What do you get when you decide to take matters into your own hands and bypass the religious authority?
Answer: Tel Aviv.
Ask anyone who has spent a significant amount of time in Israel to define it in one word and the most likely answer you’ll receive is “complex”. Surrounded by neighbors whom, to say the least, weren’t forthcoming with a welcome wagon and filled with a cornucopia of different cultures, languages, religions, and backgrounds, it’s easy to understand why “complex” is the first descriptive word that comes to mind. A large part of that complexity comes from Tel Aviv. In a largely mid-conservative climate of politics and religion, Tel Aviv has carved a niche for itself as one of if not the most progressive cities in the middle east, more so as a utopia for the LGBTQ community.
Judaically, the discourse of LGBTQ people has a deep and dark history that, as society progresses and renews its understanding of human sexuality and relationships, becomes all the more contentious with the halachic understanding of relationships and marriage. Outside of Israel, people within the LGBTQ community who desired to enter into matrimony needed the blessing of the local government (14th amendment of the constitution) and a Rabbi willing to officiate the ceremony. In Israel, until recently, this was impossible. Due to the governing hand of the Rabbinate, same sex couples could marry outside of Israel and have it registered and recognized by the minister of the interior, but in no way by the religious authority.
On June 21st 2020, Tel Aviv mayor Ron Huldai made the potentially divisive decision to bypass the ruling hand of the Rabbinate and proclaim that couples cohabitating with Tel Aviv, LGBTQ or other (interfaith), can register their union at the city hall in order to receive matrimonial benefits without the necessity of marriage. For all intents and purposes aside from those dealing with religion, the couple would be recognized as legally married. This marks the first time that a municipality has openly defied the Rabbinate on a halachic of this magnitude. The question remains though, what will be the repercussions of this decision?
On one side of the issue, for the progressive, liberal standpoint this is a huge victory in relation to the struggle for equal opportunity and equity for all. The ability to marry as individuals see fit has been a point of struggle as a right for many years in accordance to a more progressive society and mindset. The other side of the issue is that statistically, the potential for intermarriage drastically increases. While the actual effects of intermarriage are debateable per Judaic denomination and location, they cannot be ignored, but this entails more indepth analysis in another time and place.
The more pressing issue is understanding the next step. What happens next? Will this power flex convince the Rabbinate to release some of its power inorder to curtail the same idea on a larger scale or will it convince other cities to take matters in their own hands and rebel against the Rabbinates seemingly never ending amount of power. The latter can already be seen taking shape in a kashrut movement backed by people of varying religious backgrounds who are attempting to create their own kashrut certification as the general consensus is a feeling of: enough is enough. The Rabbinate was created almost 100 years ago, not out of necessity, but out of request in order to have a body that would be representative of religious issues pertaining to Jews in the millet system of the Ottoman empire and further expanded upon by the British during the mandate period. The growing consensus is that it’s outdated, corrupt, and unnecessary in modern day Israel.
The municipality of Tel Aviv took a bold step in what they felt was the direction of progress. Progress is an inevitable event. Sometimes it comes as a gentle stream and flows around older established understandings, slowly eroding them until they fall, while other times it’s a raging flash flood that rips up everything in its path, leaving nothing untouched. The complexities of progress are many and varied, and constantly cause us to reevaluate our personal understandings of established ideas and societal norms.
Time will tell if the steps taken in order to attain this progress were the necessary steps or not.