Shlomo Aviner
Encyclopedia
Rosh yeshiva
Rosh yeshiva, , , is the title given to the dean of a Talmudical academy . It is made up of the Hebrew words rosh — meaning head, and yeshiva — a school of religious Jewish education...
of the Ateret Yerushalayim yeshiva
Yeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
(formerly known as Ateret Cohanim
Ateret Cohanim
Ateret Cohanim, , also known as Ateret Yerushalyim, is a Religious Zionist yeshiva located in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem in Israel. Founded in 1978, it uses the building of the historic Torath Chaim Yeshiva...
) in Jerusalem and the rabbi of Bet El
Bet El
Beit El is an Israeli settlement and a local council in the Benjamin region of the central West Bank, within the borders of the Matte Binyamin Regional Council. The religiously observant town is located in the hills north of Jerusalem east of the Palestinian city of al-Bireh. In 2009, it had a...
. He is considered one of the spiritual leaders of the Religious Zionist movement.
Background
Ha-Rav Shlomo Chaim Ha-Cohain Aviner was born in 5703 in German-occupied Lyon, France. As a youth, he was active there in the religious Zionist youth movement, Bnei AkivaBnei Akiva
Bnei Akiva is the largest religious Zionist youth movement in the world, with over 125,000 members in 37 countries. It was established in Mandate Palestine in 1929.-History:...
, eventually becoming its National Director. He attended university, where he studied mathematics, physics, and electrical engineering. At the age of 23, infused with the ideal of working the Land of Israel, Rav Aviner made aliyah to Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu
Sde Eliyahu
Sde Eliyahu is a religious kibbutz in northern Israel. Located 5 km south of Beit She'an, it falls under the jurisdiction of Valley of Springs Regional Council.-History:...
, in the Beit She’an Valley of the Galil. He then went to learn at Yeshivat Merkaz Harav in Yerushalayim, where he met Ha-Rav Tzvi Yehudah Ha-Cohain Kook
Zvi Yehuda Kook
Zvi Yehuda Kook was a rabbi, leader of Religious Zionism and Rosh Yeshiva of the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva...
, Rosh Yeshiva
Rosh yeshiva
Rosh yeshiva, , , is the title given to the dean of a Talmudical academy . It is made up of the Hebrew words rosh — meaning head, and yeshiva — a school of religious Jewish education...
and son of Israel's first Chief Rabbi, Ha-Rav Avraham Yitzchak Ha-Cohain Kook
Abraham Isaac Kook
Abraham Isaac Kook was the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the British Mandate for Palestine, the founder of the Religious Zionist Yeshiva Merkaz HaRav, Jewish thinker, Halachist, Kabbalist and a renowned Torah scholar...
. Ha-Rav Tzvi Yehudah became his foremost teacher, and he became one of his “Talmdei Muvhak - leading students.” During this time he also served as a soldier in Tzahal - the Israel Defense Force, participating in the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War, earning the rank of Lieutenant. At the direction of his Rabbi, he joined a group that was settling Hebron
Hebron
Hebron , is located in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judean Mountains, it lies 930 meters above sea level. It is the largest city in the West Bank and home to around 165,000 Palestinians, and over 500 Jewish settlers concentrated in and around the old quarter...
and learned Torah there. In the year 5731, Rav Aviner became the Rabbi of Kibbutz Lavi
Lavi
Lavi is a kibbutz in the Lower Galilee area of Israel. It is a member of the Religious Kibbutz Movement.Located 310 meters above sea level and 10 minutes from Tiberias, it falls under the jurisdiction of Lower Galilee Regional Council.-History:...
in the lower Galil, where he spent half of his day working in the farm. In 5737, he left Lavi to serve as the Rabbi of Moshav Keshet
Keshet, Golan Heights
Keshet is an Israeli settlement, moshav shitufi, in the Golan Heights. It was established in 1974 after the Yom Kippur War by Hapoel HaMizrachi near the Syrian city of Quneitra, which had been abandoned and subsequently razed to the ground in the Six Day War...
in the Golan Heights. In 5741, he accepted the position of Rav of Beit El (Aleph), in the Binyamin region of the Shomron. Two years later, he also became the Rosh Yeshiva of the new-established Yeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim (formerly known as Ateret Cohanim). Located in the Old City of Yerushalayim, Rav Aviner’s yeshiva is the closest yeshiva to the Har Ha-Bayit - the Temple Mount, the holiest spot in the world. In its more than twenty year history, Yeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim has produced rabbis, teachers, educators and officers in Tzahal
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
, while also promoting the building and settling of the city of Yerushalayim.
