Tziyunov is definitely getting the attention he was looking for.

Tziyunov went to a football (soccer) game the other day and drew a lot of attention, and last night he went to a nightclub (shalvata) in Tel Aviv in full regalia and hung out with the deejay swaying to the beats...but today he was slapped with a cease and desist letter from the Council of the Sephardi and Oriental Communities in Jerusalem, the Vaad Adat Hesephardim...

I like how in the address section of the letter they address the letter to him with the title "The One Who Dresses in Vain in the Cloak of the Rishon Letzion"

In the letter the Chairman of the council writes the vaad was established 759 years ago upon the Rambans arrival in Jerusalem.. Since the 17th century all Rishon Letzions since Rav Moshe Gelenti have served wearing the unique robes and headdress and the Council holds exclusive rights on the inaugural ceremonies and the dressing of the Rishon Letzions robes and headdress, uninterrupted during the Ottoman rule and under the British Mandate. All have been designed and sewn under the authority of the Council and the Council holds the trademark/copyright and it is illegal to copy this.

The letter goes on to say he has no right to use it, etc etc and should immediately cease to wear it in public and in appearances before legal action will be taken.

Wow. Interesting. I did not know that this old council holds the legal rights to this outfit.

I somehow suspect that he is not going to be deterred by this letter. I am curious to see what will happn and if they will take him to court over this and what the courts will say...

Tziyunov is right now basking his 15 minutes in the sun and is probably getting more attention than he ever fantasized about.

With the ceasefire still holding, even if just barely, our grand country seems to be very bored that this is one of the big issues of the day... 

 

Why did his name come up?

During the torch lighting ceremony on Har Harzl, the night of Yom Haatzmaut, perhaps you noticed the camera panning on the crowd rest momentarily on the above person.

I noticed and wondered who that is and why he is dressed like that as it is clearly not Rishon LeTzion Chief Rabbi Dovid Yosef (who, if I am not mistaken, bowed out of the ceremony due to illness) or his brother former Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef or former Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar. 

It seems many other people were wondering as well because throughout the day of Yom Haatzmaut this was one of the most discussed topics - who it was, why he dressed like that and more. Quite a stir was caused by his appearance.

So it turns out this is a fellow named Eyal Tziyunov who seems to be quite a character, claiming at times to be mashiach, dressing not infrequently like a Chief Rabbi, (I saw a cute line of someone, I think it was Yair Cherki) calling him the Rishon LeTziyunov), going up to Har Habayit dressed in this garb despite the Chief Rabbis all supporting the official Chief Rabbinate position of not going to Har Habayit.... is he a rabbi or not? I dont know, but sometimes I have seen him referred to as Rav Eyal Tziyunov and sometimes just as Eyal Tziyunov.

The interesting thing is there was both outrage and a supposed security incident with him at the ceremony dressed like this.

There were attempts to push the Rabbanut to file a complaint with the police and have him arrested. I am not quite sure for what. Is it illegal to wear the robes and hat? is Purim a legal exception or is it illegal then as well? Is the Sephardic Chief Rabbi (and former SCRs) the only person legally allowed to wear the outfit? As far as I know he has never claimed to be the Chief Rabbi and in interviews over the past day or so he has explicitly denied any claims that he is claiming to be so.

People also complained a security failure because he was able to get into the event and be in the crowd in proximity of the Prime Minister. I am not sure why that was an issue. I assume security checked him and did not find him to be carrying a gun or any other weapon. He never attacked anyone. I am nto quite sure what the failure is. Maybe people are assuming he was not checked because security might have thought he was the Chief Rabbi? I would assume a badge or some identification has to be shown to get through security, and I would like to believe security at these events is already familiar with the Chief Rabbis and cannot be so easily fooled (though you never know). Also the design on his robe and the quality of the garments is not the same as that of the garments used by the Chief Rabbi and are easily distinguished.

I hope this guy gets the help he needs if he is more than just eccentric, but let's not turn everything into a crisis and an insult.

