What Unqualifies a Chief Rabbi?

I had a disturbing discussion with some Chareidi relatives the other day.

I innocently (sure) asked what they thought of the results of the vote for Chief Rabbi and of Rav Stav.

As I expected, as Chareidim, they were very happy with the results, and I wasn't taken aback by their vitriol of disgust towards Rabbi Stav, I expected that too. But what did surprise me was the example they used to vilify him.

The example they used to prove that Rav Stav was unqualified to be Chief Rabbi, is that he had at some point answered a question from a young man, a yeshiva student, who wanted to know what to do at the movies when they showed a bad scene.

The specific answer he gave is unimportant, nor did they bother to mention it.

The problem in their eyes, is that he answered a question like that at all.

You see, their argument was that the young man was obviously not a yeshiva student, or even religious, because religious people don't go to movies.

And someone who isn't religious (because he goes to movies), obviously doesn't care about Halacha (you're following the logic I presume), and therefore, any Rabbi who answers a question like that, can't represent Judaism or Rabbis - but, not because the only answer is, "Don't go to movies".

Here's the kicker.

They said that since Rav Stav was providing answers to religious questions to "non-religious" people, he clearly wasn't qualified to be chief rabbi, as the chief rabbi is only supposed to deal with religious issues for religious people, and non-religious people don't have religious issues, as they don't care about Halacha!

I asked them where they heard this insane argument they were making, that they apparently completely believed.

They all said they heard it on Radio Kol Chai (a Shas-controlled radio station), which is  apparently the only radio station a "religous" person is allowed to listen to.

To make a long story short, the argument they've been told to believe, by Shas controlled radio, is that only religious people have real religious questions, and rabbis should only provide answers to real religious questions to real religous people, and any rabbi that bothers to provide an answer to a religious question to a non-religious person is clearly not qualified to be a chief rabbi in Israel.

Is that messed up, or what?

I didn't bother to ask them the next question, because I already know the answer. But if you were to ask them if they'll eat food certified as kosher by our two new, chareidi chief rabbis, whom they're so happy with, the answer will be "no", because their certification isn't kosher (enough?).

It makes you wonder who exactly do they think a chief rabbi is supposed to be the chief rabbi of.


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