I learned at HaMivtar for a few months. I was in the same general circles that Riskin is involved with. Chovevei Torah, Hartman, all institutions I like. All private.

I’m not a big fan of Riskin’s pandering to Christians, but he can do what he wants.

I’m not even following why Riskin is being attacked now, and have no idea why particularly now, Bennett the Saint is calling Riskin for a “hearing”. Because the field-goal-mouthed pansy wants to sound cool I guess.

You know, this stuff used to matter to me, but I don’t care anymore. A bunch of legalists arguing about who is stretching halachic reasoning by how far and whether it’s legitimate or not…interests me about as much as the mating habits of microbes that reproduce by binary fission.

You have a state-funded Rabbi like Riskin who says things some people love, and some people hate, and because he’s funded by everybody’s taxes, the people who don’t like him think he’s the worst thing since the cambrian extinction. And the people who love him think that the other people are crazy wacknut zealots.

Just fire him and let private people who like him pay for his services if they feel like it.

And then fire every other state funded rabbi and the entire state rabbinate and let them all duke it out as to who makes a living Rabbi-ing and who doesn’t. Then make sure none of them can get any state stipends for learning or writing or doing anything “religious”. Those Rabbis that don’t make it can pick fruit. Or sweep gutters for all I care.

The back and forth over how you justify getting around the Agunah problem, what halachic logic you use, and if you use the wrong one you’ll create a bunch of mamzers and the Jewish people will be doomed forever…it’s the religious equivalent of the War on Terror fearmongering nonsensical drivel.

Everyone is stealing from everyone and we’re worried about what? The dangers of Riskin’s halachic justifications for whatever?

I’ll go out on a limb and say God doesn’t care. The discussion is important in and of itself as a continuation of halachic discourse. But the end result is just an accident of history. It doesn’t matter who wins. Privatize the whole thing, and women who want to get a get from recalcitrant husbands through some loophole will get it. And those who think the loophole is invalid won’t marry them. And those that think it’s fine will. And then everyone will forget about it and move on. The system always survives, so everyone chill out.