There's some stuff I need to get out of the way.
I have tons to say about the idiotic way the rabbanut handled the shmittah business and the outrageous Supreme Court decision which grossly interfered with halachic business. (The decision is worth reading: Elyakim Rubinstein thinks he's Rav Chaim Ozer with a law degree and Beinish thinks she's a Reform rabbi.) Taken together these two acts of insanity clearly mark the beginning of the end for the rabbanut. And nobody seems to give a damn: the haredim never had much use for rabbanut mi-taam, the Mizrochnikim are delighted that the heter mechirah is back in business and have missed the main point, and the rest of the country thinks they can all go to hell.
I also have a full stomach about Daniel Friedmann's proposal for formally legalizing judicial review under specific constraints. In short, he means well but has compromised with the dark forces to the extent that we are better off without his law than with it. He allows a provision for a Knesset override of a court decision to strike down laws (good) but 53 MKs can block the override (bad). This number is too low for an override to ever happen and will kill the prospects for such an override in the constitution, thereby likely killing the whole constitution. There are a variety of other niggling problems with the proposal from my point of view, although the published attacks have come almost exclusively from the left.
The problem is that even I'm bored with all that, so I can only imagine how most people who have no interest in this topic to begin with must feel. OK, so now it's officially out of the way and we are free to talk about more interesting stuff.
Rubenstein is still the sitting judge most likely to overturn Barak precedents - and has done so. E.g. Barak's ruling on judges issuing verdicts via compromise.
ReplyDeleteFriedman's proposal is good if only because it enshrines the fact that only the High Court can overturn legislation. If you remember Barak's position was that ANY judge can do so - and it has happened in lower courts. If it will kill the constitution dayenu - because with the likes of Rav Avraham Gisser of Ofra at the IDC, your proposal has no chance of ever being accepted.
If you read the biography of Rav Citron - the chief Rabbis of Petach Tikva during the Rav Kook years and the Rogachover Gaon's son-in-law - you will see that it was specifically Rav Chaim Ozer who wrote to him to ask him to stay in Eastern Europe for the specific reason that he felt it valuable to have an educated charedi rav serve as Rav Mitaam whenever possible. The charedi plan to take over the rabbanut is working. They put in the "TV Rabbis" who can placate the ruling clique when necessary, but aren't total amaratizim or full of worthless religious zionist fervor (worthless from their perspective).
Actually, there are probably a lot of people who would be interested in these topics - the problem is that th Israeli society is run has turned off that interest.
ReplyDeleteIMO - the Rabbanut can go to hell, they serve no purpose aside from creating the biggest Hilul Hashem in Israel. Probably the biggest reason Israelis hate Judaism is due to the Rabbanut and religious coercion. The Rabbanut may once have had a purpose - it no longer does and is simply excess baggage for Judaism.
Regarding the Bagatz - the longer the Haredim wait before working for separation of church and state and the independence of the Halakhic process from the political process - the more Judaism stands to lose. The RZ don't want to separate church and state, as they see the state as a religious object - part and parcel of Judaism.
In short, Israelis need to start looking for countries to move to when this place implodes.
I don't understand the objection to having 53 MKs able to block an override of a court ruling. That simply means that you need 68 MKs to override, which seems a reasonably low threshold to me. Doesn't it require 61 simply to pass a law? If you didn't require more than that to override that law being struck down, there would be no point at all in having the court able to strike down laws.
ReplyDeleteR' Aharon Lichtenstein's lament on last shmitta is just as appropriate this time around.
ReplyDeleteWhat could we possibly do to make it better for the next one?
Ordinarily you need a majority of those voting, not a majority of the Knesset. Getting a majority of the Knesset is very difficult, getting 70 is close to impossible, getting 70 against the Court is flat out impossible.
ReplyDeleteSome of your most interesting ideas are the ones you don't write about.
ReplyDeleteYou should start a blog for those...