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Jul 19, 2018

sinas chinam or just the law

A conservative rabbi was arrested, or perhaps just detained, in the early hours of the morning (5:30am, according to the news) for having officiated at private, non-Rabbanut, weddings.

Even if I disagree with this law, the law is the law. Anybody and everybody is welcome to break the law, as long as they know they are risking being arrested or fined or punished in whatever way the law mandates. This Rabbi Hayoun took the risk and was arrested, so I am not going to be overly upset about this.

I do wonder though why this fellow was arrested when so many others are ignored. Maybe it is a new approach by the Rabbanut, or maybe it is selective enforcement. A number of MKs very publicly perform private weddings, as so some Orthodox rabbis, and probably many other people as well, yet there is hardly ever an arrest for this. This might even be the first.

Interestingly, many expressing outrage over this are pointing out the irony of the fact that this rabbi was scheduled to give a lecture today in the President's House about the topic of Sinas Chinam - baseless hatred - and then the Rabbanut goes and reports this guy to the police and has him arrested for such a senseless thing, clearly sinas chinam in action.

While I happen to disagree with the Rabbanut and see no need for them to hold a monopoly on Jewish services, this has nothing to do with sinas chinam. They reported someone who was breaking the law. It is as simple as that. They are protecting their monopoly as it is protected by law. They don't necessarily hate this Rabbi Hayoun, though they might for other reasons, but this is an issue of power and money and control and legalities and not an issue of sinas chinam.



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5 comments:

  1. He wasn't arrested for performing a private wedding. He was summoned to appear before the court (which is part of the justice system) and didn't show. You can't just ignore a summons and expect to get away with it.

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  2. why was he summoned to the court?

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  3. Per the news stories I've seen, the wedding he performed involved a Mamzer marrying a non-Mamzeret, which is why this was viewed more seriously

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    1. I think that is a bluff. the beis din said that this woman was a safek mamzeret (or maybe it was the man) but according to another report the beis din itself had already cleared this person as a non-mamzer. I dont know what is true and what is not.

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  4. anyways, from what I am now told, the law only applies to performing orthodox weddings outsid eof the rabbanut. that is how MKs who perform secular weddings (such as Tzippi Livni and Yair Lapid among others) get away with it with no criticism. If true, the wedding performed by this Conservative Rabbi would also not be illegal, even if it wont be recognized by the State. I dont know why he didnt appear before the court , especially if what he did was legal, but this law is a ticking time bomb. It should also be challenged on being discriminatory against the Orthodox, or make it all illegal.

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