Despite PM Netanyahu's opposition to this, the government is looking to pass a law that would require all behavior to comply with the orders of the Chief Rabbinate at the Holy Places in Israel, including the Kotel... this would disallow women from using Torah scrolls or laying tefilling and donning tallit at the Kotel, appropriate attire, among other behaviors we have seen and some have fought over. Netanyahu is pushing for them to drop the vote on this law proposal, but so far many of the ministers are saying they are going to push it forward despite Netanyahu's opposition to it.

MK Avi Maoz (Noam) has propsoed a law that will require compliance with the Chief Rabbinate's decrees or directives at the Holy Sites, including the Kotel. Maoz would have this be punishable by up to 7 years of prison for non-compliance.

One potential side effect of passage of this law would be Jews going to Har Habayit. The Chief Rabbinate has always been opposed to Jews going to Har Habayit and has issued directives against Jewish ascent. If the law passes and Jews go up anyway, we could see frum Jews being arrested for going to Har Habayit, and that is regardless of how they act up there or what they do (until now Jews could be and were detained on Har Habayit for visibly praying or doing other "provocative" things, though this has been lessened since Minister Ben Gvir took office as Minister of National Security).

I am not sure what the official legal status of Har Habayit is in Israeli law - I think it only has status as a holy site for Muslims, not as a Jewish holy site, so that might actually be its saving grace for Jews. If it is not a holy site it might not fall under the authrity of the Chief Rabbinate. Strange that it is not considered a holy site, but that is what I understand its status is...

As far as the Kotel, where does it begin and where does it end? Will the same rules apply to the Kotel Hakattan (it should)? What about the plaza leading to the Kotel? Can the women make their minyan in the plaza without threat of arrest? if people are dressed inappropriately in the plaza can they be arrested?

At the end of the day, I cant see it being a good thing to see people arrested for praying, for not wearing stockings (if the Rabbanut decides that is appropriate attire for a holy site) or for other such behaviors. Once the genie is out of the box, not sure it will be so easy to put back in, and while the goal is against the Reform from doing their things, it will quickly affect others as well... will this take away the right for Israel to express outrage when other countries ban prayer in certain places or ban circumcision unless done in certain ways?

The Chief Rabbis also point out that the two chapters of Tehillim, Chapters 121 and 130, should continue to be said for the safety of the soldiers, for the healing of the injured and for the return f the hostages

In his post Rav Kahana wrote: The goal was within reach, but not everyone stuck to the decision of the rabbinic committee.

To note, Rav Kahana accumulated 30 votes, with the winners going to the second round getting 40 votes each. 30 votes on his own, with his major backers and opponents backing out of their commitments in the final stretch. He got pretty close against all odds, and had Smotritch not backed out of his commitment, and had Rav Halevi not backed out of his commitment, Rav Kahana could definitely have won or been a finalist. 

Sorry to say, but that's what you get when you try to play fair and square in politics. And yes, the Chief Rabbinate is purely politics.

As if important rabbis breaking deals and commitments while playing politics for a job isnt bad enough.

Yesterday, as the counting of the ballots concluded, a tie was officially declared between the candidates Rav Kalman Ber and Rav Micha Halevi, each with 40 votes tallied. Due to the tie, it was officially announced that the vote would go to a second round of voting. 

Shortly after the official declaration, an additional vote was discovered in the wrong ballot box - a vote for open of the ashkenazi rabbi candidates was found in the Sefardi rabbi ballot box (it had not been noticed there during the counting of the votes for the Sefardic Chief Rabbi). The candidate whose name is on that ballot declared victory saying it should be counted as that is the will of the voter even if a mistake was made, while the other candidate claimed the vote is invalid and cannot be counted.

They will decide whatever they decide as each side in the matter will make his case, and it will probably end up in the Supreme Court. Rabbis vying for the position of Chief Rabbi should really be above such suspicions and shenanigans. the only way to fix this and retain any level of respect for the office that might still be left would probably be to void the entire election and have a do-over. It might even make sense to invalidate the current candidates who for now have left a bad stain on an office that is meant to be one of morality and faith and not one of politics and underhandedness.  This wont happen though so somehow a decision will be made, likely by the Supreme Court, and someone will be declared Chief Rabbi, and the people will continue to have less and less respect for the Chief Rabbinate than what they already had based on the embarrassments of previous years. 

