Rav Avigdor Miller on The Chief Rabbinate of the State of Israel

A:

Last week I spoke about this already. But in case somebody didn’t hear me, I’ll repeat it because it’s important. The election of the new Chief Rabbi in Israel is a national misfortune. And that’s really enough said. These two persons should have refused to run against two older rabbis [Rav Issar Yehuda Unterman and Rav Yitzchak Nissim]. Two older rabbis against whom there were no accusations except that they were too frum. And those accusations are not even true anyways. When old Rabbis are accused of being of being too loyal to the Torah then nobody should have dared to be a candidate. And anybody who was elected on such grounds is, is – I don’t want to say what he is.

TAPE # 1 (October 1973)

A:

Yes. I’m ready to comment on anything. The election of Goren to the Chief Rabbinate is a major misfortune and it is a big test. Now it’s not a test for us because we know that there is nothing to be learned from Goren. But there are alot of people on the borderline and they have weak minds so they are being tested by it. And actually we’re being tested as well to see what we will do about it – how we will react to it. Our job is to let the world know that the Chief Rabbinate in Israel means nothing at all. Nothing at all. The Chief Rabbi in Israel is only a puppet functionary who is in effect chosen by politicians, and for Jews who keep the Torah he has no authority at all.

And therefore, when someone says that the Chief Rabbi said so and so, it’s like saying that the Pope said it. It’s the same thing. Our Chief Rabbis are the true Torah leaders and the Roshei Yeshiva – the independent body of Torah scholars who live in Torah and are not subject to the orders of politicians. And they’ll be with us forever. Hakodosh Boruch Hu promises us that we’ll have Torah leaders forever.

And so, we have to know where to turn to. We don’t turn to politicians and to chief “people” who are willing to sell out the Torah and to trade mamzeirim in order to get elected. These people mean nothing to us. They’re just passing figures in the comedy of history. We turn to our real leaders who we’ll always have, b’ezras Hashem.
TAPE # 2 (October 1973)

A:

Of course we should be demonstrating. But the answer is that it’s a pity on the Yeshiva men who have to sit and learn. Every day that’s wasted from Torah is a tragedy for the Jewish people. So they did it once because it had to be done. But they had to stop learning to do it. And we would have to stop learning all together and demonstrate every day. And that we can’t do.
TAPE # 15 (February 1974)