Rav Aviner has become a ubiquitous presence in Israel. He has published hundreds of books and articles, including Sichot Ha-Rav Tzvi Yehudah (talks by Ha-Rav Tzvi Yehudah), Tal Hermon on the weekly Torah portion and holidays and his multi-volume responsa Shu”t She'eilat Shlomo. His talks and responsa appear monthly in the Yeshiva’s journal, Iturei Cohanim. While his opinions are frequently printed in Israeli newspapers, Rav Aviner also contributes weekly to four parashah sheets, “Ma’aynei Ha-Yeshu’ah,” “Be-Ahavah U-Be-Emunah” of Machon Meir, "Rosh Yehudi" and "Olam Katan" which are distributed every Shabbat in shuls throughout Israel. He hosts two weekly radio programs, has a video blog (www.video.maale.org.il), teaches weekly classes and gives talks in many different venues. The yeshiva also sends out weekly teachings of Rav Aviner in Hebrew, English, French and Spanish and has an English blog which is updated on a daily basis (www.ravaviner.com). In addition to these scheduled events, Rav Aviner also makes himself available to hundreds of people from all walks of life who come to him with questions via mail, telephone, fax, e-mail, text messages, his radio show and his video blog Q&A.
Controversy
In the past few years his outspoken views have attracted controversy. In 2005, prior to the forced mass eviction of Jews from Gush KatifGush Katif
Gush Katif was a bloc of 17 Israeli settlements in the southern Gaza strip. Gush Katif was specifically mentioned by Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister who fell victim to an assassin in 1995, as essential to Israel's security border. In August 2005, the Israeli army moved the 8,600...
as part of Israel unilateral disengagement plan, Aviner took a rabbinical stance that soldiers should not refuse orders to participate with the plan, explaining that the religious issue was the state's responsibility, not the individual's. He continued to publicly oppose the resistance to the eviction plans and in one case he has been accused, yet never convicted, of taking physical action.
As a result his opponents have also republished accusations of sexual abuse. These accusations were published originally in Maariv
Maariv
Maariv is a Hebrew language daily newspaper published in Israel. It is second in sales after Yedioth Ahronoth and third in readership after Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel HaYom. In a TGI survey comparing the last half of 2009 with the same period in 2008, Maariv saw its market share fall slightly...
. As a result of the uproar following the publication the newspaper appointed an independent investigator who came to the conclusion that Rabbi Aviner was innocent, though maybe guilty of practicing therapy without the backing of a professional. The expert also said that the Rabbi's intentions were honorable. After that Maariv published a retraction. And a Beit Din ruled in December 2010 that the accusations were false.
Another publicized accusation is that Rabbi Aviner made erroneous rulings with regards to questions of niddah
Niddah
Niddah is a Hebrew term describing a woman during menstruation, or a woman who has menstruated and not yet completed the associated requirement of immersion in a mikveh ....
-family purity. The matter was brought before a rabbinic committee made up of Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, and 2 other rabbis. The committee concluded that Rabbi Aviner should not be allowed to rule on these matters. Rabbi Aviner refused to listen to the committee's decision. Rabbi Aviner agreed to respect a decision made by the only body entitled to restrict his rabbinical work: the Chief Rabbinate of Israel
Chief Rabbinate of Israel
The Chief Rabbinate of Israel is recognized by law as the supreme halakhic and spiritual authority for the Jewish people in Israel. The Chief Rabbinate Council assists the two chief rabbis, who alternate in its presidency. It has legal and administrative authority to organize religious...
. The Chief Rabbinate never even discussed the issue.
In a 2000 visit by Pope John Paul II, it was announced in Bethlehem that the Vatican had always recognized “Palestinian national rights to a homeland.” Rabbi Aviner said at the time that the Pope's goal was simply to obtain a foothold in Jerusalem for the Church.
In 2007, in an article about Baruch Marzel
Baruch Marzel
Baruch Meir Marzel is an Israeli politician. Marzel, an American-born Orthodox Jew, lives in the Jewish community of Hebron in Tel Rumeida with his wife and nine children. He is the leader of the Religious Zionism-orientated Jewish National Front party...
's threats over the settler movement, Aviner stated that he felt that the IDF was sincerely evacuating the renewed Homesh
Homesh
Homesh was an Israeli settlement in the northern Samarian Hills of the West Bank along Tulkarm and Route 60. The village fell under the administrative jurisdiction of the Shomron Regional Council...
settlers and other demonstrators at the site of the abandoned village to protect from future terrorist attacks. Aviner further distinguished between the IDF's responsibility to protect settlements versus its responsibility for protecting demonstrators, saying that the IDF should do whatever is necessary to protect a settlement to keep it intact, including armed forces, but demonstrators may be evacuated if thought necessary where there is a danger to their lives.
In 2009, a booklet drawing on Rabbi Aviner's teachings entitled, Go Fight My Fight: A Daily Study Table for the Soldier and Commander in a Time of War was published especially for Operation Cast Lead. Its existence was revealed by Breaking the Silence, a group of Israeli ex-soldiers who accused the Rabbi of encouraging Israeli soldiers to disregard the international laws of war
Laws of war
The law of war is a body of law concerning acceptable justifications to engage in war and the limits to acceptable wartime conduct...
aimed at protecting civilians. Some have interpreted the booklet to advise soldiers that cruelty is sometimes a "good attribute".