Page 6-The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, November 19, 1992
M-T
Chief Rabbi Lau
Divergence of religious and secular factions is a serious problem in Israel. Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, is regarded as a man who can bridge the gap.
Well known in Israel through frequent appearances on radio and television. Rabbi Lau is ru-rnored to be a prime candidate for the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. A former high schoolteacher at both religious and secular schools, he served as chief rabbi of Netanya from the late 1970s until he was elected chief rabbi of Tel Aviv in 1989.
Bom in Piotrokow, Poland, Rabbi Lau is the descendant of 37 generations of rabbis. He is a child survivor of the Holocaust and has led the March of the Living three times. He and his wife have eight children and 17 grandchildren. ' 'My revenge," he calb them.
Rabbi Lau spoke to CJN reporter Frances Kraft about religious issues in Israel when he was in Toronto recently on behalf of the Biotechnical Institute of Israel.
CJN: What do you feel Israel's biggest problem is, and how do you feel it should be addressed?
Rabbi Lau: The reiationship between religious and secular. It's very difficult to live in the same boat, but there is no choice. We must live in the same boat until Messiah comes and everyone understands that without religion there is no Jewish continuity and eternity.
There are two ways to solve the problem. The first way is learning, studying, education about Judaism, because the lack of knowledge creates a gap. It makes a split between us. It's like two deaf people who cannot find a common language.
Most of the Jewish population do not know even what is inside the mezuzah, and they don't know what Shabbat really means. They know only that on Shabbat there are limitations. They don't know the positive way of Shabbat, only the negative. No television, no sports, no sea, no cinema, no smoking, no cars, but what yes? They don't know the taste of a prayer, the taste of zemirot, the Shabbat table, the gathering of the family. You cannot build a bridge when there is a lack of elementary knowledge of Judaism, and they really don't know.
Number two, and this is the minimum we can agree upon: maximum Judaism in the public field, minimum involvement in private life. I will not interfere in your private lives, if you are Shomer Shabbat or not. Even if you drive your car, I cannot interfere. I cah^but I will not do it, because if we want to live together, we must agree upon one Way, a way in which public life will be a Jewish one. Public transportation, like the train and the buses, like El Al, are not going on Shabbat.
Another example: 1 will hot enter your kitchen to see the separation between milk and meat, but in the army, or in the hospital, or even in jail, if among 1,000 peopley there is one observant Jew, he may eat only kosher. Nine hundred ninety-nine secular may eat kosher as well. The kitchen must be kosher. Even Ben Gurion realized this in 1949, when he decided that the kitchens of Tzahal must be kosher.
Marriage and divorce must be according to Halachah, even if we are the minority. There Cannot be a comnion boat without the laws of marriage and diyorce. If the marriages, or more importantly the gittim (divorces), are not according to Halachah, you create a split in the Jewish family, in the Jewish nation. There will be no basis for common life. If a divorce is not according to Halachah, and the woman is remarrying, the children of the second marriage, according to Halachah, are forbidden to [marry] my chil^ dren. We want to prevent that.
If it's only a question of opinion or outlook, ^ we can argue, we can have a discussion, we might be able to compromise, but if we cannot marry each other, it's a division of a nation.
CJN: What can be done about the problem of agunot (women whose husbands are unwilling or unable to give them a'divorce)?
Rabbi Lau: Israel, unfortunately, has had very many wars on battlefields. Very many. In some of those wars people just disappeared, their corpses were never found, especially in the Yom Kij^ur war when pojple changed taiUcs, and there was no supervision of who was where. Disappearing of soldiers started already in 1946, before the establishment of the State, when the
Palmach lost many fighters.
Let me assure you of one thing. From 1946, until 1992, there is not even one agunah [because of war] from Eretz Yisrael. Every almanah (widow) of those soldiers has received fiiU permission from the rabbinical court to remarry. This is one side of the coin.
There is another side of the coin, agunot by free will of the couple, when you know where the husband is^ but he doesn't want to give a divorce.
there has to be the same parallel in the rabbinic courts.
[When the Supreme Court overturns a decision of the rabbinical court], it creates a clash. We must think about it.
In cases dealing with Halachic issues such as those that arise from divorce, I would say, if you take a special authority of Supreme Court members and supreme rabbinic court members, together, combining the two, the voices of men like Rav Ovadia Yosef or Rav Shlomo Goren will
Family life is not a revolving door, in and out. It's at least a partnership of two partners. Just as you cannot establish a partnership without the free will of two sides, you cannot break a partnership without the agreement of two sides.
CJS: Are you saying that's there's no solution to this problem of agunot?
