Goy L'Mehadrin

There is a common phrase used in Kashrut which is Mehadrin L'Mehadrin. The word mehadrin literally means beautified or embellished. In following Jewish dietary laws, there is a good amount of room for leniency or stringency. Someone who follows a stringent level of kashrut is seen as having beautified or embellished God's commandments and thus is said to be keeping kosher l'mehadrin. (thanks to http://kosherfood.about.com/od/glossaryofkosherterms/g/mehadrin.htm) The usage is meant to be the strictest of the strictest and is generally followed by Chabad (and some others).

Tonight this word came up in a different context...well maybe not so different...

At Hartman tonight, we were learning with Rabbi Ariel Picard. He is the Educational Director of Shalom Hartman Institute's Be'eri program. He has a doctorate in philosophy from Bar-Ilan University and conducts research in contemporary Jewish law. He was ordained as a rabbi by the Israeli Chief Rabbinate and formerly served as the rabbi of Kibbutz Shluchot.

The topic was nationalist vs. religious law in Israel. Of course the issue of who is a Jew and who can marry in Israel was raised. This took the discussion to a new level. Now, not only were we discussing the different laws, we were also discussing their influences and controls over society.

First conversion. There is a debate between the Orthodox Zionists and the Hareidim over who can become a Jew (ie the reasons that they want to be a Jew). In short, Religious Zionists say that we need to allow people who want to convert to become Jews so that Israel wins the number game- maintains a Jewish majority in the country. The Hareidim say that you cannot allow someone to convert to Judaism when you know that they are not going to keep the tradtitions (shabbat, kashrut) that you have taught them and that they agree to follow and therefore they do not recognize conversions by Religious Zionists. (Mind you- they are not disagreeing on the content and the requirement of the convert to accept the mitzvot, rather on the knowledge that the individual will fulfill their end of the deal prior to completing the conversion.)

Second issue was marriage. In Israel, marriage is a religious function. In fact, you can only be married civily if you can prove that you do not have a religion. That essentially means having to get a certificate from the Rabbanut that certifies that you have no Jewish relatives nor do you intend to convert. How do you prove that without showing that you belong to another religious tradition? In short, you are going to be hard pressed to find an Israeli Orthodox rabbi that will sign a paper saying that you are a Goy L'mehadrin!

Good luck! (best to try Cyprus like everyone else.)