Rabbi Eliezer Melamed doesn't give interviews simply because it feels like his voice is everywhere. One of the most prominent rabbis of the Religious Zionist sector, he speaks to his large community through his writing: for 18 years, he has published a very popular weekly column on matters of the Halacha or Jewish law, and a news column in the B'Sheva newspaper. He has authored 20 books, of which sold almost a million copies, making him one of the top best–selling authors in Israel. He gives no interviews because he has no need for them.
Many see Melamed, 59, the rabbi of the Samaria community of Har Bracha, as a future candidate for the position of chief rabbi of Israel. He is known for his determined opinions and as one who does not fear political correctness, but when one dives into his writing, we find a fascinating posek ("decisor") with an open worldview who advocates independent thought in all directions.
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Melamed's biography has an interesting duality. He is the eldest son of the head of the prestigious Beit El Yeshiva, Rabbi Zalman Melamed, and director of the Israel National News website, Shulamit Melamed, one of the most prominent figures of the settlement enterprise in Samaria. However, his maternal grandfather, Professor Yosef Walk, was one of the founders of the religious left-wing movement Oz VeShalom, and his uncle, Ze'ev Walk, was a member of the now defunct left-wing religious Zionist party, Meimad.
Melamed went through the Zionist–Torah track of Yeshiva Letzirim and Merkaz HaRav; he married Inbal Katz and the couple have 13 children and 31 grandchildren.
Despite his emphatic positions on the issues pertaining to the Land of Israel, Melamed is quite moderate when it comes to questions of religion and state.
He encourages his yeshiva graduates to learn a profession and enroll in academia, alongside learning Torah extensively on Shabbat. Two of his daughters hold doctoral degrees – one in economics and the other in history. The professional and economic advancement of his students is part of the view that one must learn a profession that "contributes to settling the world" as a sanctified value: "It's important that people have a good and respectable livelihood.
"The kolel [an institute for full–time, advanced study of the Talmud and rabbinic literature] is for training teachers and rabbis. The rest need to learn a profession and read so they aren't dependent on special funds, donations, charities or an employer, so if they demand the worker to do something immoral, he can resign without fearing for his future," he explained.
Melamed's positions on religion and state have been attacked by the national-Orthodox stream. The latest controversy erupted three months ago after the Israel and Diaspora conference hosted by religious daily Makor Rishon, where Melamed participated in a forum with a female Reform rabbi from France. Rabbis attacked him for violating the historic boycott on Judaism's progressive movement, which the ultra-Orthodos streem does now recognize.
"A boycott of a whole public is a terrible thing," he said. "Even if in the past there were rabbis who thought Reform Jews should be boycotted, they should look and see if that horrible tool still needs to be used. In my opinion, there was no justification for a boycott then, and certainly none today.
"The notion that your verity is measured by your boycott of others, which has unfortunately invaded the national-religious public, is wrong. If I have an opportunity to meet with Reforms, I will. Despite our arguments, they are our brothers. And it is a mitzvah to love brothers."
Q: The issue of religion and state creates many tensions in Israeli society.
"I oppose religious coercion. If most of the public agrees on something and no one is being coerced to do something that goes against their conscience – this is not coercion. To reach an agreed position for the majority, the traditional public needs to lead the discussion on religion and state matters."
Melamed is also not afraid to express unorthodox opinions on the sensitive issue of marriage.
"The state needs to strengthen marriage according to the Laws of Moses and Israel, but also recognize the right of two people to sign a legal document, a 'domestic partnership', and grant them rights equal to those of a married couple," says Melamed, "respect for man, alongside respect for marriage that has been sanctified for generations."
Recently, Melamed surprised on another issue – female rabbis and religious judges. "There is no reason to prevent women from dealing with the Torah," he wrote in his column two weeks ago. "Including roles of spiritual leadership, Torah teaching and halachic rulings as rabbis and religious judges.
"Although there are difficulties that delay the implementation of this practically: women have less talmudic experience in the larger houses of learning, lesser conditions for studying Torah for many years, and there is a fear in the conservative ultra-Orthodox haredi sector of revolutions. But if throughout generations the research and theoretical study of Torah was for men only, because of the social orders until then – today, in a reality where women share opinions in many areas and want to do so concerning the Torah as well, this is an ideal that brings us closer to the vision of the prophets."
Q: Women also pay a price for bearing many children at young ages, at the expense of their personal development.