It is amazing how the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the connected politicians with all their "rosh katans" could do such a poor job running such a small election (just 140 votes maximum, of which 138 votes were submitted) and bring such shame to the office. It is almost as of they are trying to destroy the reputation of the Chief Rabbinate and get the last few people who still respect the office and listen to its decision to abandon it like everyone else. 

That being said, I am not happy with Minister Betzalel Smotritch's decision to abandon the decision of the committee he set up to determine which candidate would be the official candidate of the Religious Zionism. The committee selected Rav Meir Kahane as the candidate. After a lot of waffling by other candidates and by some of the people on the committee, the whole thing went kabloeey, and now Smotritch is saying he is going to support Rav Michal Halevi.

I know it is a pipe dream, but the Chief Rabbinate should be clean from politics and from people backing out of their commitments (and Smotritch isnt the only one guilty of that in this case). While I understand the arguments (as to who they think will have the best chance to win), Smotritch had a support deal with MK Aryeh Deri for each to support the other's candidate and no matter who Smotritch would support, those two candidates should be able to garner the majority vote and victory. Smotritch backing out of his commitment for support based on the committee is dirty politics that should be kept out of the rabbinate. if Rav Micha Halevi wins, and he may very well win, it will be a nice victory for Smotritch if he does, it is dirty on both his part and Rav Halevi's part (who committed to adhere to the decision of the committee and not submit himself as a candidate above and then reneged) and not appropriate to be chosen as a rabbi, let alone a Chief Rabbi, after acting like a regular politician who doesnt necessarily keep his word. 

.

in the leadup to the elections for Chief Rabbi (which may possibly get postponed again), Rav Shmuel Eliyahu, Chief Rabbi of Tzfat and candidate for the position of Chief Rabbi of Israel, was asked an interesting question at a recent session in Yeshivat Hakotel in Jerusalem. Rav Eyal Yakobovitz, Rosh Yeshiva of the Hesder Yeshiva of Tzfat, asked Rav Eliyahu what is the first thing he would do upon being elected as Chief Rabbi of Israel?

Rav Shmuel Eliyahu gave a unique, and I think unusual, answer in response.

Rav Shmuel Eliyahu said that should he be elected to the position of Chief Rabbi the first thing he will do is invite the Pope to a meeting and teach him the book of prophecy, help him do teshuva, and thereby uproot evil from the root. And the second thing he would do, he said, is spend Shabbos with the soldiers in the South.

source: Israel National NewsIsrael National News

I envy his confidence. He is going to invite the Pope to a meeting, help him do teshuva and uproot evil from the roots. Impressive!

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cute

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Shas recently decided it wanted to push off the elections for the Chief Rabbinate so it prepared a law to enable that. The law passed its first reading yesterday and Otzma did not vote for it. Otzma criticized Shas for changing the rules of the game in the middle of the game. Elections are underway, candidates have announced and have been campaigning and now is not the time to make changes. Shas claims they have to push it off to keep the elections kosher. While I do not understand it, the issue is the proximity of the Chief Rabbinate elections to the upcoming municipal elections and somehow one affects the other with mayors possibly supporting rabbinic candidates when they themselves might not be re-elected. 

So, Otzma did not support the bill presented by Shas to postpone the Chief Rabbinate elections. Shas then accused Otzma of having "interests" and those interests being behind their opposition. What are their interests? Minister Amichai Eliyahu is the son of Rav Shmuel Eliyahu and according to Shas, Otzma is making this trouble because they want Rav Shmuel Eliyahu to be appointed Chief Rabbi. Shas says they tried to push his candidacy and tried to make a deal in exchange for supporting postponing the bill. Shas accused Otzma of being willing to forgo election purity if they would have been able to get some positions for their people.

source: Kikar

The funny part is that the Chief Rabbinate elections require no purity or anything at all. they are not even actually elections, more like selections, with Shas almost completely controlling the entire process. Whether Otzma wanted Rav Eliyahu appointed or not, is that any worse than Shas trying to decide between supporting Aryeh Deri's brother or Rav Yizchak Yosef's brother? Is only Otzma not allowed to prefer a family member (if they actually did)?

