Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Rabbi of Efrat in Gush Etzion and founder of Ohr Torah Stone, strongly criticized haredi Knesset members on Tuesday for their stance on the government’s conversion reforms.
In an interview with Galei Yisrael radio, Rabbi Riskin defended the proposed government decision regarding conversion, which would remove Chief Rabbinate supervision of the conversion process, and criticized its opponents.
“I do not understand the whole issue. Yes, I think there is a (Torah) commandment of ‘you shall love the convert.’ Yes, I think that the Chief Rabbinate until now did not know what it is to get someone who wants to convert treated properly, with love and care,” he fired. “How dare they say that my conversions were not done according to Jewish Law?”
In response, the interviewer, attorney Dov Halberthal–who is himself haredi–said, “They say it’s an issue of love replacing halacha (Jewish law).”
Rabbi Riskin replied, “It’s not ‘instead of halacha.’ The halacha itself talks about love. Don’t you know a very simple mishna (Talmudic tract): ‘be disciples of Aharon, loving peace and pursuing peace?’ Love people and bring them closer to Torah through love.”
Halberthal continued to respond, claiming that applies to “Jewish people and not the Gentiles,” but Rabbi Riskin retorted: “There is no place in the Torah where it says that ‘people’ means ‘Jews.’ It means ‘human beings’–period.”
Halberthal then presented the position of many in the haredi world that “neither the halacha nor the Jews want converts,” apparently interpreting the Jewish prerogative to warn converts against the hardships of being a Jew as meaning Judaism opposes conversion entirely–a sentiment to which Rabbi Riskin responded harshly.
“That is against the halachic tradition! I’ll tell you, in my opinion the haredim are the biggest ‘Reformers,’ in many many things, including opposition to enlistment into the army because ‘there is nothing but Talmud [study],” he said, in a dig at the haredi opposition, which has claimed those who support the bill are aligned with the Reform movement.
“There is no [early halachic authority] who says that learning Torah physically protects peoples’ lives,” he said, in a swipe at the haredi position that yeshiva study should itself be considered national service.
“There is room for dissenting opinions in Judaism,” Riskin declared. “There is no one who says that their way is the only way in Judaism–to say so is to be Catholic and follow the Pope,” he exclaimed.
The Chief Rabbinate previously warned it would not accept converts under the new law given the fact that it would not be able to supervise the conversion process, and warned that world rabbis likewise have stated they will be forced not to accept Israeli conversions if the Chief Rabbinate is stripped of its supervision.
By Ido Ben-Porat/www.arutz7.com
