Rabbi Yona Metzger has submitted a request for a presidential pardon. He seems to have agreed to not apply to serve in any official capacity as a rabbi, though he is also requesting that he not be stripped of his title.
Metzger has done nothing wrong by requesting a pardon. It is part of the process and he is fully entitled to try to take advantage of it.
I do hope President Rivlin rejects the request, at least now after just a year of jail and with the request to not be stripped of his title. The chilul hashem he caused is much worse than the actual crime. He doesnt need a pardon. Only Hashem can pardon him for his crimes. He can get out early for good behavior like any other convict.
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Not just a Chilul HaShem, but he almost single handily undermined the entire institution of the Chief Rabbanut, many of the complaints people have about incompetency or overly-machmir positions regarding marriage, conversion, kashrut, etc can be traced to dayanim or other employees appointed by Rabbi Metzger.
ReplyDeleteThis is not directly related to the crime he committed, but it is hard to feel compassion for someone who undermined (and attempted to destroy) one of the flagships of religious-Zionism which was part of Rav Kook's vision for a Jewish State
Of course,t he got the job just so he could do that.
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