Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Israeli Rabbi's getting heat

An update to our original post: It's about time someone wrote an article about some of the ridicules statements made by some Rabbi's. MET: With Israel's religious leaders embroiled in unprecedented scandals and rabbis issuing bizarre edicts, commentators say that the Jewish state's rabbinate authority is at an all-time low. Since the start of the year, both of Israel's chief rabbis have been tainted, with the attorney general on Monday telling Ashkenazi leader Yona Metzger to quit for allegedly receiving kickbacks, a first in Israel's history......In January the son of fellow chief rabbi Shlomo Amar was jailed for abducting and assaulting his sister's 17-year-old boyfriend, adding insult to injury by cutting the hapless paramour's kippa in half. Amid reports that his wife had instigated the attack, Amar was forced to deny involvement, but the damage to the rabbinate's standing was done. Then there are the rabbis' seemingly odd rulings. Last month former grand rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu told parents to amputate an arm or a leg from dolls to avoid the perils of idolatry. Teddy bears or other stuffed animals were sentenced to lose an ear or an eye. Another former chief rabbi in July urged Israelis to stop eating hummus as believers had no way of knowing whether it had been prepared by non-Jews, to the mirth of the press and many secular Israelis.....Two years ago a rabbi said Orthodox Jewish women shouldn't wear wigs made from Indian hair because it could belong to Hindus who are idol worshipers. It was an economic catastrophe as women changed their wigs." And, says Sharkansky, when you visit the doctor "there are Orthodox women in the waiting room with their 800 children discussing what treatment this rabbi said, what that rabbi said". "But the rabbi can't give a prescription so they go in and tell the doctor the rabbi said I need this medicine for my child so can I have a prescription....
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