Navigating rabbinical ordination and leadership in Israel’s modern context - opinion

Last week, I received a letter from Israel’s Chief Rabbinate informing me that I had completed the requirements towards rabbinical ordination, a process I began six years ago. When I called to ask when I would receive my official smicha (ordination), I was incredibly told that since Israel does not currently have a chief rabbi, there is nobody authorized to sign it for me.

A few weeks ago, controversy erupted when the coalition decided to legislate the “Rabbis Bill” dealing with authority to appoint local and municipal rabbis. Israelis were infuriated that the government was dealing with jobs for rabbis while a war was raging, hostages were still in Gaza and residents from the North and South had been evicted from their homes.

On the occasion of receiving ordination, after a long and arduous yet meaningful and rewarding journey, it is a good opportunity to explain what led me down this path and why I believe there is yet an important public role for Judaism to play in Israel today, especially amidst the challenges we face.

My late grandfather, Alfred Friedman, was a student of Rav Yitzchak Hutner and received smicha from Yeshivat Chaim Berlin in New York. My grandfather never served as a rabbi but he had put in the work and deeply valued learning and his Judaism. He passed away six years ago, right before I was released from my IDF service. In our last conversation I asked what he thinks I should do after my service.

Without hesitating, he said: “Go back to yeshiva for one more year. You’ll cherish it for the rest of your life.” I spent that year heeding his advice and learning Halacha (Jewish law). My late uncle, Stuart Morduchowitz, himself born to a rabbinic dynasty, was a modern-day Maimonides – devoted doctor in the day, learned Jewish scholar at night – and inspired me to learn too.

Same laws, different periods of Jewish history 

Rabbinic ordination from the Chief Rabbinate consists of six exams, including the laws of the Shabbat, dietary laws (kashrut), the laws of menstruation and purity (niddah), and smaller topics such as mourning and marriage. The exams require an analytical understanding of the law and the memorization of each topic, from the Talmud through to modern rabbinic authorities, such as Rav Ovadia Yosef and Rabbi Moshe Feinstein.

I studied towards the rabbinate during law school and there was much overlap between the curriculum, highlighting just how central Jewish law is in Israel and how much Judaism means to the culture of the only Jewish state. I would find myself using legal terms in my rabbinic exams and rabbinic terms in my law school exams – they complimented each other wonderfully.

I learned in a few incredible and open-minded yeshivas: Ma’ale Gilboa, Siach Yitzchak and Machanayim, which taught me how to think critically and methodically. I also spent a few months serving in the IDF Military Rabbinate’s Halacha Branch, which deals with the intersection of Jewish law and the army, a microcosm of the religion-state challenges facing Israeli society.

While the process of becoming a rabbi was engaging and rewarding, I grappled with the question of “what to do with it?”

Sacks: "be a rabbi AND public servicemen"

I had the rare privilege of flying to London to meet the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, former chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, in his Golders Green home and asked him this very question. I was inspired by how he made the rabbinate about 21st century public service for the global Jewish community and was the embodiment of being a light unto the nations. Rabbi Sacks challenged me to not be content with becoming a rabbi but to apply it to public service and leadership in Israel. 

A prime example of this was Rabbi Dr. Yaakov Herzog, uncle to Israel’s President Isaac Herzog. A renaissance figure during the formation of the state, he was simultaneously offered the two positions of chief rabbi of the UK and director-general to the Prime Minister’s Office of David Ben-Gurion. 

His father was the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the State of Israel, Rabbi Isaac Halevi Herzog. The chief rabbi told his other son Chaim Herzog (former president and father to our current one) that if you’re not going to be a rabbi, then the Jewish people need officers. Following that advice, he would go on to head IDF Military Intelligence, while his brother Yaakov would go on to be an esteemed rabbi and statesman.

With these formative figures in mind, I decided to walk down a path, unsure then, as I am now, what to do with it. Yet, I heard a voice, and I followed it.

Jewish learning is about leadership. The State of Israel requires not just rabbinic leadership in the old-school diasporic sense – like the “Rabbis Bill” – but rather Jewish leadership: in government, military and business, soaked in the moral tradition, its values and language.

The Jewish people and the State of Israel are in a consequential moment in history – going forward will require Jewish leadership, be it political or spiritual, which must be deeply rooted in a paraphrase of the Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) rule: “know where you come from (in order to) know where you are going.” 

Israel needs empathetic leaders who grasp our heritage and history and hear the call: Jewish statesmanship, not necessarily rabbinic authority. A Jewish king was required to always carry a Torah scroll with him. Accordingly, we should aspire for humble leadership who live in awe and reflection of the great moral tradition that we are merely mantle carriers to.

Exporting meaning and moral guidance

The Jewish state has become the start-up nation, exporting technology to make the world a better place, built upon the formative years Israelis spend gaining hard skills in the IDF. But Israel’s destiny is more than that: It is to be a nation exporting meaning and moral guidance to the world. 

The source of that is in Israel’s unique Jewish heritage. Just as technology is cultivated in the rigorous IDF years and later exported to the world, meaning and morality are crafted by a rigorous study of our texts and heritage. A confused world simmering with identity crises looks to Israel for moral guidance. Israel’s role, deeply intertwined in its Jewish faith and heritage, is to serve as a moral light for that world.

The writer served as an adviser to then-deputy prime minister and justice minister Gideon Sa’ar in Israel’s 36th government. He works at Meitar, a leading Israeli international law firm.