Jerusalem – Two Chief Rabbis of Israel have been invited to four meetings with Pope Benedict XVI, but may sit out of three. One group of rabbis said the visit is “idol worship.”
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Chief Rabbis Shlomo Amar and Yona Metzger of Israel have been invited to four meetings with visiting Pope Benedict XVI. While they will attend one, and will not attend another, they are considering the others. The pontiff will arrive on the morning of May 11 at Ben Gurion International Airport and will be received by representatives of Israel’s government. A spokesman for the rabbis said “The Pope is wearing two hats,” “Head of a state, and head of a religion. The airport ceremony is more of a political one, and therefore the rabbis will not be attending.”
Also on the itinerary for May 11 is an interfaith meeting at the Notre Dame Guest House just outside Jerusalem’s Old City. The rabbis have not announced whether they will attend, as is the case for the Pope’s visit to the Western Wall – following his visit with the Grand Mufti on the Temple Mount – on May 12. The Chief Rabbis will host the visiting pontiff at Heichal Shlomo, the Chief Rabbinate’s former headquarters in Jerusalem on May 12.
One group has called on the rabbis not to meet with Pope Benedict. The Task Force to Save the Nation and Land, headed by Rabbis Yaakov Yosef and Shalom Dov Wolpe, sent a telegram to the Chief Rabbinate, reading in part:
“This involves a desecration of God’s Name… The very meeting and recognition of him is related to idol worship, if not outright idol worship, and involves a sin that one must die for and not violate. Not to mention that the memories still linger of the persecution of the Inquisition, as well as the Church’s role in the Holocaust. In addition, this pope is known for his personal membership in the Hitler Youth, as well as his statements in favor of a Holocaust-denier.”
“All the above is many times worse,” the message states, “given that the visit is accompanied by pressures and agreements to give over to the Church parts of Mount Zion and other parts of the Holy Land. A welcome by the Chief Rabbis encourages this trend.”
The Task Force reminds the Chief Rabbis that one of their predecessors, Rabbi Yitzchak Nissim, refused to meet with Pope Paul VI in 1964. They do not note, however, that Rabbi Nissim only did so after the pope refused to meet him in Jerusalem. In 2000, when Pope John Paul II visited Israel, Chief Rabbi Lau met him in Heichal Shlomo, and the visit was more cordial. Rabbi Lau still expressed disappointment that John Paul II made no mention of Pope Pius XII’s silence during the Holocaus
Have we not done so thoughout our history? We are doing it for peacefull reasons and everybody knows it.
Rav Yosef and Rav Wolpe are an embarrasment to EY. The pope is not only the had of state (the Vatican) but the spiritual leader of nearly 1.5 billion Catholics. They don’t have to agree with him on policy issues any more than the Pope agrees with President Obama on a number of theological issues. Yet Notre Dame invited Obama to give the commencement address. If the heilege rabbonim decide not to attend the meeting, they will only marginalize themselves further in terms of having any meaningful role in the peace process.
Fortunately, eretz yisroel is a democracy and these two rabbis are entitled to say anything they want, however foolish, and 95 percent of Israelis (including the two chief rabbis who have already said they will host the pope at heical shlomo) will ignore their nareshkeit.
A Pope Represents The Religion That Desecrates G_D’s Name Just By Its Very Existance It Is Kofer In One Power Etc Meeting Him Is For Sure Close To avoda zara and yeharg veal yaavor
I dont understand….didn’t Moshe Rabeinu meet and give Kavoid to Yisro, who was the biggest Ball Avodah Zarah?
The Pope was indeed a member of the Hitler Youth and then the Wehrmacht. He recently allowed a Holocaust denying bishop to return from excommunication and gave him a promotion.
Whether or not Catholicism is Avoda Zarah is another issue. From what I learned, since the Catholics believe in the father, son and holy ghost trinity, this is avodah zara, but Muslims and other Christians who don’t accept the trinity, should not be considered ovdei avoda zara.
This issue came up when elections were in a church in our city and the psak was that since it was a Unitarian church that did not accept the trinity it was okay to go, but a Catholic church would have been unacceptable.
Paskaning that something is yehareg veAl yaavor when it is, in fact, not is a grievious error. It is not just a taus in psak – it is literally telling Jews to commit suicide, a horrifying aveirah. There were Rishonim that went to meet with various popes and there is no such issur of meeting with the pope mentioned in the entire ouevre of halachic literature. Also, is it that different than meeting with a bishop? These people who issued this wholly erroneous Psak should be told to rescind right away.
