Wonderful Article. I sincerely hope that Rabbi Lau does indeed one day become the State President.

Thank you very much Rabbi Lau, for this very nice article. I see that the Chassidic outlook in life, is never lost in you. Probably one of the nicest articlels i have seen on Ynet.

the world is not hefker. Yesh din veyesh Dayan.

...just anti israel not anti semitic.

Tomi Lapid Z''L won't be forgotten in Hungary. He regularly came to private and official visits to Budapest. I remember his latest lecture at the Central European University where he spoke about democratic values and recent developments in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (he didn't advocate the position of Israeli extrem leftwing, but he explained us the difficulties of peaceful aggreements with the Palestinians). He didn't speak against religious people but he mentioned reforms needed in a parliamentary democracy like Israel. He also recalled the attention of the Hungarian public to the alarming dangers of increasing anti-Semitism in Hungary and gave several interviews for the Hungarian press. He remembered the dark times of Hungarian history, the terror of the Arrow Cross Party in 1944-45 and the anti-Jewish legislation in the Horthy era. Hungarian Jews will remember Tomi Lapids deeds and speaches. He was not only good Israeli, but a good Jew (even if not deeply religious). He was also a good Hungarian and a democrat! May he rest in peace! Nyugodjon békében és emléke legyen áldott! Zichronó lebracha!

With all due respect for your apologetics, Judaism is a religion of commandments and obligations. The Jew is compelled to observe the Torah and its directives. By definition we, as Jews, are all coerced to follow the Torah's dictates, whether we want to or not. The phrase religious coercion defines Judaism exactly. We are G-d's servants and we must follow His demands. Why are we shirking from this most crucial point? All Jews must be observant of the Torah and Halacha whether they define themselves as "religious" or not. That he should call himself "secular" makes no difference whatsoever and does not relieve him of his obligations. We have entered into a covenant with the Almighty and must do as He has told us to do. The fact that that there are those who have made the phrase "religious coercion" into something distasteful and negative is not my business. They have simply done so in order to disgrace the Torah and find yet another excuse to avoid its observance.

And the Sun rises in the West. One self-hating Jew less.

"One self-hating Jew less"... If you think to be a "better Jew", better than others, you should avoid speaking badly of a dead person. He was Jewish like you or me, it is not our duty to judge his deeds. Only HaShem can do this "job"! If you can't say anything positive of a dead person, it's better to stay silent.

As we used to say in hungarian; either you say something good about the dead-or-say nothing,so i keep quiet.

and Jews were leaving the religion in droves decades before the Holocaust of there own free will especially in the US where there was no anti-semitism of the insane and murderous European variety, and the very real religious rebirth after the Holocaust was based upon the previously religious survivors efforts both Rabbis and laymen. They who were not religious before the war remained even more so example George Soros and Lapid.

Are you really a religious Jew or are you a hater of religion, trying to make religious Jews look bad?

The People of Israel, the Children of Israel has no religion. We are a people. There is no mention of the word in any of our primary texts. The guide of the people is the Torah received at Mount Sinai. When will this finally be ingested?

"The Holocaust had six million physical victims, but it also had spiritual-religious victims." Yes and a few missed their hair dressers appointment. What stupid equalisation is that? "It is possible that had there not been a Holocaust, Yosef Lapid’s great talent would have been directed to explaining the values of our people’s eternal Torah." Thank god (!), he used his time in a meaningful manner instead. Accept that religion is not everything.

only here can such a vulgar and ignorant personnality like Tommy Lapid get 15 seats and became darling of the elites.Only in Israel can a racist be nominated a Justice Minister . Shame oj you rav Lau for this saccarine article!

Religion is an illness, a deep rooted mental affliction and once again you have confirmed this by spewing out your usual nonsense.

Mier Lau, Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, ex Chief Rabbi of Israel, rabbi in 37th generation finally got an explanation about basics of judaism from Reuven Brauner from Raanana. Please keep it up Reuven, with the help of people like you next time Shinui type party will get much srtonger position in the knesset.

LOVE TO HATE YOU - this is the clish'e i give to this great man today. even though we didnt agree many a times, I respected him, and will miss him. His arguments only gave us strength. its good to argue, freedom of speech, Democracy... I will miss you my friend. may He rest in peace

now he is with his creator may he is better than all the rabes .there is the right judgment

To Marty - I tell it like it is. I do not understand how you thought that I made Judaism look bad? To Sagi - Spirituality and religion are part and parcel of the human experience. Questions like, "where did we and the universe come from?" and, "what is the mean and purpose of life?" have been on Man's mind since time immemorial. That is what relgion is. It is how do we relate to the big and serious questions of life. Mankind needs religion or life would be a boring and useless existence. That is not an illness. That is the way it was designed to be from the beginning. It is built into our psyche to reach out and find G-d because He wants us to find Him.

Its one thing to not speak ill of the dead. Far be it for me to judge a Holocaust survivor like Tommy Lapid. Yet for R' Lau to whitewash Lapid's history and beatify him, spits in the face of all those who Lapid attacked. For example; Once, on Popolitika, Lapid made a remark to the effect that the haredim are parasites who contribute nothing useful to Israeli society. One of the panelists countered by pointing out that most of the members of ZAKA are haredim. Lapid responded that "it's not surprising that so many haredim join ZAKA. The job is perfectly suited to them, since it gives them the chance to see dead, dismembered hilonim every day." Jameel @ The Muqata muqata.blogspot.com

Lapid *did* attack the Jewish religion. Many times. For example, I remember one time on Popolitika when Lapid mocked and disparaged religious people who cared about and discussed the mitzva of "para aduma" (red heifer, see Numbers 19:1-10) in the 20th century. "What a stupid, primitive, and irrelevant issue to even talk about", he said. "Can you imagine what they think of you [religious Jews] in London, Paris, or Washington when they hear you debating this stupidity?!"

to the Lapid family.

to lecture the Rav Lau on Judaism. What an idiot you are.