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Shas: Chacham Ovadia Agrees to Civil Marriage Bill Compromise


ovadia2.jpgChacham Rav Ovadia Yosef Shlita has agreed to a proposal put forward by Rishon L’Tzion Rav Shlomo Moshe Amar Shlita, who is willing to compromise and permit a civil wedding ceremony for couples classified as ‘unmarriageable’ by the Rabbinate, namely non-Jews. Rav Ovadia met with Shas faction leaders and announced his willingness to accept the compromise which Shas hopes will suffice to reach a deal permitting Shas and Yisrael Beitenu to enter into the same coalition government.

Yisrael Beitenu does not seem satisfied with the compromise, since at present, there are an estimated 300,000 residents unable to marry, only about 70,000 of whom are classified as non-Jews. Therefore, the Shas compromise will only provide a solution for a small number.

From Shas’ perspective, the willingness to agree to the arrangement for non-Jews represents enormous flexibility and a “win” for Yisrael Beitenu, adding the chareidi party is also willing to establish a committee that will work with Yisrael Beitenu towards addressing the problem of the others, primarily former immigrants from the Former Soviet Union.

Shas leader Eli Yishai stated it is clear to all that any compromise to towards permitting Jews to marry outside of a halachic framework chas v’sholom is unacceptable and will never be approved and this he adds is clear to Yisrael Beitenu too.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)



9 Responses

  1. this is a smart compromise. Kol haKavod.

    look, it was a mistake that they were brought here, but now they are here and are not leaving…

    somethign has to be done

  2. The issue is irrelevant as long as:

    1. Israel recognizes civil marriages, including those involving Jews and goyim, performed abroad

    2. It is legally and socially (among hilonim) acceptable for Israelis, regardless of ethnicity or religion, to live with and sleep with whomever they choose, regardless of marital status

    3. Israel recognizes “yaduhah be-tsibur” relationships

    Many zionist rabbanim have a dream of “one people” but Israel has long included a large number of non-Arab goyim who see themselves as Israelis, and in addition, if one holds that all marriages performed by the state rabbis are valid even if the parties had no intention of being bound by halacha, then DNA testing of the offspring will reveal a very substantial number of hilonim are really mamzerim (except that many are goyim, especially if one doesn’t hold by the minimalist conversions of the state rabbis).

    It would be better for the frum parties to worry about supporting the Bnei Torah then caring about what the hiloni “Jews” do in their marital lives.

  3. We knew this weeks ago, that Bibi and Shas make an agreement to join together & with Lieberman as Foreign Minister (I think he will be gr8 saying it like it is) his party will cool down on its requests.

  4. wasn’t this one of the reasons why lieberman was called ‘satan incarnate’ by Shas? wow, what a chizuk for tshuva…

    or maybe it was the chazir issue..

    but seriously sorry for being aparty pooper, but as mentioned earlier – is it really theis biggest concern for us to be concerned w/ legislating halocho from the Knesset? For a Mizrachi rabbi who views the state as the harbinger of the messiah – I can understand wherer he is coming from – but we are just trying to work w/ the system (and take advantage, heh heh… 😉 ) so as long as frum jews are not penalized for keeping shaboos which as far as I can see – there is no evidence for that in 99% at least of things – losing bidding rights in BG airport is not really the biggest deal. the AM:PM thing – maybe. but really a Frum Yid has it pretty good in the new and improved, post Obama ‘goldene medinneh’.

    Sure, we would love to see All Yiden keep the torah – but forcing them to do something they do not understand might get them to keep what they are forced to do – but certainly nothing more.

    Truthfully – if they made chazir permissible – but left it up to the individual cities to forbid in by ;aws – and this they should do since a frum city mught not want to be seeing such a thing – I do not think many Israelis would start eating chazir who did not before.

    Where I live in Bet Shemesh – a few years ago – there was a whole tumult about chazir. Many ‘traditional’ but not Shomer shabbos Jews were some of the strongest opponents of the chazir.

    SO, we do really shoot ourselves in the foot sometimes. A lot of good kiruv work and potential kiruv is flushed away when we let ourselves be portrayed as authoritarain thugs who force our will on someone else.

    Bechira CHofshis is the most basic requisite for Avodas Hashem. (makin oso ad… is not applicable here AT ALL) Let us not be the ones who remove it from yidden who just might really be interested in serving Hashem if they given a chance to understand what that meant.

  5. #4
    Many zionist rabbanim have a dream of “one people”
    You got a tendency to hit from the hip, want to explain this comment, since there is no factual info to back this up.

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