The interim replacement for the Nasi of the Moetzet HaRabbanut HaReishis, HaRav Yaakov Roja, resigned from his position on Wednesday evening due to the unrelenting battle of Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara and the Supreme Court to force its liberal agenda on every aspect of life in Israel, especially matters of religion.
Only about a week after he entered his position, HaRav Roja sent a letter to the Attorney-General’s office that as he already informed the office, he cannot comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling to consider appointing women as Rabbaniot. Since the Attorney-General is demanding that he comply with the ruling, he is resigning from his position.
HaRav Roja, who is an expert posek on the halachic identification of battlefield remains and was responsible for identifying all civilian victims of the October 7th massacre, added that “as a sidenote, although it is not a sidenote in its importance, and on a personal note, I will express some of the feelings of my heart.”
“Since October 7th, 2023, my days and nights have been devoted to finding a balm for the families of those murdered on that terrible day and the fallen of the Iron Swords War, identifying those fallen and being matir agunos, being menachem avel, and encouraging broken hearts of families who did not even merit to bring their loved ones to kever Yisrael.”
“In my position in decades of reserve service, I have never experienced such tragedies and difficult cases like what I unfortunately had to deal with during these months.”
“At the same time, the entire Am Yisrael united and the calls to end the divisive discourse that preceded the assault were heeded by many Israeli citizens. On this background, I feel that I cannot fulfill the roles you assign to me, which necessitate a polarizing decision that does not contribute to unity.”
“As our Rabbanim already stated in the Gemara, ‘לא חרבה ירושלים אלא על שהעמידו דיניהם על הדין’ – this is not the place or time to exact din.”
“My appeal is also to you [Baharav-Miara] and the court – אל נא אחי תרעו – withdraw your hands – there will be times to exact din – there are other and worthy alternatives to the solution of the challenge before us, with the agreement of all concerned, without harming the mesorah of Yisrael.”
HaRav Roja is expected to be replaced by HaRav Dr. Ratzon Arusi, a leading Yemenite Rav and the Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Ono.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
I do not understand how his withdrawal helps – to me it seems it just makes things impossibly difficult. If he just dilly-dallied and… I don’t know! And what if the Rabbaniyote were in the pool of 80; they would stand negative zero chance of winning the election and getting the appointment.
All replacements should similarly resign for the same reason.
If they found a replacement, the Court won
So, it’s not just the Bnei Torah not serving in the army – it’s Judaism as a whole they want to destroy! Hamas wants to destroy the Jewish state with rockets, the A-G and lowly kangaroo court want to destroy the “Jewish state” with legalities but the aims are the same.
Sad to say it’s time for the Rabbanut to completely disengage from the State in favor of a Goy-Mikerev-Goy system of our own Batei Dinim and Teudat Yahadut (with Yichut) tied to frum registry of Nesuim, Geirushin & Giyur) in addition to the State’s Teudat Zehut.
These Bagatz wanna act like complete mamzeirim, let them be mamzeirim. Sad, but what choice do we have?
וַיְהִ֗י בִּימֵי֙ שְׁפֹ֣ט הַשֹּֽׁפְטִ֔ים – It was in the days that the judges were judged… Chazal say this was not a good period in our history.