.
High Court rules infidelity consequence-free
By Aviad Glickman www.ynetnews.com
Infidelity during marriage does not constitute a "special circumstance" that would serve as good cause to deviate from an equitable division of assets following a divorce, the Israel High Court ruled on Wednesday. In doing so, it overturned a ruling by the Chief Rabbinate.
Infidelity is one thing, finances are another
By Ze'ev Segal www.haaretz.com
Last week's High Court of Justice ruling, which overturned a Rabbinic Court of Appeals decision stating that a woman who commits adultery loses some of her financial rights during a divorce, naturally constitutes a convenient arena for conflict on the broader playing field of religion and state.
Nor is this the first time financial relations between spouses have constituted a cause for such conflict.
Religious courts: Society must shun divorce-deniers
By Tamar Rotem, www.haaretz.com
The denouncing of a man for refusing to grant a get can be a major deterrent in ultra-Orthodox society, but so far the religious courts have been loathe to apply it.
However about a month ago, Briksman's picture was released on the Web site of the rabbinic court, alongside photographs of other men who have refused to give their wives divorces.
Holy Temple Hakhel Ceremonies Look Backward and Forward
By Hillel Fendel www.israelnationalnews.com
The Sabbatical (Shemittah) year has ended, making way - in accordance with Biblical law and tradition - for Hakhel, a ceremony that will be remembered and reenacted over Sukkot.
The word Hakhel (pronounced Hock-hel) literally means "Gather the people together," and is a Biblical commandment (Deut. 31, 10-12) for the entire nation to gather in Jerusalem for the purpose of hearing parts of the Torah read aloud in an awe-inspiring ceremony. Hakhel must take place during the Sukkot holiday following the Shemittah year, in the courtyards of the
The next day, on Thursday at 3:30 PM at the Western Wall plaza, another Hakhel-related ceremony will be held, involving the introduction of a new Torah Scroll to the Western Wall praying area. Sponsored by the Chief Rabbinate, government offices, and the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, it will feature the presence of former and current Chief Rabbis, but will be less Temple-oriented in nature.
The latter ceremony will not involve trumpets or priestly garments, and its official title says it is "in memory of the Hakhel ceremony." The Temple Institute, on the other hand, is more forward-looking in its terminology, calling its event a "Reenactment of Hakhel, in anticipation of its restoration."
Ashkelon's only college bans non-kosher food from dorms
By Ofri Ilani www.haaretz.com
Students at
The regulations function as a contract between students and the college, and
Supreme Court Rules on Kashrus Issue
By Yechiel Spira www.theyeshivaworld.com
The Supreme Court last week issued a temporary injunction ordering the Chief Rabbinate to halt the practice by which restaurants and caterers pay their mashgiach directly, as has been the practice under the Rabbinate supervision for many years.
The court is calling for establishing work standards for mashgichim, as well as qualifications, including an exam permitting candidates to exhibit a proficiency in kashrus matters and thereby being certified.
The court ruled the Chief Rabbinate, religious councils, and the Ministry of Religious Services have not maintained a proper defined standard since 2004 and have ignored previous court rulings on the matter of kashrus.
Ed. Min. pressured to reinstate Leviev program
By Or Kashti www.haaretz.com
Representatives of the Lev Leviev Foundation's Zman Masa (Journey Time) program for bolstering Jewish identity have recently been pressuring the Education Ministry to reverse its decision to stop using the program in schools.
The program, which focuses on understanding Judaism, is designed to be taught at state-run elementary schools.
By Nadav Shragai www.haaretz.com
The people responsible for this year's ceremony are Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, who is considered the leading Ashkenazi Haredi adjudicator of rabbinical law of this generation, and his disciple, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger.
Two decades ago, the Haredim were already expressing reservations about holding the Hakhel at the Western Wall. At that time, they called president Herzog - whose father, former chief rabbi Yitzhak Herzog, had been in favor of reviving the Hakhel - "vinegar derived from wine," an epithet for a despised offshoot of a good family, and waged a noisy campaign against the event.
Now, with Haredim occupying all the positions of power, the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, in consultation with Elyashiv and the chief rabbis, has decided that the president, the prime minister and the president of the Supreme Court will not be invited.
