The Chief Rabbinate; A Blessing or a Curse? part 7

The Langer case threatened to tare Israel apart. The rabbis appeared helpless. The secular wondered if there ever could be a way of coexisting with the religious. At this point, center stage is taken by Rabbi Shlomo Goren (1917-1994). Rabbi Goren was a most unique and enigmatic figure. He had fought in the Haganah; the pre-State leftist paramilitary group that, along with others, had won independence for Israel. He was a personal friend of David Ben Gurion. Ben Gurion, a staunch secularist, made many concessions to religion under the influence of Rabbi Goren. After statehood was established, he convinced Ben Gurion to form a separate, independent rabbinate for the military, insuring that every army base would maintain a kosher kitchen, and Shabbat would be observed to the extent possible. Every Israeli soldier (whether Jewish or not!) was (and is) required to attend a Passover seder. Rabbi Goren was appointed the Chief Rabbi of TZAHAL, the Israeli defense forces, a position he held for twenty years. His scholarship was amazing. At the same time, like Ben Gurion, when he was convinced of something, he would tolerate no dissent. To borrow a phrase from the U.S. military, he was "an army of one" (I learned this first hand when, shortly before his death, he came to visit the community where  I lived. There was a halachic question regarding the laws of Tefillin which was greatly troubling me. People in my community who were close to him, explained that I was considered an expert in these laws, but was troubled about a particular point, concerning the exactness of the square shape of the Tefillin. He agreed to speak with me. But he did not like my question, and began scolding and berating me publicly. A few months later, I posed the same question to then Rishon L'Tziyon Rabbi Bakshi Doron. He thought that it was a good question, and came up with a good answer). Rabbi Goren announced that if HE were made Chief Rabbi of Israel, he would solve the Langer case within days. At that time, Chief Rabbis held their position for life. But the government hastily passed legislation, that Chief Rabbis would henceforth hold that title for only ten years. Rabbi Goren was declared the new Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel. As for the new Sepharadic Rabbi, the rising star on the horizon was Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (of whom I consider myself a student). He was known. like Rabbi Goren, as favoring lenient positions in halachah. Having them work together seemed like a good idea at the time, but proved to be disastrous. If one said day, the other said night. More on this in another post. As soon as Rabbi Goren entered his new office, he convened a secret, midnight Court, to ratify his solution to the Langer case. He summoned Mrs. Langer's first husband. He asked him to recite the first line of the Shema'. He did not know it. Rabbi Goren reasoned that had he actually converted, he would know Shema'. He therefore ruled that Mrs. Langer's first marriage was null and void, and her children not Mamzerim. But he didn't stop there. Just in case he might be wrong on this issue, he took the unprecedented step of declaring her first marriage invalid by his say so and, in case the man was in fact converted, he annulled his conversion.. There is, in fact, a statement in the Talmud implying that a rabbi can invalidate any marriage or conversion he wishes, but this had never actually been done. On the contrary, another Talmudic statement makes it clear that once converted, even if the convert reverts to idolatry he remains a Jew . Sadly, this has been (mis)used by later rabbis, in a clearly political way. This was seen by many as a grab for power that had never been part of Jewish practice. The following day, marriages were held for both Langer children, with Prime Minister Golda Meir walking them down the aisle. His decision is controversial until this day. But forces were now set into motion that would change everything. That will be my next post.