IJII

Reporting and Prosecuting Jewish Criminals: Halakhic Concerns

By

Rabbi J. Simcha Cohen

By Rabbi J. Simcha Cohen

(Rabbi Cohen serves as Rabbi of Congregation Aitz Chaim in West Palm Beach, Florida. Former Chief Rabbi of the Mizrachi Kehilla in Melbourne, Australia, he is the recipient of the "Jerusalem Award", and author of six books on Jewish law.)

Question: May women recite Kaddish in the synagogue?

By Prof. Zvi Zohar of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and Bar Ilan University

The Shulhan Arukh, composed by rabbi Joseph Caro in the 16^th century, is a canonical code of Jewish Law. In this work, rabbi Caro writes that a ceremony of Giyyur (=‘conversion') is valid only if it includes Qabbalat Mitzvot. Rabbi Caro does not explain what this phrase means. The so-called "conversion crisis" results from the attempt to pressure all rabbis to adopt a specific interpretation of this requirement, i.e., to agree that Qabbalat Mitzvot means a whole-hearted commitment by the Ger (="convert" =‘proselyte') to fully observe all of the Mitzvot (commandments). On this view, if a person applying for giyyur intends to be a secular Jew, or even a ‘traditional' Jew who observes many (but not all) commandments, that person cannot be allowed to undergo a giyyur ceremony, because Qabbalat Mitzvot is lacking. This position has been strongly supported by ultra-orthodox haredi rabbis as the one-and-only correct interpretation of Qabbalat Mitzvot.

One of the great rabbinic sages of the 20th century was Rabbi Benzion Meir Hai Uziel (1880-1953). A profound scholar from a distinguished Sephardic rabbinical family, Rabbi Uziel served as Israel’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi from 1938 until his death in 1953.