Instead, the dignitaries will be rabbis: the current chief rabbis - Metzger and Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar - and their predecessors, Rabbis Yisrael Meir Lau and Eliahu Bakshi-Doron. Two well-known cantors, Binyamin Helfgott and Moshe Habusha, will also attend.
Sukkot segregation in Meah Shearim
By Neta Sela www.ynetnews.com
Any women who may be planning to attend the traditional Simchat Beit Hashoeva festivities (water-drawing festival) in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Meah Shearim this Sukkot may want to think twice, as they may no be allowed to enter the area.
Meah Shearim Residents Threaten to Keep Visitors Out This Sukkos
www.hamercaz.com
A group of Meah Shearim residents have collected 2,000 signatures on a petition to stop the flood of visitors to the neighborhood on Chol Hamoed Sukkos.
"Our neighborhood is not a tourist attraction!" signs posted throughout the neighborhood proclaim.
"This year, we will not permit under any circumstances, for visitors and tourists to come to our neighborhood on Chol Hamoed Sukkos nights," the posters warn.
Sukka of Tolerance Built in Kiryat Menachem
By Yechiel Spira www.theyeshivaworld.com
With tensions running high of late in the Kiryat Menachem neighborhood of Yerushalayim, a number of residents decided to take a step in what they perceive as being a positive direction – establishing a “Sukka of Tolerance”.
Teens affiliated with Israel Scouts, Ariel and Bnei Akiva have joined forces, explaining they will celebrate Sukkos with one-another in the hope of sending a message of tolerance to the neighborhood’s adults.
On Hashanah Rabba, there will be a night of learning which will include the non-frum teens. The night will include shiurim, lectures, and music, hoping to offer something for everyone.
Etrog imports OK'd to stymie smugglers
By Amiram Cohen www.haaretz.com
For the first time in 2,000 years of recorded history,
By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu www.israelnationalnews.com
The
AM:PM CEO fired for employing Jews on Yom Kippur
By Tani Goldstein www.ynetnews.com
Dudi Weissman, owner of the 24/7 chain store AM:PM decided to fire CEO Oded Blum Friday, after the latter sanctioned the employment of Jewish workers during Yom Kippur.
Branches of AM:PM, which are regularly open on Shabbat, were meant to be closed on Yom Kippur, like other Israeli franchises.
However, the chain opted to employ security workers to guard the stores, some of whom were Jewish.
Israeli Stores Employ Jewish Workers on Yom Kippur, Charedim Threaten Boycott
www.hamercaz.com
The AM:PM convenience store chain is being threatened with a boycott for reportedly employing Jews at a number of stores it kept open over Yom Kippur.
63% of Israelis Jews plan to fast on Yom Kippur
www.ynetnews.com
In the first part of the poll, respondents were asked whether they plan to fast on Yom Kippur and why.
Sixty-three percent said they would fast, 38% of them because of Jewish tradition, 23% because they observe mitzvoth and 2% "because everyone fasts."
Thirty-seven percent of respondents said they have no plans to fast during the day.
An analysis of the religious affiliations reveals a huge gap between haredi, religious and traditional people, a vast majority of whom plan to fast (93%-100%), and secular people who won't refrain from eating (56%).
Another analysis shows that the older the respondent, the lower the number of people fasting (89% of people aged 18 to 20, and 52% of people over the age of 51 plan to fast).
Israeli airports set for Yom Kippur shutdown
By Zohar Blumenkrantz www.haaretz.com
No planes will land or take off in
It said 28,000 passengers are expected to pass through
Yom Kippur is the only day of the year in which all the country's airports are closed and there is no domestic or international traffic in Israeli airspace.
Ynet readers extend their apologies
www.ynetnews.com
On the eve of the Day of Atonement, Ynet invited its readers to reveal whom they are apologizing to, from who they want an apology and for what transgressions. A mosaic of small sins and great failures was created.
Ben-Gurion Airport shuts down for Yom Kippur
www.ynetnews.com
Civilian aerial traffic in
Rabbi: 'Stale' water permitted on Yom Kippur
By Ari Gilhar www.ynetnews.com
A halachic breakthrough by Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, leader of
Most guesthouses open on Yom Kippur
By Ilana Fischer www.ynetnews.com
Mandy Nesher, CEO of the www.weekend.co.il portal, says that as far as tourist industry members are concerned, Yom Kippur is a regular business day.
