Israel’s Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef harshly criticized Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana on Tuesday for spearheading conversion and kashrut reforms Yosef claims go against Jewish law.
Speaking at a massive rabbinical gathering, Yosef accused Kahana of “heeding the advice of uninfluential rabbis who confuse him” instead of consulting with “great rabbis.”
“Any convert who does not accept upon himself the commandments, we will not accept him … We call on the religious services minister to not heed the uninfluential rabbis, to wake up. You have already ruined kashrut, do you also want to ruin the conversion system? Repent.”
Speaking at the same event, Israel’s Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi David Lau said, “The Torah has given us definitive laws which we will not change,” stressing that if improvements need to be made, they must be done in a way that does not negate the Torah.
This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.