Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef lambasted Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana (Yamina) and Rabbi David Stav, the chairman of the Tzohar Rabbinical Organization in Israel, during a sermon in Jerusalem on Saturday night. Yosef, who had shunned Kahana in recent months in the wake of proposed reforms to Israel's kashrut certification system, appears to have shed any self-restraint.
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"The new kashrut law they have made is absolutely terrible. Today the Chief Rabbinate supervises, and there is a kashrut supervisor everywhere and a kashrut fraud department. If someone tries lying to us – we have the option of fining them, all types of things. This department is very active. The day they start discussing this issue, do you know what will happen with food made by goyim [non-Jews]? They will run and give kosher certificates to shops that are open on Shabbat. Woe unto us, this is a most serious breach. How can you trust a shop that is open on Shabbat that everything they sell is kosher and not cooked on Shabbat?
"They want women to be kashrut supervisors. How can that be? A secular woman; not a religious one. Even a religious woman – where is the modesty? Rabbi [Moshe] Feinstein ruled that this is permissible [in some cases], but was he talking about general custom? That a woman should supervise kashrut? What about being out late at night, where is the modesty in Israel? … Even in the army, they brought in all types of female soldiers, non-religious women, and they've become kashrut supervisors. They have no devotion," he said.
"This breach, whereby every rabbi who wants to can give kashrut certification – all this is being done by the religious services minister to please David Stav, the man who [former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef] said had no fear of God in him," Yossef assailed. "Take heed: [Ovadia Yossef] never uttered such harsh words about any [other] rabbi. Did [Ovadia Yossef] ever call another rabbi evil? Say that he doesn't have the fear of God in him? That he is dangerous to Judaism? Never. [Ovadia Yossef] was always respectful. Not in this case; the rabbi took off the gloves.
"[Kahana] is doing all in his power to please [Stav], to empower rabbis from the Tzohar rabbinical organization. And who knows what calamity this will bring? Here we are declaring before a very dear public – don't trust any and all certifications. Only the good certifications… I am warning the public, don't trust the certifications, it is a great destruction what they want to do…
"The Chief Rabbinate sacrificed itself on behalf of this issue, and then comes this pilot [in reference to Kahana, who served as an Israeli Air Force pilot], flying around in the sky, doing things. What chutzpah, what a lack of courtesy and respect. That he should do such things against the chief rabbis? It's not just me who is against this. [Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau] also opposes it. He was wrong and admits it. He thought he would be able to influence [Kahana]. Influence what? They came with an agenda… This is our Torah? Lord have mercy," Yosef concluded.
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