[Be-Ahavah U-Be-Emunah – Bemidbar
5773 – translated by R. Blumberg]
When Maran
Ha-Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook founded the Chief Rabbinate almost everyone –
religious and secular - was in favor. Even the secular understood that having a
country includes having religion, and that it was important for there to be a
Chief Rabbi for both internal and external purposes. There were only a handful
of religious Jews who did not want there to be a Chief Rabbi. People quote Ha-Rav
Chaim Zonnenfeld, the head of the opposition, as having said, “At first he will
be a traditional Orthodox Rabbi, then he will be a Rabbi-Doctor, and after that
he will be a reform Rabbi.” It was this he feared, and indeed, Rav Kook and the
rest of the Rabbis feared this too.
It all
depends on who picks the Chief Rabbi.
The Rabbis
said that the ones who would chose the Chief Rabbi should, themselves, be Rabbis.
The secular public refused, however, and said that the decision should be a
public one. Ostensibly the Rabbis were right. I have pointed out with regards
to Bezalel, the architect of the Mishkan, the Desert Tabernacle, that holiness
takes precedence over wisdom, and wisdom takes precedence over the public’s
opinion. Yet the secular said that throughout the generations it was the
community that chose the Rabbi, and that was what should happen now as well.
The Rabbis responded that there can be no comparison. At one time, the public
had all been G-d-fearing, whereas now, in Eretz Yisrael, there was nothing like
that. Why were they choosing a Rabbi? What did they need a Rabbi for? As stated
at the start, the Mara De-Atra, Rabbinic head of the community, is the one we
trust and whose word we obey, yet the secular have no intention of obeying him
anyway. If so, why should they have a say in deciding? As stated, they were in
favor of having a Chief Rabbi, but not in order to obey him, but to meet
political needs.
In the
end, a committee was set up, with the British, the Rabbis and the Jewish People
equally represented. That committee in turn decided that the make-up of the
voting body should be two-thirds Rabbis and one third representatives of the
communities. Two-thirds of Rabbis makes a majority, and some of the communal
representatives were G-d-fearing people as well. With this decision, all doubts
that could have arisen were quashed, and the Rabbis prevailed.
It should
further be stressed that secular individuals who choose a Chief Rabbi do not
want him in order to heed his halachic rulings. They want a Chief Rabbi who
will heed what they say. We can understand this desire, but that is not what a Rabbi
does. That is what Ha-Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik called “the new idolatry,
idolatry to public opinion” (Divrei Ha-Rav, p. 52). In that system, public
opinion determines what you must think and what you must do. You are enslaved
to public opinion.
Yet, as
Socrates said, public opinion can be wrong. There is no need to have learned in
yeshiva to understand this. You need intelligence, just as Socrates had. What he said, however, did not curry favor
with public opinion, and he therefore was sentenced to death. He was given
three options: exile, silence or execution. He said, “If I am unable to say
what I think, or if I go into exile and can no longer have an influence, my
life is no life.” He drank poison, continued speaking, fell asleep and died.
His point was: public opinion should not be the deciding factor in moral/philosophical
matters.
It is
certainly forbidden for public opinion to take precedence in the selection of a
Chief Rabbi. It is a tertiary factor that should come only after the primary
factor, which is holiness, and the secondary factor, which is wisdom, as Rav
Kook explained (Ein Aya, Berachot, Chapter 9, Letter 28).
Indeed,
first and foremost comes holiness. Ha-Gaon Ha-Rav Avraham Shapira, ztz"l,
related that one time there was uncertainty over who should be the Chief Rabbi
- Rav Herzog or Rav Charlap. In the end, Rav Herzog was chosen. Rav Shapira
said, “It was a shame, because Rav Charlop was on a supreme level of holiness.”
He immediately added, “Rav Herzog was holy too, but Rav Charlop was more so.”
Rav Shapira grieved over what occurred. We look back nostalgically to a time when the
choice was between Rav Herzog and Rav Charlop. In the end, because Rav Herzog
had been the Chief Rabbi of Ireland and was more accustomed to the Rabbinate,
he was chosen. That is the sort of selection process that there needs to be.
First
you need a holy man.