What is wrong with meeting with a non Jew? I speak with non Jews every single day. The ones who are making this issur have awarded the pope with much more honor than he deserves. He is not more holy than any person on this earth. We are all Hashem’s creations. There is no issur to meet one of Hashem’s creations. In fact, it is not nice to disrespect one of His creations.
Avodah zara?? What are you kidding? Oh, I get it. it is far better to put 18 million Jews in a bad light and therefore on the threshold of danger, than it is to meet with a man who wants to have peace in the world.
Puuuulleeeeeeze! Anything to show off how ultra religious they are. By not meeting with the pope they show they are twisted and krum, not nice and frum.
They are just jealous that they were not invited.
“Whether or not Catholicism is Avoda Zarah is another issue. From what I learned, since the Catholics believe in the father, son and holy ghost trinity, this is avodah zara, but Muslims and other Christians who don’t accept the trinity, should not be considered ovdei avoda zara.”
Like everything else, it’s a machlokes. The rama paskens shituf is ok for a goy. As typical, the “gedolim” do their best to turn every personal opinion into a yehoreg v’al yaavor.
#19 greatest torah scohlar of our generation? is he in league with ,lets say ,rav kenievsky, rav wosner rav ovadye yosefetc ?etc
How can I even begin to describe the many acomplishments of Rav Metzger. For example, one of his greatest contributions to yiddeshkeit has been to encourage friendly relationships with other religious communities. One idea that the heilege rav has repeatedly proposed has been the establishment of a religious United Nations in Yerushalayim. He first advocated this in late 2004 after mediating a highly-publicized dispute between haredim and the Armenian Christian community. He raised the idea again in February 2006, at an ecumenical meeting between several contemporary gadolim, the top Eastern Orthodox priests, leading Muslim clerics and theDalai Lama in Israel, and again in March 2006, while attending the International Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace in Seville, Spain. Who else can compare with him in our generation.
Idiots — was Rashi, and any of the rabbanim throught history been ba’alei avodah zarah for befriending priests?
After all the amey Haaretz posted their comments.Does anyone know what the poskey Hador rav Elyashiv,Rav Vosner said on the matter.After all this is a halachah issue. Are all you people so stupid or dishonest to think that you have the Halachick knowledge to have an opinion on the matter.
Rabbi Wolpe believes the rebbe is moshiach. Who is he to declare what is and what isn’t idol worship?
Will he get the tour of the Grand Belzer Beis Hamikdash as all politicians get?
One group has called on the rabbis not to meet with Pope Benedict. The Task Force to Save the Nation and Land, headed by Rabbis Yaakov Yosef and Shalom Dov Wolpe, sent a telegram to the Chief Rabbinate, reading in part:
“This involves a desecration of God’s Name…
i cannot think of a bigger chillul hashem then public ally attacking the leader of about 20 percent of the world population
Thank G-d, these Rabbanim have the guts to stand up to this representative of sheker.His only purpose for coming to Israel is to further promote the wicked two state “solution”-the term solution being related to the final solution.
Why is it avoda zara? Its not like the Chief Rabbis are paying $250,000 each to spend shabbos with the pope. That would be avoda zara…
does anyone know who are these two rabbis rabbi wolpe & rabbi yosef
are they sefardi or mizrachi???
It is important to realize that the role of the Pope is to be a leader of the church. Thats it. Catholics look to the Pope in similar way that we look to our Gedolim (I know it is not exactly the same thing… save the phony outrage).
If this Pope were claiming to be j**** or in some other way claim to be the xian messiah, then I could see the a”z argument.
This is a xian/Muslim world we live in. More people identify themselves as Atheist than as Jewish. We cannot simply ignore the xian world when we are so dependent on it for security, stability, and commerce. Xians donate a substantial amount of money to Jewish charities. Will we say that it is OK to take their money, but then slam the door on their leadership? That would be offensive and insulting to every xian who supports E”Y and gives their hard-earned money to our charities.
I don’t think E”Y should have to remove the mogen david from the ambulances as they agreed to do, and we should not “celebrate” the Pope’s arrival in E”Y any more than any other visiting head of state. If he is treated essentially the same way most other world leaders are treated, then we should have no problem with it.
how they can allow the epitamy of klipos temayois to stand by the kosel with that tzeilem round his neck is prepostorous and an an outrage, un noch lag b’omer of all days. The kosel rov should have made a stand on that, rabbi getz oh would have.
They also allowed him to stand with his massive dangling tzeilem in front of the ashes of holocaust victims in yad vashem.
SHEHAIM MISHTACHAVIM LEHEVEL V’LORIK.