On Sunday, two remarks by Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin, raised many an eyebrow. First, at the Makor Rishon newspaper convention on Israel-Diaspora Relations, he said, “Throughout the ages of Zionism, the customary meaning of Zionist was someone who made aliyah to Eretz Yisrael. However, in recent years, this understanding has changed.”
His other remark concerned homosexuals in Israel. Speaking at a conference of mayors, President Rivlin spoke about the importance of providing support and services to LGBT Israelis and praised the work being done to improve their welfare.
“Humanity as a whole must understand, and Israelis must understand that one cannot say that this tendency, or that tendency, is a disease,” he stated. “In any way that a person can be happy and creative, they can reach the same accomplishments as anyone else. We cannot, in a society like ours, talk about conversion therapies for LGBT people. We cannot allow it…. There is no disease here, and so there is no need for treatment.”
The Jewish Press asked several rabbis for their reactions to his words. Rabbi Nachman Kahana, who led the Young Israel Synagogue of the Old City for 32 years and is the author of the 15-volume Mei Menuchot series on Tosafot, said the following:
“Over the years, I’ve developed a method to test one’s faithfulness, or lack of, to Yiddishkeit. I confront the individual with a simple question: If 150 years ago all Jews were on the same religious level as you, would there be one Jew left in the world today?
“Similarly, I would ask my president: If the opinions you hold regarding morality and ethics had been the accepted standard by all Jews 150 years ago, would there be one Jew alive today?
“We are alive and thriving today because our grandparents held fast to the ideals we received at Mount Sinai and because Jews over the centuries gave their lives al Kiddush Hashem to protect those principles. Not all sins are defined by the Torah as ‘to’ei’vah.’ Chillul Shabbat is a major sin punishable by death under certain required circumstances, but it is not called ‘to’ei’vah in the Torah.
‘To’ei’vah’ is a sin that makes any normal person cringe from disgust at its very thought. Homosexuality and its offshoots are ‘to’ei’vah.’ ut I understand the President. He so much wants to be loved by the people that it drives him to say things he himself doesn’t believe.
The Rivlin family came to Eretz Yisrael as part of the group known as talmidei haGra, students of the Gaon of Vilna. I would respectfully suggest to our president to recall those who brought his family here and make a reset in his statements to the public.”
Rabbi Kenny Cohen, who led the Young Israel of Century City in Los Angeles and teaches in the English-Speaking Division of the Machon Meir Yeshiva in Jerusalem, said, “It deeply saddens me to learn that the president of the State of Israel has veered far away from truly Jewish principles.
“The miracle of Jewish survival during a nearly 2,000-year exile was due to the strict adherence to the Torah and to our great sages. Time and again, when Jews strayed from the Torah’s teachings, they were swallowed up among the nations.
“Jewish values do not come from man. They come from the G-d of perfection and compassion. When we live according to the path He set for us, we thrive. When every man acts according to what is right ‘in his own eyes,’ we have upheaval.
“Judaism has nothing to do with feeling good. It has to do with living a disciplined life according to the dictates of the Torah. This is what brings real joy and meaning to a person’s life. There is one truth in this world, and that is G-d and His Torah. Anything that is expressed that is contrary to the Torah is wrong.
“Regarding the president’s new understanding of Zionism: Jews belong in Israel. That is the reason we left Egypt. We were to enter the Promised Land. We read in this week’s Torah portion of the enormous tragedy that befell the nation because the leaders of the tribes misled the people into not wanting to dwell in Israel.
“The president must have the courage to speak the word of G-d. He and the Jewish people will be blessed for standing up for the one and only Divine Truth.”
Rabbi David Bar-Hayim, who heads the Shilo Institute in Jerusalem and lectures extensively, often on controversial topics, said, “The juxtaposition of these issues – homosexuality and a broad bear hug to Diaspora Jewry – is by no means coincidental. Mr. Rivlin, once a somewhat proud, somewhat traditional, and somewhat nationalistic Jew, has been cowed into submission, and is today the mouthpiece of the New Israel Fund.
“It was not always so. In an interview published in the Haaretz newspaper (June 3, 2003), Rivlin said: ‘Justice Ministers are usually chosen in the knowledge that they will be loyal to the president of the Supreme Court. If it is felt that this may not be the case, he is arrested and interrogated.
“So it was with me…I will never forget the day…I was about to be appointed Justice Minister…suddenly I was summoned and interrogated [by the police] for 11 hours about nothing…they announced that I was being investigated for receiving bribes, based on nonsense…. These people are a gang like any other, only they are known as the Rule of Law Gang.’
“Rivlin invented the term ‘the Rule of Law Gang.’ Today it is a common usage in right-wing media. But today, Israel’s president robotically repeats the politically correct positions of Israel’s self-appointed, anti-Jewish and well-endowed leftist elites, funded by New Israel. Goyish in, Jewish out.
“Rivlin, it has been noted by many, is no longer the man who gave that interview. He knows what it is like to be the target of a weaponized law-enforcement/judicial system. He has been broken.
“If Rivlin’s obsessive repetitions regarding ‘conversion therapy’ struck you as wooden, don’t be surprised. He was just following the NIF-provided script. While welcoming our brothers and sisters from across the world, we shall never accept the attempt of organizations and people, foreign and domestic, to subvert, pervert, and corrupt the Jewish People and its timeless Torah-based values.
“Rivlins come and go. The Jewish nation and its Torah is forever.”
