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07-04-2006, 17:14
Rabbis’ image tainted in Israel


Unprecedented scandals and bizarre edicts sink Israel’s religious leaders’ authority to all-time low.


By Charles Onians - JERUSALEM

With Israel's religious leaders embroiled in unprecedented scandals and rabbis issuing bizarre edicts, commentators say the Jewish state's rabbinate authority is at an all-time low.

Since the start of the year, both of Israel's chief rabbis have been tainted, with the attorney general on Monday telling Ashkenazi leader Yona Metzger to quit for allegedly receiving kickbacks, a first in Israel's history.

Menachem Mazuz said Metzger showed contempt for public money and told repeated untruths.

Writing in the left-leaning Haaretz daily, Shahar Ilan said the rabbi's appointment "dragged the reputation of the office down to an all-time low."

In January, the son of fellow chief rabbi Shlomo Amar was jailed for abducting and assaulting his sister's 17-year-old boyfriend, adding insult to injury by cutting the hapless paramour's kippa in half.

Amid reports that his wife had instigated the attack, Amar was forced to deny involvement, but the damage to the rabbinate's standing was done.

Then there are the rabbis' seemingly odd rulings.

Last month, former grand rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu told parents to amputate an arm or a leg from dolls to avoid the perils of idolatry. Teddy bears or other stuffed animals were sentenced to lose an ear or an eye.

Another former chief rabbi in July urged Israelis to stop eating hummus as believers had no way of knowing whether it had been prepared by non-Jews, to the mirth of the press and many secular Israelis.

"For most Israelis rabbis are irrelevant," says Professor Ira Sharkansky of the Hebrew University.

"Fifty percent of the population are secular and another 20 percent might wear a skull cap but drive and go to football matches on Shabbat (sabbath)," when such activities are usually prohibited.

In Israel, where there is no secular civil law, most Jews only come into contact with the rabbinate at birth, marriage or death. Sharkansky says about 20 percent of Israelis go abroad, usually to Cyprus, to have a civil marriage.

Nevertheless, he says the rabbis and their followers are still forces to be reckoned with in a state where the proportion of religious observant Jews has increased in recent years.

"Two years ago a rabbi said Orthodox Jewish women shouldn't wear wigs made from Indian hair because it could belong to Hindus who are idol worshippers. It was an economic catastrophe as women changed their wigs."

And, says Sharkansky, when you visit the doctor "there are Orthodox women in the waiting room with their 800 children discussing what treatment this rabbi said, what that rabbi said."

"But the rabbi can't give a prescription so they go in and tell the doctor the rabbi said I need this medicine for my child so can I have a prescription. After the rabbi's ruling on dolls, I suspect a lot were thrown in the trash."

Sharkansky points to a split between the Orthodox and the ultra-Orthodox, who find themselves in a bizarre alliance with secular Israelis because of their lack of allegiance to the rabbinate.

"The ultra-Orthodox and secular are enjoying themselves, but voters for the (pro-settler) National Religious Party may be embarrassed and angry, with such incidents seen as one more case of secular harassment."

"Compared to the distant past, rabbis' influence has increased," says Menachem Friedman, professor of sociology at Bar-Ilan University. "But compared to 10 years ago it has deteriorated, basically because they're not united."

"Rabbis influence politics, but not like 20 years ago when they could block a coalition," he said. "What's important is that they have followers who listen, so they have political power."

Friedman says that because of its government connections, the chief rabbinate is no longer considered a significant religious leadership "especially after the ordination of the last two chief rabbis."

Metzger is "mediocre and that's why the attorney general was encouraged to ask him to step down. If he had been a great scholar then no one would have dared."

And despite the two rabbis' very public fall from grace, Sharkansky insists dalliances and corruption have always existed within the rabbinate.

"I don't think this is new," he says. "It's always been there. What's new is the freedom on the part of the media to emphasise these cases.

"Rabbis can marry so may not have as many pent up sexual passions as (Catholic) priests, but they have been charged with sexual harassment, or paedophilia or asking sexual favours from women."


http://www.middle-east-online.com/en...ures/?id=16187

07-04-2006, 17:25


heb je ook nog NL teksten ?

07-04-2006, 17:27

Citaat door Barreta:
heb je ook nog NL teksten ?
Nee, alleen Engelse

07-04-2006, 17:41
als een geestelijke de absolute waarheid is dan is die macht heel erg groot en gebueren dergelijke dingen

het is goed dat het in de openbaarheid komt.

nu de islam geestelijken nog en de zaak is rond, hoewel daar zijn de slachtoffers eigenlijk nog veel tye bang voor om daarmee in het nieuws te komen er staat namelijk de doodstraf op.