"It is a mitzvah to give birth to a boy and girl. The sages added that it's a mitzvah to give birth to four children. Beyond that there is value to every child, but it is considered 'exaltation.' It's important to say that it's exaltation in order to avoid pressure, so a woman doesn't feel like she is a 'birthing machine'. Not every family wishes to exalt this mitzvah. As a matter a principle, pregnancy should not be delayed at the early years of marriage, but when a pregnancy can harm the ability of the man or woman to fulfill their dreams in work or creativity, there is room to consider a delay. It's important that each person reach the highest level they can in developing their talents."
Q: And what about women serving in the military?
"According to our tradition, women were not drafted into the army. There were reasons for that, like the need to balance between those going to war and safeguarding the routine of the home front, and safeguarding the values of modesty. The Haredim prohibit it completely. According to our rabbis, while there is no official decree prohibiting this, the proper guidance for girls is not to join the army. However, a female soldier who contributes to the defense of the state and does so in the name of heaven – she is performing a mitzvah. How can one not respect a religious female soldier who keeps Halacha in the army?"
Q: How should the religious community treat its LGBTQ members?
"I respect them and love them. I feel no rejection toward them. Where I grew up, Merkaz Harav Yeshiva and in the sphere of Torah studies, there was not a reality of holding contempt for homosexuals.
"A religious man who has a homosexual tendency lives in a painful conscience and in great effort, and if he remains religious, he must be greatly admired. I don't know if I could have made it through such an effort. Not everything has a solution. For two men or two women to live in a religious community, we must lower the flags and the flames.
"Homosexual men and women do not need to announce in public what they do in the privacy of their own bedrooms. And by the way, many of the religious [ones] try to avoid violation of the Torah. On the other hand, the public doesn't need to ask them intimate questions and treat them as friends who decided to live together. They can be beloved friends of the religious community."
Q: Could it be that the current halachic discussion over modesty laws is exaggerated?
"Modesty laws were meant to strengthen the bond between husband and wife. Furthermore, clothes are a statement, a flag of loyalty to the Torah. Over time, too much weight was given to this. It should be given its true weight: it is a tradition and custom based on wise men, not an edict."
"Clothing modesty laws should not be given the same weight as great and important mitzvahs – it must not exclude a woman from the Torah– and mitzvah–observant public. Twetry-five years ago I wrote that there is an opinion in the halacha that the definition for modest is social norms. This is not how halacha is ruled, but it was important for me to emphasize that this opinion exists. I believe, for example, that conversion should not be delayed due to the modesty of dressing.
"Modesty of dress is not such a serious 'crime' worthy of ostracizing a girl from a school. Even participation in a public secular singing contest is not cause for suspension."
'I don't speak in two languages'
Two historic issues hover over our discussion. Melamed isn't keen on discussing them but replies in relaxed precision: his investigation after the 1995 murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin over a letter he sent to 40 national religious rabbis discussing the question of "din rodef" (the "law of the pursuer") – a hakachic decree dealing with the pursuit of an individial in order to kill him – for which he was not indicted; and the notorious 2009 argument with then-Defense Minister Ehud Barak regarding the eviction of illegal settlements.
Q: On the eve of Rabin's murder, you were the head of the Yesha Rabbinical Council. What was in that letter to the rabbis?
"It was a discussion on principle: whoever brings the PLO to rule over territories in the Land of Israel in opposition to the Jewish majority and against the promises given to voters, in the future, when disasters happen, will it be possible to put him on trial according to the Torah-legal discipline? It was underscored that this wasn't about any person taking the law into his hands, rather a public, diplomatic question, if and under what circumstances can a prime minister be put on trial for the results of his deeds.
"I sent the question to a list of elder rabbis and legal experts, secular and religious. Is there criminal liability for a prime minister for deeds that are formally legal, but go against accepted norms and endanger the public who mostly oppose his policy? Can a government be sued for such a thing in retrospect? That wasn't the case during the [2005] disengagement from Gaza, because back then there was a Jewish majority, at least according to the polls, that supported leaving Gush Katif. The [1993] Oslo Accords did not have a majority.
"After Rabin's murder, they looked for a scapegoat. We fought against Oslo but held a balanced line. When the tensions grew, together with the PM's military secretary, I initiated meetings of the Yesha Council of Rabbis with Rabin. The Likud heads, Netanyahu and Sharon, criticized us for this. They claimed he was going to lose the elections, and a meeting like that would only strengthen him. The last meeting with Rabin took place five days before the murder and was held with respect."
