Shlomo Aviner

Rabbi Shlomo Chaim Ha-Cohen Aviner was born in 1943 in German-occupied Lyon, France. As a child, he escaped the deportations to Nazi death camps, being hidden under a false identity. As a youth, he was active in the religious Zionist youth movement, Bnei Akiva, in France, eventually becoming its National Director. He studied mathematics, physics, and electrical engineering at the Superior School of Electricity.

At the age of 23, infused with the ideal of working the Land of Israel, Rav Aviner made aliyah to Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu, near Beit She'an. He then went to learn at Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav in Jerusalem, where he met Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, the Rosh Yeshiva and son of Israel's first Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook. Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah became his foremost teacher, and Aviner became one of his leading students. During this time, he also served as a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, participating in the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War, earning the rank of Lieutenant. At the direction of Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, he joined a group that was settling Hebron, and learned Torah there.

In the year 1971, Rav Aviner became the rabbi of Kibbutz Lavi in the Lower Galilee, where he spent half of his day working in the farm. A number of years later, he left Lavi to serve as the Rabbi of the Israeli settlement Keshet in the Golan Heights.

Rabbi Shlomo Aviner (r.) with Rabbi Eyal Karim

In 1981, he accepted the position of rabbi of Beit El (Aleph), in the Binyamin region of the Shomron. Two years later, he also became the Rosh Yeshiva of the new-established Yeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim (formerly known as Ateret Cohanim). Located in the Old City of Jerusalem, Rav Aviner's yeshiva is the yeshiva closest to Har HaBayit (the Temple Mount). In its more than twenty-year history, Yeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim has produced rabbis, teachers, educators, and officers in the Israel Defense Forces, while also promoting the building and settling of the city of Jerusalem.

Rabbi Aviner has published about 150 books. Some of the more notable books are:

• Sichot Ha-Rav Tzvi Yehudah - talks by Rav Tzvi Yehudah Kook
• Tal Hermon - on the weekly Torah portion and holidays
• Shu"t She'eilat Shlomo - his multi-volume responsa

In the past few years, his outspoken views have attracted controversy. In 2005, prior to the forced mass eviction of Jews from Gush Katif as part of Israel unilateral disengagement plan, Aviner took a rabbinical stance that soldiers should not refuse orders to participate with the plan, explaining that the religious issue was the state's responsibility, not the individual's. He continued to publicly oppose the resistance to the eviction plans, and in one case, he has been accused of taking physical action, including the use of violence against protestors.[4]

Aviner has been accused of sexual abuse. Some of these accusations were published in Maariv. As a result of the uproar following the publication, the newspaper appointed an independent investigator, the psychiatrist Netanel Laor, who came to the conclusion that Aviner was innocent, though maybe guilty of practicing therapy without the backing of a professional. The expert also said that the rabbi's intentions were honorable.[5] After that (and after the public prosecutor closed the investigation due to "lack of guilt"/חוסר אשמה‎ rather than "lack of evidence"/חוסר ראיות‎), Maariv published a retraction.[6]

Aviner is a prominent advocate of conversion therapy, and a supporter of the Atzat Nefesh organization. Despite the Israel Ministry of Health's rejection of conversion therapy as pseudo-science, the rabbi has said he will continue to counsel homosexuals to the process.[7]

In a 2000 visit by Pope John Paul II, it was announced in Bethlehem that the Vatican had always recognized "Palestinian national rights to a homeland". Rabbi Aviner said at the time that the pope's goal was simply to obtain a foothold in Jerusalem for the Church.[8]

In 2007, in an article about Baruch Marzel's threats over the settler movement, Aviner stated that he felt that the IDF was sincerely evacuating the renewed Homesh settlers and other demonstrators at the site of the abandoned village to protect from future terrorist attacks.[9] Aviner further distinguished between the IDF's responsibility to protect settlements versus its responsibility for protecting demonstrators, saying that the IDF should do whatever is necessary to protect a settlement to keep it intact, including armed forces, but demonstrators may be evacuated if thought necessary where there is a danger to their lives.[9]

In 2009, a booklet drawing on Rabbi Aviner's teachings entitled, "Go Fight My Fight: A Daily Study Table for the Soldier and Commander in a Time of War", was published especially for Operation Cast Lead. Its existence was revealed by Breaking the Silence, a group of Israeli ex-soldiers who accused the Rabbi of encouraging Israeli soldiers to disregard the international laws of war aimed at protecting civilians. Some have interpreted the booklet as advising soldiers that cruelty is sometimes a "good attribute".[10]

In 2010, Aviner started a campaign to forbid renting homes to Arabs in Israel. A number of other rabbis signed his call.[11]

In 2012, Rabbi Aviner presented a religious ruling that women in Israel should not run for parliament for reasons of modesty. Other religious authorities, notably Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, immediately rejected the ruling.[3]

After the Notre-Dame de Paris fire occurred in April 2019, Rabbi Aviner made comments which implied that it could be a divine retribution for the burning of numerous copies of the Talmud in 1242, an outcome of the Disputation of Paris. [12]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Shlomo Aviner.

• Rav Aviner's official website (English)
• Ateret Cohanim's biography of Shlomo Aviner
• Video lesson of Rabbi Aviner from Zehut