Jerusalem – Rabbis must not be allowed to destroy the fabric of Jewish unity President Shimon Peres inferred late on Tuesday, at meeting with a 30 member delegation of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations which was winding up a two solidarity mission to Israel. After discussing the security situation and presenting his views on what may happen next, Peres thanked the conference members for coming to Israel, saying:” Your solidarity is meaningful. War is not just shooting. The greatest weapon is the morale of the people”..
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He then made two requests.
“We have to agree not to split” he said. “We cannot allow rabbis to arrive at a point where we cannot be together. While we live geographically separated, we have to be spiritually united.”
As far as Peres was concerned this did not mean that everyone had to be on the same page in their interpretation of Judaism. There can be different interpretations of Jewish teachings he proposed, but Jews as a people must remain united. ”The Jewish people historically have paid a high price for being Jewish,” he said.
“If the rabbis want to decide who is a Jew, Jews have to decide who is a rabbi” he continued.
The second request was more political in nature. Because there has always been bipartisan support for Israel on the part of the United States, Peres did not want to create the impression that Jews support only one party. “We want you to support two parties in America” he said.
Earlier Peres spoke of the great friendship and assistance that America has given Israel over the years. Initially, when he asked President John F.Kennedy for rifles, he met with refusal, but later Kennedy sold HAWK anti-aircraft missiles to Israel, and after that every American President whether Democrat or Republican enabled Israel to acquire weapons and planes.
As for the situation in Gaza, Peres voiced doubts about the unity of Hamas, saying that the military group had taken over and made decisions without informing the civilian group and had thus brought catastrophe “that only terrorists can bring upon themselves”.
There was no pleasure in seeing people suffering and houses destroyed in Gaza said Peres., who does not perceive the ceasefire as a solution in itself, “The solution must be political not military” he said, reflecting that the US will put the political options back on the table.
Only the Palestinian Authority – not Israel or Egypt – has legitimacy over Gaza he said, but that does not mean that Israel will let Gazans run wild with the purpose of killing Israelis. “The purpose of a government is to defend its citizens” he declared.
Peres also clarified that the agreement that was signed with Yasser Arafat on the lawns of the White House more than twenty years ago was between the State of Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization and not between the Israeli people and the Palestinian people. The distinction had been made by Arafat who had balked at the original wording by the Americans, because he wanted the agreement to state that he represented the PLO. Israel agreed and the wording was duly changed.
what an apikores! doesn’t believe in torah shebal peh…
We only have a few more days of Shimon Peres. Off to retirement.
Etch his concerns into biblical fallacy. A rabbi should be decided by rabbis. But if the rabbis are corrupt, Israel should say so. We can not survive on those with no torah deciding how Torah is learned. Hold safe. Perez is unruly but tries to show us that his paradigm is to sway to favor. That is probably favorable, but he is not blessed with giving enough dignity. Never again.
Lol
Anybody can be a Jew.
Peres is way off because he is a dummy president with no rights especially to say who is a jew or who is a Rabbi. Peres has no idea who and want is a jew based on his poor knowledge of jewism, to him an Israeli citizen and a jew and an arab is all the same
What on Earth is he talking about? Time to retire.
Interesting. During the ‘Mi Hoo Yehudi’ debates in the knesset, the Arab MPs were asble to voice their opinion and vote on who is a Jew. But Peres would deny that right to rabbis. Meir kahane was ousted from Knesset as ‘racist’ while the Arab haters and terrorrists are ‘honoured’ members. It is a crazy world and so Peres is a ‘fit’ leader among the crazies.
For once Peres is speaking for the silent majority of the Yidden that have had it with fantacism! Kol Hakavod to him!
