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Holon's Rabbi Avraham Yosef
Photo: Kobi Koankes

Rabbi: Don't include judges in quorum

Shas spiritual leader's son, Rabbi Avraham Yosef, asserts senior court system officials unworthy of participating in prayer. 'We must ignore their existence, as if they were just air,' he says

Senior figures in the government or in the judicial system cannot join a prayer quorum, according to Holon's Chief Rabbi Avraham Yosef, who is also a representative on the Chief Rabbinate Council and son of Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.

 

"It is forbidden to allow them to participate or to integrate them in any synagogue liturgy," Yosef said. "We must ignore their existence, as if they were just air."

 

During the program on halachic issues he presents each morning on ultra-Orthodox radio station Kol Hai, Yosef addressed the question of who is worthy of serving as a cantor on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Whoever sends his children to learn in secular schools, he said, or brings his companions before courts which do not rule in accordance with the Torah, cannot take this role.

 

He also detailed what the judges in such courts should face: "The judge himself, even if he knows how to pray very well, even if he knows how to do everything excellently – from the moment he was appointed judge he made himself unworthy of joining a quorum," the rabbi said. "Even if he promises that all his rulings will be in keeping with the Shulchan Aruch, he has still lifted his hand against the Torah of Moses and is not worthy of joining anything holy."

 

Later, in response to a question from a visitor to the Moreshet website, Yosef clarified that his ruling includes anyone working in the State Prosecutor's Office or police investigation branch.

 

"Recently… some religious judges have been appointed with yarmulkes on their heads which makes it seem as if the court is ruling according to our holy Torah," he said, adding that this was a gross distortion.

 

"According to our holy Torah, a single judge can never be appointed, and according to our holy Torah it is forbidden to sit in a court appointed by the State of Israel," he continued. "The State of Israel rules and judges according to the laws of the nations… A man who fears God will keep away from a person like this – and not include him in any holy act or in any prayer."

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 08.23.10, 16:01
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