The Chief Rabbi of Israel Has Lost Sight of His Mandate https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/israel-zionism/2015/12/the-chief-rabbi-of-israel-has-lost-sight-of-his-mandate/

December 21, 2015 | Shlomo Riskin
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Last week, the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel, David Lau, forcefully criticized Naftali Bennett—the Israeli minister of education and Diaspora affairs—for visiting a Conservative day school in New York. Shlomo Riskin, a prominent Israeli Orthodox rabbi, argues that this move was a symptom of Lau’s failure to understand his proper role:

[T]he chief rabbi of Israel ought to see himself as the shepherd of every single Jew, including everyone and excluding no one; his sensitive reach must extend to the most wayward no matter where he may have wandered. To this end [the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi], Abraham Isaac Kook, spent many Sabbaths in the most secular kibbutzim and moshavim, bringing his own food and without any chastising or even preaching. He merely embraced the kibbutzniks, sang with them, danced with them, and regaled them with stories. A chief rabbi especially must be, [in the words of the talmudic sage Hillel] “a disciple of Aaron; a lover of peace, a pursuer of peace, a lover of humanity, a person whose love will bring everyone close to Torah.”

Read more on Jerusalem Post: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/The-Chief-Rabbinate-Who-is-its-constituency-437661