אגיד משהו שלא ציפיתם לשמוע ממני: הרבנות הראשית לא רשומה על שם החרדים בטאבו. יתרה מזו - הציונות הדתית היא צרכנית של הרבנות הראשית ומאמינה במוסד הזה הרבה יותר מהחרדים שזיקתם לרבנות קלושה. הוגן לחלוטין לצפות שתהיה חלוקה של רב אחד סרוג ורב אחד חרדי. לדרוש דאבל זה קצת גובל בגסות רוח.

— אריה ארליך A. Erlich (@AryeErlich) June 4, 2023

I will say something you will not have expected to hear from me; the Chief Rabbinate does not belong to the Haredim. More than that - The National Religious are the greatest consumers of the Chief Rabbinate, they believe in the institution of the Chief Rabbinate much more than the Haredim do, the Haredim whose connection is very weak. It is completely reasonable to expect that there will be a division of one Haredi Chief Rabbi and one Dati Chief Rabbi. Demanding "double" is a bit on the edge of haughtiness and vulgarity.

Ehrlich tweeted this to the threat MK Gafni made to run a Haredi candidate for the position of Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi due to the DL selecting Rav Meir Kahane as their candidate. Gafni says Rav Kahane is a modern day Rav Goren and they dont like that, though they would have lived with the selection of Rav Micha Halevi, had he been selected. To note, if Gafni carries through with his threat it would be breaking coalition agreements, though the deal between Shas and Smotritch does not obligate him.

The Ashkenazi candidate is a bit more complicated. The DL party/parties (right now Smotritch and Ben Gvir) inked a deal with Shas for trading support, they will support Shas's candidate and Shas will support theirs. Aguda generally does not field their own candidate but they usually strongly influence which DL candidate will get elected.

Minister Smotritch has announced that they will support Rav Meir Kahane (I checked, no relation to the OG) - a rav and rosh yeshiva and dayan from Ashkelon. Degel doesnt like him because it seems he comes from a more liberal end of the DL community (I personally am not familiar with him at all so have no personal knowledge) and are threatening to not support his candidacy. The leading candidate for Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi until now was though to be Rav Micha Halevi, a well respected rav more from the Har Hamor community (supposedly Avi Maoz considers him his rabbi) which is more "traditional" and closer to the Haredi style - Degel was fine with him (I havent heard anything about Aguda's position on this just yet) being the DL candidate.

The other expected candidate will be Rav Yehuda Deri, Chief Rabbi of Beer Sheva and brother of MK Aryeh Deri.

According to Kikar, Shas will soon decide which candidate to support for this position, and the other will likely be offered the position of Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem.

Not to detract from the greatness of each of these two rabbis, as they are both surely qualified and well respected, but this is pure nepotism and favoritism. Sure, these are two great rabbis (I assume, only knowing a little bit about each), but aren't there any other great and accomplished rabbis that might also be worthy of consideration besides for the family members of the two leaders of Shas?

King Charles decided to bestow Rabbi Mirvis with the knighthood, officially adding the title "Sir" to his name and pedigree. Lord is still a bit out of reach, but maybe eventually, as Rabbi Jacobawitz and Rabbi Sacks achieved.

King Charles bestowed this honor on Rabbi Mirvis in recognition of the work he does for interfaith dialogue, in addition to his work for more inclusivity of women and members of the LGBTQ community in Orthodox leadership among some other projects he works on.

So what will he be called now - Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Irvis? 

I must say, Lord sounds more godly and Sir sounds like an average Joe, but honestly it is a big honor and the British Jewish community can be proud of their Chief Rabbi and their accomplishments.

Rav Yosef in his shiur last night criticized MK Itamar Ben Gvir (Hatzionut Hadatit) for going up to Har Habayit.

Perhaps most egregiously Rav Yosef called him an idiot. I think it behooves a respectable position like the Chief Rabbi, any rabbi really but especially the Chief Rabbi, to speak with respect and dignity, even with those with which he disagrees. I know it is nothing new, but I truly wish he would not sink to the level of name calling and the like.

Besides for that, Ben Gvir has been going up to Har Habayit for a long time, and he has been causing provocations (on Har Habayit and elsewhere) for a long time. All of the sudden Rav Yosef needed to speak out against him?

