Brit milah (circumcision) ceremony (illustrat
Brit milah (circumcision) ceremony (illustratFlash 90

Israel's Chief Sephardic Rabbi, the President of of the Great Rabbinical Court, Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, sharply criticized Sunday night the ruling by the High Court for Justice, to cancel a Rabbinical Court decision that a divorcing mother must circumcise her son according to the father's wishes.

"The Supreme Court's decision to prefer a civilian court over a religious one even on religious matters like the holding of a Brit Mila ceremony, is yet another worrisome escalation in the ongoing trend, in recent years, to limit the authority of the Rabbinical Court,” said the rabbi.

Rabbi Yosef appealed to Supreme Court President, Judge Asher Grunis, to conduct a renewed discussion of the matter, “annul the strange decision and put an end to the erosion of the status of the Rabbinical Courts.”

The chairman of the Sephardic-hareidi Shas party, MK Aryeh Deri, called the ruling “no less than a scandal.”

"Our forefathers, who sacrificed their lives for this commandment for thousands of years, did not dream that the state they hoped for would prevent a Jewish father from circumcising his son.”

MK Meir Porush (United Torah Judaism) said that “In the political climate that the present government exudes, with new anti-religious bills being presented on a weekly basis, it is only natural that the High Court would continue with its rulings that contradict the Jewish heritage and our right to exist here as Jews, and contribute to the division of the nation.”