Religious-services rights organization ITIM filed a complaint Tuesday against Sephardic Chief Rabbi David Yosef, accusing him of using his public and judicial position to urge mikveh attendants to shame women who want to immerse without an attendant present.
The complaint was filed with retired judge and Judicial Complaints Commissioner Asher Kula, in Yosef’s capacity as president of the Great Rabbinical Court.
It followed remarks Yosef made two weeks ago at a conference for mikveh attendants, according to the complaint and news reports.
Yosef reportedly acknowledged that attendants could face legal consequences if they prevented a woman from immersing alone, but then allegedly told them they could verbally rebuke such women for acting against halacha.
He said attendants could tell a woman that the chief rabbi had said she was “defying the Torah,” according to the complaint.
Yosef’s office denies the claims
“Raise your voice and shout,” he was quoted as saying. “That way, you have not broken the law, but you have shamed them” into immersion with an attendant present.
A day later, Yosef’s office said that the remarks attributed to him had been quoted only in part and did not present the full picture.
“There was never any intention to harm” women, the statement said, adding that “on the contrary, everything he said at the conference was about welcoming women warmly, with kindness.”
His office said that even when Yosef warned against what it described as a minority of women seeking to immerse without an attendant in what he described as a violation of halacha, he had said the matter should be explained “pleasantly,” though clearly and firmly. The statement added that Yosef’s sharper remarks were directed at women who, in his view, act “defiantly” by relying on High Court rulings in halachic matters.
“Certainly, every person must be treated with honor and dignity, all the more so women who come to fulfill a mitzvah,” the statement said.
ITIM argued that the clarification did not retract the substance of the remarks, but instead reinforced the message that women who ask to immerse without an attendant are acting against Torah law.
The heart of the dispute is a 2016 High Court of Justice ruling in an ITIM petition, which gave force to an agreed position that a woman who asks to immerse without a mikveh attendant or friend present may not be prevented from doing so.
A Religious Services Ministry directive issued after the ruling similarly states that if a woman asks to immerse alone, the attendant may explain, with the required sensitivity, that responsibility for the halachic validity of the immersion rests with the woman herself, but may not press her beyond that.
ITIM says Yosef’s comments were ‘halachically harmful’
ITIM argued that Yosef’s remarks violated the ethics rules for dayanim, contradicted the High Court ruling and ministry procedure, and amounted to improper use of his public position.
The organization also argued that the comments were halachically harmful. The complaint cited rabbinic sources and later halachic opinions that, according to ITIM, recognize immersion without an attendant as valid in certain circumstances, and said publicly shaming women over their manner of immersion constituted verbal wrongdoing.
“It is painful and outrageous to see a person of such high halachic and public standing, to whom many women look up – including the mikveh attendants who do sacred work – choose to use his power to harm women’s standing,” attorneys Timna Guttel and Ofra Sitssamer of ITIM’s legal department said.
“Instead of bringing women closer, the rabbi’s words distance women from the mitzvah of immersion and deepen the gap between those immersing and the mikveh attendants,” they said.
Rabbi Seth Farber, ITIM’s founder and chairman, called on the chief rabbis to serve as a model of tolerance and respect, and said women who had experienced degrading treatment in mikvaot could contact ITIM’s assistance line.
ITIM asked Kula to intervene, saying the remarks instructed public employees to act contrary to legal directives and harmed women’s right to privacy in mikvaot.
Source:
www.jpost.com