Who is a jew according to the rambam
המחלל שבת בפרהסיא
=====
רמבם ספר זמנים הלכות שבת פרק ל הלכה טו
השבת ועבודת כוכבים ומזלות כל אחת משתיהן שקולה כנגד שאר כל מצות התורה. והשבת היא האות שבין הקב”ה ובינינו לעולם. לפיכך כל העובר על שאר המצות הרי הוא בכלל רשעי ישראל. אבל המחלל שבת בפרהסיא הרי הוא כעובד עבודת כוכבים ומזלות ושניהם כעובדי כוכבים ומזלות לכל דבריהם. לפיכך משבח הנביא ואומר אשרי אנוש יעשה זאת ובן אדם יחזיק בה שומר שבת מחללו וגו’. וכל השומר את השבת כהלכתה ומכבדה ומענגה כפי כחו כבר מפורש בקבלה שכרו בעולם הזה יתר על השכר הצפון לעולם הבא. שנאמר אז תתענג על ה’ והרכבתיך על במותי ארץ והאכלתיך נחלת יעקב אביך כי פי ה’ דבר:
Please note the wording אבל המחלל שבת בפרהסיא הרי הוא כעובד עבודת כוכבים ומזלות
Peres has a point in principle but as usual takes it too far.
If judges can decide who is a criminal, then can criminals decide who is a judge?!
Utter stupidity!
Reform conversions and intermarriage are not jewish. A convert who eats pork and shell fish has Failed his conversion. Terrible. If they marry into your family, you will never fell total peace as a jew. This is quite horrible. They should do more. Too many people goto the reform and conservative, “convert” and then think they are ‘ok’. They are inbetween gentile and jew and they can be our friends, but they will not be given Torah until they take the ways of Israel. Still, its an easy crisis. The blessed eye can see the concern. Terrible.
Send the old bat to the glue factory.
“If the rabbis want to decide who is a Jew, Jews have to decide who is a rabbi” he continued.
You are 100% right, only one correction: only those Jews who behave like Jews have to decide who is Rabbi!
If you dress like a goy, talk like a goy, behave like a goy – you are a goy, then you should decide who the pope is!
He’s right-Jews have to decide who is a rabbi. Too many people call themselves rabbi who are not a rabbi. There should be a standard about what qualifies someone to be a rabbi-what the rabbi has to learn, what the rabbi has to practice, what the rabbi allows others to practice. But for Jews to decide who is a rabbi, don’t you have to define who is a Jew so Jews, and only Jews, can decide who is a rabbi.
Good for Peres – someone has to finally point out when the emporor has no clothes!
And indeed, who is a rabbi today? Those who are in it for the money, kavod, or power? Those who shield molesters while yelping about the internet and the length of womens’ skirts? Those who can find a new reason a day to assur more fruits and vegetables but can’t find a hetter to report molesters and financial fraudsters to police or to end the marriages of agunos? Those who fight their siblings in secular court while telling the poshiter yidden to use their corrupt botei din?
I think we all know the answers – if only we’d have the courage to speak up.
The reality is that your “jewthenticity” is public discussion in some ways. If you are jewish in all ways, you are in good shape. If you are just a halfway to the throne of Hashem and partway to the door of lost repentance, you might be listed as jewish by many but your neshama may be missing a Chaya and Yechida. Small point, but you might not be entirely a Torah Jew in any way. So maybe the rabbis need to help us on this one. I surely would be very careful.
We NEED achdus to survive.
Refreshing honesty from a man not known for it.
Today’s problem is that there are many ‘rabbis’ who don’t know much, if anything other than hearsay.
Understanding who is a rabbi worthy to listen to is important. There is a big difference between some one’s opinion like R. Kanifsky (sorry about the spelling) and some guy who gets smicha from BT course like Aish.
It is incumbant upon us who respect the rabbonim to realize not all rabbonim think alike and that we are not capable of making a judgement. But the rabbonim themselves should come up with a standardize plan for grading rabbonim, something like we find in grading restaurants.
Interesting coming from Peres who fostered disunity all of his political life.
He does have one point that we can’t dispute. So much of the problems faced by Klal Yisroel in history and in the present, is the lack of unity. Even in disagreement, comments should be civil and limited. The tirades from people in the Frum world, both Rabbinic and political, in Israel have been shocking to say the least. I’m told that this is the Israeli political way. We should be better than that.
Who is considered a Rabbi today anyway? Someone learns the laws concerning the kitchen, gets tested and someone who is satisfied with that will give him a piece of paper saying that he is ordinated as a Rabbi. That’s that. Ner Israel is exceptional in that it also requires the person to know hilchos nida and the mishna brura.