In 2009, when protesters in the settlement of Homesh were about to be evicted, two soldiers waved a sign saying "Shimshon [the name of thier brigade] will not evacuate Homesh" during a swearing-in ceremony at the Western Wall.
One of those waving the sign was a religious seminary student at the Har Bracha Yeshiva. The IDF demanded Melamed condemn the act because during the disengagement he wrote about refusing orders. Melamed wrote in a column that it is not wise to wave such a banner in a state ceremony, and if the soldiers had asked him, he would have advised them not to do so but noted that in retrospect, he understood their actions.
Barak was furious. When he summoned Melamed for clarifications and the latter didn't show up, the Har Bracha Yeshiva was removed from the military's Hesder program and recognized only a top yeshiva. Only after three and a half years, when Moshe Ya'alon was defense minister, the Hesder program was renewed.
"Every order connected to security and operations, needs to be executed, even if it contradicts a certain mitzvah in the Torah, because pikuach nefesh [the sanctity of life] takes precedence even over shabbat," Melamed clarifies. "But orders in a civilian framework that clash with the conscience and Torah – those must be refused. That is my position, I don't know how to say anything else.
"There are those in houses of learning who will say one thing and someone outside will say another. I don't speak in two languages. That's why in my books there are no agreements with Haredi rabbis: I am not willing to change something from the Torah as I understand it. In one of the first books, on the laws of the Sabbath, I approached an important Haredi rabbi. He asked me to be more severe on a certain issue. Since I couldn't change, I withdrew my request for agreement."
After the arson attack in Duma and attacks on participants of the Pride Parade, including one in which a teenaged girl was murdered, Melamed wrote, "Someone allegedly went in the name of the Torah and purity to eradicate impurity, by doing the worst deed of them all, and he himself is the father of fathers of impurity, murder and malice. The Arab baby was murdered and his family critically injured and who knows how long they will suffer from their wounds. They added insult to injury and wrote 'long live the messiah king'. As if in the name of the world peace of the days of the messiah, people must be murdered in their sleep."
Now, top, he emphasizes that "sometimes I felt a need to harshly criticize the rioters of the Hilltop Youth. Whoever does not respect the IDF, does not obey the law, and holds contempt for the "regular" settlers who make the mountains of Judea and Samaria green, is not righteous. There are people in that group who have a grudge against me till this day, and some have woken up and repented. 15 years ago. When the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria became an established one, I said that from now on we must build only in regulated places. If according to the law a certain place is not regulated, but a place near it can be regulated, that is preferable."
Q: What is Halacha in your eyes?
"What is the reason for Jewish excellence, like with Nobel prizes? Genetics is not the answer. Neither is studying the Gemara, nor the disputes over any convention it creates – because that's not unique to Jews, for doubting things is the basis of Western thought. The reason is that Jews have a culture that relies on a tradition of the infinite ideal of tikkun olam."
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"Tikkun olam is an attempt to subtly improve everything that exists. To heighten all levels of life. Work, study, family, society, science, art. To bring everything in the world to a better place. In Christianity there is a vision of mercy but there is no reference to the daily issues, there is despair from the normal life. In Islam there is reference to the issues, but they don't encourage man to discover the image of God in himself in order to fix the world. In Judaism there is no sphere that isn't important. Everything is important. Prayer, feasts, sabbaths. To make a better world. How do you repair the world? How does one live by the major values? The Halacha gives practical guidance."
Q: So the Haredim are wrong?
"The answer is their name, 'haredim' [fearful]. Out of the fear of protecting their religion, they fear to leave their safe place, to meet other people, to deal with science. That's why they don't do the major mitzvahs of settling the land, joining the army, academic studies and participation in all types of work. One can justify a haredi position that lasts a few years, a generation at the most. But when it lasts for a few generations, that already changes the Torah, cancels parts of it, like the mitzvah of settling the land, which weighs more than all the other mitzvahs combined."
Q: And what about the secular?
"Secularism has value, too, as we learned from Rabbi Kook. We must listen to the positive values that exist in secularism. Not to rely on miracles, for example. The Zionist movement acted rationally. That's how it should be. The faith and the mitzvah encourage us to settle all the Land of Israel, but if rational considerations say it's impossible, then not now. We also haven't studied enough yet the values of freedom and liberty."
