A rare public disagreement has emerged between leading rabbanim in Eretz Yisroel over whether weddings may be held this year during the Three Weeks in light of the unprecedented wartime situation facing the country.

Former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Rav Yitzchak Yosef has issued a psak permitting both Sephardim and Ashkenazim to hold weddings during Bein HaMetzarim, citing the upheaval and disruption caused by the ongoing multi-front war.

“There is no greater pressing circumstance than this,” Rav Yosef wrote, referencing the fact that numerous chasunahs were either canceled or postponed during the 12-day war with Iran, when event halls across the country were shuttered by military order. In his psak, Rav Yosef encouraged even those accustomed to being machmir to rely on kulos this year to avoid compounding the anguish of kallahs and chassanim already affected by the war. “One who is stringent will end up losing more than he gains,” he wrote.

In response, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Rav Kalman Ber published a sharply worded teshuvah rejecting the permissibility of weddings during the Three Weeks, even amid the ongoing conflict. “Mourning and joy are inherently contradictory,” he wrote. “One cannot combine the two.”

Rav Ber emphasized that none of the recognized Ashkenazi poskim have issued a heter for weddings during this time period, and noted that it is not merely a minhag but a binding halachah rooted in the ruling of the Rema, who codified the prohibition against weddings from the 17th of Tammuz through Tishah B’Av.

“Danger is treated more seriously than a simple issue,” Rav Ber added, cautioning that altering established halacha under pressure risks broader confusion about the permanence of halacha.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)