Rabbi Lau: No, no. This is the ordinary case. Extraordinary is when you make extraordinary efforts in order to convince one of the parties who refuses, and sometimes it's the woman. It's a coin of two sides, like every marriage.
It's not a new phenomenon. People argue, and because of the [initial] strong love, the insult is even greater, as are the anger and hatred.
In Tel Aviv there are 10 rabbinical courts [of which Riabbi Lau is the head]. They do everything possible in order to prevent aguhah. Nobody is apathetic. Everyone cares, worries, wants to help. We are human beings.
CJN: A? you foresee any changes in the Israeli court system, or do you recommend any?
Rabbi Lau: I see very bitteriy that the Supreme Court, the civil one, is taking away more and more power from the rabbinical courts. It me-ans^at today, someone who is not happy with the decision of the rabbinical court can apply to the SupremejZourt, which often cancels the decision of the rabbinical court. I see it with very worried eyes. It gives people who live according to Halachah the feeling that they_are second-class citizens. I think if there is a secular Supreme Court,
also be heard.
Maybe this is a way to build a bridge, if not from the foundation tiien from the roof
CJN: How is it that you've been successfiil in reaching out to the secular population in Israel?
Rabbi Lau: The answer is simple. I became a teacher in non-religious secondary schools in Petach Tikvah, just after being a student at yeshivah in BneiBrak. This transition from yeshivah to a school in the name of Achad Ha'Am is very unusual, but you see it's possible.
What did I find there? Thirst for Judaism. Real Uiirst. For instance, the students wanted me to join them at their Chanukah party. I didn't accept the invitation because the way they celebrate, dancing, you know, it's not my way. I said, kindly, "thank you," but they understood that I didn't intend to go.
A second delegation came to tel 1 me that tiiey wanted me to join tiiem so much tiiat they had arranged a room for me for tiie entire eight days of Chanukah. I asked them why tiiey had arranged a room, when Petach Tikvah is only half an hour from Tel Aviv. They were sure Uiat for eight days we don'tAvork.don't ride, don't speak on the telephone.
I looked at them and saidt "That you don't know the laws of Chanukah, okay, but how is it Uiat you and I are so strange to one anotiier? There are observant Jews in Petach Tikvah. How far away you are one from another."
And they were anxious to know. They were brought up in Eretz Yisrael, in Petach Tikvah, not even on a kibbutz. Can you understand what my worry is?
There are no apikorsim (agnostics). They do notdeny Judaism. You ask me why I have a good relationship with them. They were waiting, expecting someone like me to come to sp^ to thein, because they had nobody to explain elementary things to them.
CJN: What is the religious status of the Ethiopian kessim? Are they allowed to perform marriages in Israel?
Rabbi Lau: The kessim, their religious leaders, are not yet authorized to conduct weddings. To do that, they must know the ftmdamental laws of Jewish life.
Unfortunately they don't know the law, because they were cut off from all Jewish resources for at least 500 years. They didn't know of the Shulchan Aruch, which is 4(X) years old. They didn't even know that there exists such a code of Jewish law. They never even heard the name.
Unfortunately, they didn't bring tefillin with them. They didn't know that tiiere is a mitzvah of putting on tefillin.
Everyone understands that if a physician comes from Russia or elsewhere, even if he was head Of a hospital department, he has to take a course to fit his knowledge with tiie cQrrent Israeli medical system if he wants to practice.
Everyone understands that even a very success-fill attorney from Canada who comes to Tel Aviv must pass exams.
Every academic professional has to adapt to the law of the country and fit his knowledge to it — engineers, accountants, dentists.
Only when it comes to a religious point is there a fight. Let them be rabbanim, but they must fit themselves to the law, to take an exam, and to show what they know.
We have opened special yeshivot where Ethiopian bachurei yeshivah study to be rabbanim.
CJN: What is the status of the rest of the'Ethiopian immigrants?
Rabbi Lau: They are accepted as Jews^ Most olf them are circumcised. Those who aren't have to undergo circumcision like everyone else in Israel or like an oleh from Russia.
We don't ask them to convert. They have only to go to the mikvah once. We call it renewal of the treaty witii G-d, chidush ha'brit.
What does it mean? As in the time of the Second Temple, when we came back from exile to Eretz Yisrael, we had to make a treaty tiiat we would observe and accept the Torah. Now tiiey will study and hopefully observe tiie commandments. They give a declaration that tiiey accept as Jews the TOrah in its entirety.
CJN: Do the Ethiopians accept this, or is there resistance?
Rabbi Lau: They do it, yes. It's required. There are always a few opponents looldng to make headlines, or the left wing using the Ethiopians to fight against tiie establishment.