Shlomo Goren (; 3 February 1918 – 29 October 1994) was a Polish-born Israeli rabbi and Talmudic scholar. An Orthodox Judaism and Religious Zionist, he was considered a foremost Posek on matters of Jewish religious law ( halakha). In 1948, Goren founded and served as the first head of the Military Rabbinate of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), a position he held until 1968.
While serving in the IDF, Goren fought in three of the Arab–Israeli wars, and wrote several award-winning books on halakha.
Early life and education
Goren was born into an Orthodox Ashkenazi Jewish family in the town of Zambrów, Poland. His parents, Avraham Goronczik and Haya Tzipora,
emigrated in 1925 to join the
Yishuv in what was then the British Mandate for Palestine. His family was among the founders of
Kfar Hasidim, an Orthodox Jewish village located near the city of
Haifa, where Goren grew up.
As a young boy, he was sent to Jerusalem to study at the Etz Chaim Yeshiva. Later, when he was 12, he became the youngest student to enter the Hebron Yeshiva, where he was identified as a Illui. His first book, dealing with Korban (ritual sacrifices) at the former Temple in Jerusalem, was published when he was 17.
From 1940 until 1944, Goren was enrolled at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he studied philosophy, mathematics, and classics.
Military career
Goren's military career as an Orthodox Jew was characterized by a commitment to the Religious Zionist values of his youth. He volunteered for the
Haganah in 1936, and served as a chaplain for the Jerusalem area following the outbreak of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, during which he tested for and qualified as an IDF paratrooper. Goren was also a chaplain of the
Carmeli Brigade at this time. Immediately after the war, he engaged, often at great personal risk, in collecting the bodies of deceased soldiers to give them a proper burial. He strongly opposed the idea of separated religious and secular military units and worked for the integration of all IDF soldiers in the same units. He was the most prominent
halakhic authority involved in rulings for religious soldiers regarding their military service. Goren was eventually promoted to the rank of brigadier-general.
Following Israel's independence, Goren was appointed as the head of the IDF's Military Rabbinate with the rank of major-general, a position he held until 1968. He used the opportunity to help establish and organize the military chaplaincy's framework, streamlining processes to get soldiers accommodations for Kosher foods and Jewish prayer. Goren personally wrote a new Siddur to accommodate the different prayer styles used by various Jewish ethnic subgroups serving in the IDF.
Goren served in the Suez Crisis of 1956 and the Six-Day War of 1967, following which he was promoted to the rank of general. On 7 June 1967, when Israeli troops captured East Jerusalem from Jordanian control, Goren gave a prayer of thanksgiving, which was broadcast live to the entire country. Shortly afterwards, blowing a shofar and carrying a Sefer Torah, he held the first Jewish prayer session at the Western Wall since 1948. The event was one of the defining moments of the Arab–Israeli conflict, and several photographs of Goren surrounded by soldiers in prayer have since become famous among Jews in Israel and worldwide. The most famous of these photographs shows Goren blowing the shofar against the background of the Western Wall.
Controversies
Goren attracted many admirers through his passion for Religious Zionism and his combining of Zionist activism with a commitment to
Judaism and
Jewish studies. However, his uncompromising personality later resulted in him becoming a polarizing and controversial figure in Israeli politics.
Goren called the vehement attacks against him a "moral and religious scandal".
The Langer Controversy
In November 1972, Goren presided over a panel of nine dayanim to review the case of Sgt. Maj. Hanoch Langer, and his sister Miriam, who had been declared
, and therefore ineligible for marriage to an Israelite by a
Beth din in
Petah Tikva.
The Langer children had been designated as mamzerim because their mother had married their father, without having been divorced from her previous husband, thus committing adultery according to Halakha.
Fearing a review of the case would prompt the secularists in the government, such as Gideon Hausner of the Independent Liberal Party,
Goren's reversal was fiercely opposed, primarily by the Agudat Yisrael and Ovadia Yosef.
Halakha and the Israeli state
and http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=47045&st=&pgnum=82
One example of Goren's desire to adapt Halakha to changing realities in science was his controversial stance on Kiddush Levana, the monthly blessing over the new moon. A prayer customarily added after the blessing contains the words "just as I dance before you and am unable to touch you." Goren said that since the Americans landed on the Moon in 1969, this line should be changed to reflect that it is, in fact, possible to touch the Moon.
Religious Zionist activism
Third Temple in Jerusalem
Goren repeatedly advocated or supported building a
Third Temple on the Temple Mount from the 1960s onward, and was associated with various messianic projects involving the
Temple Mount.
He was well known for his controversial positions concerning Jewish sovereignty over the Temple Mount. On 15 August 1967, two months after the
Six-Day War, Goren led a group of fifty Jews onto the
Temple Mount, where, fighting off protesting Muslim guards and Israeli police, they defiantly held a prayer service.
Goren continued to pray for many years in the Makhkame building overlooking the Temple Mount, where he conducted yearly High Holiday services. His call for the establishment of a synagogue on the Temple Mount has subsequently been reiterated by his brother-in-law,
the former Chief Rabbi of Haifa, She'ar Yashuv Cohen.
Goren was sharply criticized by the Israeli Defense Ministry, who, noting Goren's senior rank, called his behavior inappropriate. The episode led the Chief Rabbis of the time to restate the accepted laws of Judaism that no Jews were allowed on the mount due to issues of ritual impurity. The secular authorities welcomed this ruling as it preserved the status quo with the Waqf, the Islamic authority. Disagreeing with his colleagues, Goren continually maintained that Jews were not only permitted, but commanded, to ascend and pray on the mount which is the holiest site in Judaism.
