Last week, 22 rabbis, leaders in tin the Religious Zionist movement signed a letter calling for the public to ignore the Halachic (Torah law) rulings of Rabbi Eliezer Melamed., claiming his decisions are  “unworthy and harm the sanctity of Israel.” Rabbi Melamed’s crime? Despite his recognized standing in the Orthodox world, Rabbi Melamed has become the target  of criticism and censure after he conducted several meetings with leaders of the reform movement. 

Rabbi Melamed is the rosh yeshiva (head) of Yeshivat Har Bracha and the rabbi of the community Har Bracha adjacent to Shechem. He is the author of the book series Peninei Halachah containing authoritative rulings in Halacha (Torah law) that was awarded  “The Jewish Creation Award” in 2013.

The rabbis claim that the leaders of the Reform movement who met with Rabbi Melamed did not do so for the purposes of “coming closer to Torah.”

“They want to have their ways declared ‘kosher’,” the rabbis wrote. “The purpose of the Reform movement is to replace the eternal Torah of Israel with rituals and symbols that are empty of real content. They do not believe in Torah from heaven, neither the written Torah or the Oral Law.”

“Therefore, in every meeting with them, there is a kind of recognition of their way as if they are another valid stream in Judaism, when in fact they are a current against Judaism,” the rabbis wrote. 

“Loving every single Jew, including those who have become distanced from observance of the Torah and commandments, is applicable at all times,” wrote the religious-Zionist rabbis in an open letter published on Tuesday.

“But this does not mean there is any permission, God forbid, for cooperation with official representatives of the Reform movement, which has uprooted the Torah and fights today to uproot everything of holiness in our country, including on conversion, at the Western Wall, marriage, the sanctity of marriage, and other issues,” wrote the rabbis.

Rabbi Gilad Kariv, director of the Reform movement in Israel, said in response that the religious-Zionist rabbis were “increasing hatred and division in Israeli society and the Jewish people during a health crisis instead of encouraging dialogue, moderation and tolerance.”

Some of the rabbis also criticized Rabbi Melamed for encouraging connections with non-Jews. In 2014, the rabbi released a statement praising Zionist Christians, saying, “Their moral stature is higher and more exalted than that of Coresh [Persian King Cyrus], who assisted the Return to Zion.”  He described claims that Christian Zionist financial support  was the result of efforts to proselytize within Israel’s Jewish community as “libel.”

“After the Evangelists donated their money with kindness of heart and with love for the people of Israel, unconditionally and with no involvement in where the money goes, they must not be insulted by throwing their contribution back in their faces, while accusing them of trying to proselytize Jews,” he said. 

“As for the claim that this contribution could cause the Jewish masses in Israel to view Evangelists – who are Christians who love Israel – favorably, there is no fault in this, because they deserve recognition for their support for us. We must battle missionaries, not moral Christians who respect our religion and support us.”

“It appears that we can say that the American Evangelists are the most important and meaningful group supporting Israel nowadays,” Rabbi Melamedsaid. “These are about 70 million citizens of the largest superpower in the world, who believe that the words of the Bible hold true today, and that the nation of Israel needs to return to its land and follow its Torah and Mitzvot. Their moral stature is higher and more exalted than that of Coresh [Persian King Cyrus], who assisted the Return to Zion.”

Ironically, in his official Halachic ruling that connecting with pro-Israel Christians should be encouraged, Rabbi Melamed cites Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine, whose philosophy was the basis of the same Religious Zionist movement that is currently condemning Rabbi Melamed. Rabbi Kook wrote that the problems with Christianity and Islam lay, not in their religious beliefs, but in their “cancellation of the [Jewish] nation’s hope in relation to its complete revival”.

Yonatan Behar works for the Har Bracha Yeshiva and translates the rabbi’s articles in the ‘Besheva‘ newspaper into English.

“The rabbi learns Torah night and day and his only motivations and guiding principles are based in the Bible,” Behar emphasized. “He is not following some politically correct principle of plurality. Simply put, the Torah commands us to love our fellow Jew. If we don’t speak to the Reform Jews, they will have no way of connecting to the Torah. The rabbi understands this. Rabbi Melamed published his opinion that we should give the Reform Jews a place to pray and a Torah scroll at the kotel. They want to come closer to Torah and Rabbi Melamed is opening the door to them.”

Rabbi Melamed is a powerful voice in the narrative supporting Jewish settlement of Judea and Samaria. The Reform movement tends to be left-wing politically and can be strongly anti-Judea and Samaria. By connecting with leaders in the reform movement, Rabbi Melamed is building bridges to a segment of the Jewish population that is politically and spiritually alienated from the Biblical heartland. 

““From the time of Moses to the Rambam and until today, Israel has had a problem with casting doubt on Torah leaders. No one can question Rabbi Melamed’s character, wisdom, or Torah knowledge. Settling the land is a mitzvah, perhaps the most important mitzvah,” Behar emphasized. “That is who we are. There are some Jews, even in Israel, who want that to be deemphasized.The rabbi clearly has a different opinion.”