Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef is standing in firm opposition against a High Court petition seeking to compel the Chief Rabbinate to open ordination to Orthodox women.
In a speech broadcast on the Haredi news site Kikar Hashabbat, Yosef directed his criticism at a number of different sectors, including the High Court of Justice.
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"You know that the High Court feels that it is above everyone else on every issue. It intervenes with everything. They are forcing us to test women [for ordination]," the rabbi said.
"They filed a petition against us. Women come and say they should be rabbis, too. The intention is like the Reform women," he said.
Yosef claimed that Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit had contacted him and told him that the High Court was waiting for Yosef's response to the petition, and accused him of playing for time.
Yosef voiced doubt that women could be tested on Jewish law about men and women in mixed company and all the laws pertaining to Shabbat. "Let's say we held a separate exam for them [women]. Fine. Do they study all this? Maybe so, today there are talented women who study accounting and all sorts of things. But this is like an imitation of the Reform [Jews].We need to distance ourselves from this ugliness and everything that resembles it."
Yosef said that he had been advised by Mendelblit to listen to the High Court or risk being held in contempt.
"I sent a message to Mendelblit saying I would absolutely not test women. If they force me to? I'll boycott all the ordination exams, and then there will be a fuss. If they want to, let them hold graduate exams in the Education Ministry, but not for the Rabbinate, and not for the title of rabbi, which belongs to outstanding Torah scholars," he said.
Yosef also had harsh words for Reform Judaism in general, saying "They faked the Torah. Their entire Torah is fake. Everything of theirs is fake. You won't find a single Reform Jew who went back to the faith. A Reform Jew stays Reform. They have a new Torah," Kikar Hashabbat quoted the rabbi saying.
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