Communications Minister Ariel Atias is Shas's wunderkind.
In the 2006 elections, just five years after leaving the Torah study hall to work in Shas spiritual mentor Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's kosher supervision apparatus ("I was 30 years old and had to find a way to support my family"), Atias was parachuted into Shas's Number 2 slot.
Do Shas's rabbis really reach out to all sectors of Israeli society? And if so, why do you think there is a need for organizations such as Tzohar?
Rabbis that are connected with Shas do not try to create a new religion. There is one religion. There is one Torah that was handed down to us from Moses on
When you talk about the rabbis who try to create a custom-tailored religion that fits like a suit each person in accordance with his personality, that is not religion.
We say to people, "this is the truth." If you cannot keep it all, keep part of it. Go to the mikveh, keep kosher. Do what is possible, and what you can't do, save for tomorrow.
But you cannot pick and choose. There is no such thing as different religions for different people. We are willing to help you come closer to God, but it has to be done in the true way.
What happened to the Deri revolution?
By Anshel Pfeffer www.haaretz.com
Beyond a small, die-hard band of cronies, there doesn't seem to be any great enthusiasm for his return.
Journalists tend to see the low-income, traditional Sephardic constituency as easily manipulated by populist politicians, but the last elections, when they deserted their old political homes - Likud and Shas - in droves, proved that no one can take them for granted, not even the sorcerer Deri.
Was the Shmita Dispute Overblown?
By Anshel Pfeffer www.haaretz.com
The shmita is over, and the arguments that raged a year ago between the ultra-Orthodox and the national-religious establishments over how to observe the Sabbath of the soil seem rather pointless now.
Pampering, Plucking and Dipping: A whole new kind of mikva
http://blog.elanasztokman.com/
“Certainly it’s great that they are making mikva a more pleasant experience,” says Rabbi Dr. Haviva Ner David, whose doctoral thesis is on the halakhic evolution of mikva.
“But I would rather see a focus on developing spiritual aspects of mikva rather than on the woman’s body.
Empowerment and pluralism are also key issues.
I would like no attendants, for example, and to do away with that whole checking and watching.
An ideal mikva, in my dream, should give women freedom and privacy to explore their own spirituality in their own way.”
Haifa chief rabbi addresses the Vatican
By Matthew Wagner
Haifa Chief Rabbi She'ar Yishuv Cohen expressed his opposition to the beatification of Holocaust-era Pope Pius XII Monday during an unprecedented address before the
By Erica Chernofsky www.bbc.co.uk
The BBC's Erica Chernofsky looks at how
Blind up in arms over ultra-Orthodox management of school sports facilities
By Ruth Sinai www.haaretz.com
A decision by
The Center for the Blind says the Jewish Institute for the Blind is refusing show it the contract with KosherGym, which runs fitness rooms for the ultra-Orthodox and the Orthodox.
Rabbi Batzri: Get married before joining IDF
By Neta Sela www.ynetnews.com
The mystic Rabbi David Batzri, head of the “Hashalom” Yeshiva in
Batzri told single Jewish youngsters at a Selichot prayer service held at Tel Aviv's Yad Eliyahu arena on Monday that "anyone who is aged 17 and a day – get married at once! Don’t enlist in the army before you're married; and (young Jewish) girls shouldn't enlist at all."
Rabbi Sperber on Women Reading Torah
By Dr. Elana Maryles Sztokman www.kolech.org.il
http://blog.elanasztokman.com/
Which comes first, community custom or the dignity of God's creatures?
That is the essence of the question about women having a public voice in synagogue, including reading from the Torah.
The view that women’s dignity is paramount may seem like common sense, but that argument is somehow considered radical.
Such is the experience of Rabbi Professor Daniel Sperber, whose essay on the subject of Women and Torah Reading published this week on YNet and Kolech has incurred a disproportionate amount of hostility and ridiculous accusations that he is heretical, “Reform” (good heavens!) or a threat to the future of the Jewish people.
