A Blight Unto the Nations: The Decline and Fall of the Chief Rabbinate, with Rachel Stomel (172)

Aug 14, 2023

Rachel Stomel, an expert on Israel's rabbinic establishment, discusses the potential negative impact of the government-sponsored Rabbinate and proposed legislation to increase its power. Topics include the history and evolution of the Chief Rabbinate, the lack of civil avenues for following Hala'cha, opposition to restrictive bills, and the need for political awareness and engagement to address problematic legislation. The speakers also question whether there should be a chief rabbi in Israel and advocate for radical changes to the rabbinate system.

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Introduction

00:00 • 2min

The Importance of Freedom in Sacrificial Action and Opposition to Legislating Religion

02:25 • 2min

The Proposed Legislation and the Role of the Chief Rabbinate

04:45 • 3min

The Establishment and Evolution of the Chief Rabbinate

07:37 • 18min

The Negative Impact of the Chief Rabbinate on the Jewish Community

25:09 • 18min

Opposition to the CUNO Projector

42:44 • 17min

The Power of Political Awareness and Engagement

59:54 • 2min

The Role of the Chief Rabbinate in Israel

01:01:29 • 3min

Promotion of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast and Jewish Coffee House

01:04:59 • 3min

Is the biggest danger to Torah coming from Israel's own rabbinic establishment?

Over the past thirty-plus weeks in Israel, there has been lots of talk about the pros and cons of judicial reform, and about the ways that it should and should not be done. While that issue has taken center stage, other important legislation has also been proposed or passed which has been largely ignored... yet many of these changes will have far-reaching - and potentially detrimental - effects on the nature of religion in Israel.

Some of the most recent proposed legislation further empowers the government-sponsored Rabbinate, both at the national and local levels, even as it centralizes rabbinic power more than ever before. And that’s only a piece of a much bigger puzzle.

Rachel Stomel of the Center for Women’s Justice has wide-ranging knowledge of the Rabbinate and the consequences of state-sponsored rabbinic power, and provided needed insight into the history of the Chief Rabbinate, the reasons that the Knesset is trying to increase the Rabbinate's power, who is resisting this legislation, and the reasons that religion married to state power is dangerous to Torah Judaism.

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Music: "Happy Rock" by bensound.com