Chief Rabbi David Yosef Rejects Women’s Rabbinic Certification in Sharp Attack on Supreme Court

Chief Rabbi and President of the Great Rabbinical Court David Yosef delivered a sharply worded speech last night at a celebration for graduates of rabbinical judges, rabbinical, and rabbinical advocate tracks at the M.L.M. Institute, הדרך לידיעת התורה. He attacked Israel’s Supreme Court and its use of the reasonableness standard to review state bodies, saying, “The judges’ claim about the reasonableness standard is like Korah’s claim against Moses our teacher.”

Yosef also addressed legal pressure to open rabbinic ordination to women. In a sarcastic remark, he said women seeking a “Yoreh Yoreh” certificate, the highest halakhic authorization to issue rulings, could ask the High Court of Justice for it rather than the rabbinate. He said that under his watch, no woman would receive a “Yoreh Yoreh” certificate, and argued that any effort by the court to bring women into the rabbinate would fail.

At the ceremony, certificates were awarded to 257 graduates. The graduates included 20 from the dayanim track, 26 from the rabbinical track, and 34 from the rabbinical advocate track. Also speaking at the event, Tel Aviv Chief Rabbinical Judge Zabdya Cohen said that proper legal ruling requires “knowledge of Torah, labor, responsibility, understanding of reality, composure, and great caution in preserving the dignity of the litigants.”