With Deri out, Porush courts Haredi elite
By Yair Ettinger www.haaretz.com
MK Meir Porush can expect to sweat it out until the last minute, without knowing the conditions under which he will become the agreed-on ultra-Orthodox candidate for
Metzger issues prayer in TA for Schalit's return
Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger has issued a prayer for the safe return of captive soldier Gilad Schalit which he plans to distribute on Tuesday, to be read in synagogues throughout
As we begin a new year we can be proud that we, the Jewish people, are united together through hard times as well as good; that
New humanitarian group aims to train Jewish leaders to 'fix world'
There's a lack of young Jewish-Israeli leaders in the Tikkun Olam world, contend Adam LeAdam [Human being to Human being] founders Uri Amit and Yarden Tenenbaum.
Recognizing that lack in the field of humanitarian projects abroad, the two, both former emissaries of the Jewish Agency came together to form Adam LeAdam and develop a program to train and support future leaders, both Israelis and Jews from the Diaspora.
'Lost' synagogue reopens in Jerusalem's Muslim Quarter
By Matthew Wagner
A group of rabbis, politicians, philanthropists and right-wing activists gathered Sunday in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem's
Police Protection for Kosel Rav
By Yechiel Spira www.theyeshivaworld.com
Police have assigned bodyguards for Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, the Kosel Rav, who is also the rav of the Holy Places around the country. This includes the kever of the Rashbi, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.
According to police, there are “extremist elements” that object to the rav being in granted authority of the kever, and have gone so far as to threaten him and his family.
By Yair Sheleg www.haaretz.com
Book Review: Be'emunato: The Story of Rabbi Yehuda Amital, by Elyashiv Reichner Yedioth Ahronoth Books and Chemed Books
Over the years, Rabbi Yehuda Amital, head of the Har Etzion hesder yeshiva (where students combine compulsory military service with their Talmudic studies) in Alon Shvut, has become one of the rabbis that even secular Jews (including those on the left) love to love.
Second Temple period fragment with inscription 'Son of High Priest' found
By Haaretz Staff and Channel 10 www.haaretz.com
Second Temple period fragment with inscription 'Son of High Priest' found
www.jpost.com www.jta.org
Archeologists discovered a sarcophagus fragment identified with one of the high priests who served in the
The fragment made of hard limestone, discovered in salvage excavations along the security fence north of
Monastery atop Church of Holy Sepulchre in danger of collapse
By Jonathan Lis www.haaretz.com
The historic Deir al-Sultan monastery on the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in
The monastery's two chapels and the tiny rooms where its monks live could crumble, injuring the many tourists who visit the site, as well as the monks who live there, and even the ancient Church of the Holy Sepulchre itself.
Saving Christianity from itself
Haaretz Editorial www.haaretz.com
There is no better example than the centuries-old dispute between the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the Coptic Church over the control of the Deir al-Sultan Monastery on the roof of the Holy Sepulchre in the
Peres visits Akko, urges side to exercise tolerance
Sharon Roffe-Ofir www.ynetnews.com
President Shimon Peres arrived in the northern Israeli city of
Israel Radio hosts Ramadan Quiz finals
By Yoav Stern www.haaretz.com
The finals of the Ramadan Quiz were held Tuesday by the programming department of Israel Radio in Arabic. This was the first time the quiz was held in this format.
The head of the Israel Radio's Arabic programming, Yasser Atila, said Thursday: "We are working on quizzes for Christians and Druze. Our goal is to have an encounter between cultures and promote peace and understanding among the various religions."
By Sarab Aburabia-Queder www.haaretz.com
Dr. Sarab Aburabia-Queder is a lecturer at the Blaustein Institute for Desert Research of Ben-Gurion University, and a feminist activist in the Bedouin community.
We in the Bedouin community do not normally discuss sensitive issues like polygamy with the general Israeli public.
…Over the past two years, a number of Bedouin women's organizations in the
But in each case, they have been met by merciless attacks from religious officials, who continue to promote the practice by comparing our situation to that of the states in the West.
Their argument is that, if in the West, there is prostitution, then "at least in Arab society, we do it via legal marriages."
Editor –
Religion and State in Israel is not affiliated with any organization or movement.