With the nation on the brink of dispersing for elections, whether the collapse will be this week, next week or next month, it seems clear Shas is feeling the pressure of Ben Gvir's party skyrocketing on the polls with many Shas [and UTJ] voters moving to support Ben Gvir due to his more extreme and provocative approach. It seems likely to me that at least one of his goals in speaking out in this fashion at this time is to stem the tide of supporters moving to Ben Gvir's camp. 

One might say dont involve the rabbi in politics, but when the rabbi involves himself in politics there is no reason to not consider him involved.

And yes, I am sure the halachic aspect alone was also a concern of Rav Yosef's. I do not accuse him of being purely political (though I dont see why that is necessarily a bad thing, considering the position is basically a political appointment with the politicians deciding who the Chief Rabbi will be and making deals for support), but it is a strong motivation.

I am not sure what is supposed to be so shocking or surprising about this. Rabbi Yehuda Gerami is the Chief Rabbi there and walks around in his rabbinic garb. They dont just kill Jews on site in Iran, even if it is an oppressive regime. The Jewish community there right now enjoys relative freedom and protection, at least similarly to the level of freedom of everyone else in Iran. Or so they say, but they might have to say that. Either way, even if things are not really great there for Jews, they still walk around relatively safely without getting killed on site. Most people seeing this person might not even identify him as a Jew. They probably do not know who he is or where he came from, just by looking at him.

The person in the video is Rabbi Yaakov Herzog. He is the self declared Chief Rabbi of Saudi Arabia. This is not an official appointment - Saudi Arabia prohibits any religious activity within the country other than Islam. Herzog is there and says he is trying to establish a Jewish community. His twitter feed is interesting and weird, traveling around Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries, dancing with people in the streets and building his brand.

I dont know why he feels it important or necessary to bring Jews to Saudi Arabia and build a community there, if he gets official permission from the rulers. 

Whatever. Different strokes for different folks. Whatever it is, at least be entertained....

Kikar reports on some of what was discussed at the conference. I personally find the conclusions the most interesting part. 

1. Regarding the kashrut reforms, they concluded with a statement that the Rabbis of Israel announce that they will instruct anyone who follows their instruction not to rely on any kashrut given according to this plan, as it will present a stumbling block to the public

2. Regarding conversions they concluded with a statement saying that this reality, of taking the conversion system out of the hands of the Chief Rabbinate, will cause a division of separate communities, with the need to create a "sefer yuchsin" and conversions performed by anyone other than the Rabbanut will not be recognized by the rabbis of Israel.

Interesting statements. 

Regarding the kashrut statement, the Haredim dont listen to the Rabbanut and have all their own hechshers anyway. For now they base it on the Rabbanut but will have no problem functioning without. The masorati and secular dont care about the Rabbanut. They'll see the food is kosher by a different organization and will be fine with that. Many among the Dati Leumi follow the Rabbanut, but will they stop eating the Haredi hechshers because the Rabbanut is no longer? Many Dati Leumi will already eat Tzohar hechsher, along with the Haredi hechshers and many don't even rely on plain Rabbanut. I am not sure their statement, or threat, is quite as strong as they make it out to be.

Regarding the conversion statement, which I think is potentially a more significant issue, they already do not recognize conversions performed by organizations other than the Rabbanut, so this is not much of a change. Even the beis din of Rav Nissim Karelitz, an extremely prestigious beis din, was not recognized by the Rabbanut for conversions.

And, the teachers or rabbis who always say, it is ok to say "I don't know", or they say something like the greatest experience in the classroom was the first time I said "I don't know" to a student's question, and kids don't expect you to know everything and you should be honest, etc.

Chief Rabbi Rav Yitzchak Yosef, in his recent shiur, called on the radio stations to stop their popular "ask the rabbi" programs in which a rabbi takes callers on air and answers their halachic questions.

I would note that one of the most popular such programs on the radio has been run by Rav Yosef's own brother, Rav Avraham Yosef on Radio Kol Hai (note: I don't know if this program is still on the air, as I no longer listen to radio on even a semi regular basis, but it at least was for several years).

Rav Yosef criticized these programs saying the rabbi on air responds quickly, no matter the topic, whether it be in Yoreh Deah, Choshen Mishpat or whatever topic, and it seems as if the rabbi knows the entire Torah and has it all at his fingertips.

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