Rabbi David Stav Opens Up About Family Divides and Religious Compromise

In the first episode of the new podcast "Mabat Gadol" from the Tzohar Rabbinical Organization, its chairman, Rabbi David Stav, spoke candidly with journalist Kobi Nakhshoni about the challenge of keeping family ties warm when some relatives are Haredi, and about the personal compromises that can require.

Stav said the issue became especially concrete before his youngest son's wedding. He explained that when the family invites its Haredi relatives, they will expect badatz-certified food, so the entire catering for the Shabbat sheva berakhot celebration will be koshered that way. "I do not need to tell you what I ideologically think about badatz kashrut," he said, adding that he would have preferred the whole event to be under Tzohar supervision, "but because of the value of family I give up on many things so that the family can sit together."

Referring to broader religious and political tensions, including the issue of Haredi enlistment, Stav argued that preserving a family sometimes means avoiding the most explosive subjects. "Every family needs to know its own rules of discourse and its sensitive points," he said. "I speak with my brother, but I must honestly say, I want them to remain my brothers, I want them to remain my nephews, and I want them to feel my love for them and their love for me."

He connected that approach to the home he grew up in, quoting his mother, the daughter of the Zvhiler Rebbe, who told the children not to be extreme and to use common sense. Stav ended with a story from a flight, where another rabbi complained that nobody woke him for morning prayers. Stav said he replied, based on his father's teaching, that "in Belz they wake you only for food, not for prayer," because people must take responsibility for others' physical needs and for their own spiritual life.