Mordechai Eliyahu

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Rabbi Eliyahu in traditional Sephardic dress
Rabbi Eliyahu in traditional Sephardic dress

Mordechai Eliyahu (Mordechai Tzemach Eliyahu, Hebrew: מרדכי אליהו‎, born 12 March 1928, Jerusalem) is a former Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel.

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[edit] Background

Eliyahu was born the son of Rabbi Salman Eliyahu, a well-known Jerusalem Kabbalist from an Iraqi Jewish family. His mother's name is Mazal Tov. Salman died when Eliyahu was a child, and he proceeded to study with a number of notable personalities in the Orthodox world, including the Chazon Ish, Baba Sali, and Rabbi Ezra Attia. Following his years of preliminary study, Eliyahu became the youngest person ever elected as a religious judge (dayan) in Israel. He served as the Chief Rabbi of Beersheba for four years, and was then elected to the Supreme Rabbinical Court in Jerusalem, a position he continued to hold during his term as Chief Rabbi of Israel and through the present. He has four children, one of whom, Shmuel Eliyahu, is the Chief Rabbi of Safed.

He worked for the preservation of the Iraqi Jewish rite and the opinions of the Ben Ish Chai, and opposed the attempts of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef to impose a uniform "Israeli Sephardi" rite based on the Shulchan Aruch and his own halachic opinions. He published a prayer book called Qol Eliyahu based on this stance.

Eliyahu is one of the spiritual leaders of the Religious Zionist movement and was an outspoken opponent of the Gaza Disengagement of 2005. He is considered somewhat controversial for his decades-long support of what some characterize as the radical right of the Religious Zionist movement. Eliyahu was a friend of Rabbi Meir Kahane and his family. He officiated at the marriage of Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane and delivered the eulogy at Meir Kahane's funeral. He is a longtime supporter of Jonathan Pollard and became his spiritual mentor while Pollard was in prison.

[edit] Chief Rabbi

Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu wearing Talit
Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu wearing Talit

During Rabbi Eliyahu's term as Chief Rabbi between 1983 to 1993, one of his focuses was on attempting to reach out to secular Israeli Jews, giving them a better understanding of Jewish customs and their importance. He traveled extensively throughout Israel and the world, emphasizing the importance of Jewish education, Shabbat observance, family purity, fighting assimilation, and making aliyah. Eliyahu showed a willingness to go to secular environments in order to connect with other Jews, occasionally lecturing in secular moshavim and kibbutzim.

[edit] Opinions

[edit] Gaza Disengagement

In January 2005, Eliyahu stated that the 2004 Tsunami was (pre-emptive) "divine punishment" for Asian governments supporting Israel's unilateral disengagement plan plan.2

During the Gaza expulsion, Eliyahu made multiple statements (some issued jointly with former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Avraham Shapira,) which were widely interpreted as forbidding Orthodox Jews from participating in or facilitating the expulsion of the Jews from Gaza. Eliyahu later clarified his remarks by saying he did not mean for soldiers to engage in "active refusal"3:

...a soldier must tell his commander, "I am not refusing orders, but I cannot fulfill this order."... We do not want to dismantle the army that protects the residents and the citizens, and therefore we are against refusal in principle. The soldier must say, "I can't." If they force him to do this forbidden act, he should enter the family's house, sit on the floor, cry with them, and be saved from the prohibition in a passive manner.4

Eliyahu's son, Shmuel, was also involved in anti-"Disengagement" protests before the uprooting.


[edit] References and footnotes

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Ovadia Yosef		 Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel
Mordechai Eliyahu
1983–1993		 Succeeded by
Eliyahu Bakshi Doron