The actual question of Goren's radicalism remains controversial. One widely repeated story about Goren claims that shortly after the Israeli capture of the Temple Mount, the rabbi either argued that Israel should destroy the Qibli Mosque and Dome of the Rock, or simply said that it would have been a "good thing" if they had been accidentally destroyed.[ Haaretz, 31 December 1997, also cited in Nur Masalha, The Bible and Zionism: Invented Traditions, Archaeology and Post-Colonialism in Palestine-Israel, Zed Books, London 2007 p.79] Goren's close assistant Rabbi Menachem Ha-Cohen, who was with Rabbi Goren throughout that historic day, denied ever hearing Goren make such a remark. Goren himself personally denied this charge several times.[Broadcast of 31 Dec 1997] in which he said of the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque that "Certainly we should have blown it up. It is a tragedy that we did not do so."[Nur Masalha, The Bible and Zionism:Invented Traditions, Archeology and Post-Colonialism in Palestine-Israel, Zed Books, London 2007 p.79]
After retiring from official duties as Chief Rabbi, Goren opened and lead the Idra Yeshiva near the Western Wall. The yeshiva changed and was renamed after Goren's death.
Illegal excavation sites
In the summer of 1983, Goren and several other rabbis joined Rabbi
Yehuda Getz, who worked for the Religious Affairs Ministry at the Western Wall, in touring a chamber underneath the mount that Getz had illegally excavated, where the two claimed to have seen the Ark of the Covenant. The excavation was shortly discovered and resulted in a massive brawl between young Jews and Arabs in the area. The access tunnel to the chamber was quickly sealed with concrete by Israeli police.
The sealed entrance can be seen from the Western Wall Tunnel, which opened to the public in 1996.
Relationship with Christian organizations
Goren, who was a strong supporter of alliances between Evangelical Christians and Israel, also denounced meetings between Israel and the
Holy See, calling it "blasphemy beyond expression."
Opposition to the Oslo Accords
Goren also made headlines after his term as Chief Rabbi had expired. He was deeply opposed to the
Oslo Accords and in 1993 declared that it was
halakha forbidden to dismantle any settlements in the Biblical Land of Israel, and encouraged any soldiers ordered to do so to refuse.
In 1994, he announced that Halakha made it a duty for Jews to kill
Yasser Arafat, because he endangered Jewish lives.
[ Shlomo Goren, 77, Is Dead, by Eric Pace, New York Times, Oct. 30, 1994. Accessed March 2020.]
Condemnation of Jewish terrorist attacks
Goren has spoken out against Jewish terrorism. In 1982 he and Rabbi
Ovadia Yosef officially condemned a shooting attack on the Temple Mount by an American immigrant which resulted in the death of two Muslims and the wounding of several others. In a joint statement released by the Chief Rabbis, they declared that "We and the entire Jewish people attack and deplore the criminal act of murder in every possible way. Through this abominable act Alan Goodman has removed himself from the Jewish people...".
Educational activities
Goren was a manager of a
Kollel, where he met and educated Rabbi Joel Landau. Landau helped him in managing the Kollel.
Following his term as Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, he founded the Idra Yeshiva near the Western Wall, which he headed until his passing.
Published works
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Goren's first work was on the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides, published at age seventeen.
[ Goren, Rabbi Shlomo, by Orthodox Union (OU) Staff, June 14, 2006, accessed March 2020]
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Sha'arei Taharah on Masekhet Mikva'ot, a study of the laws concerning ritual baths ( mikva'ot), published at the age of twenty-one.
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A number of responsa regarding the application of Jewish Law in a modern army
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With Might and Strength: An Autobiography, an (auto)biography redacted by Avi Rath based on his interviews with Goren (2013 in Hebrew, 2016 in English)
Quotes
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"Human life is undoubtedly a supreme value in Judaism, as expressed both in the Halakha and the prophetic ethic. This refers not only to Jews, but to all men created in the image of God."
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"It is clear that according to Halacha (Jewish religious law), a soldier who receives an order that runs contrary to Torah law should uphold the Halacha, and not the secular order. And since settling the land is a commandment, and uprooting the settlements is breaking the commandment, the soldier should not carry out an order to uproot settlements. This government does not lean on a majority of Jewish support, but rather on Arabs votes. According to the Halacha it does not have the authority of a majority, and therefore government directives to uproot the settlements do not have the authority of the majority of the people."
Personal life
Goren was married to Tzfia Cohen, the daughter of prominent Religious Zionist Rabbi David Cohen, the
Nazir of Jerusalem, and the sister of Rabbi She'ar Yashuv Cohen, former deputy-mayor of Jerusalem and later Chief Rabbi of
Haifa. Both Goren's father-in-law and brother-in-law were also prominent rabbinical vegetarians.
Rabbi Goren and Tzfia Goren had three children: retired justice Tchiya Shapiro;
Vegetarianism
Goren was a strict
vegetarian after he visited a slaughterhouse in
Canada in 1967 to perform an inspection of
kashrut.
Awards
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In 1961, Goren was awarded the Israel Prize in Rabbinical literature.
Bibliography
See also
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List of Israel Prize recipients
-
Jewish vegetarianism
External links
