This photograph from April 17, 1992 shows the then chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, selling the chametz (leavened foods) from the Tel Aviv area to Mohammed Alfenjari, an Arab resident of Jaffa. In the photograph, Mohammed, dressed in a black sweater, can be seen handing over money to Rabbi Lau. A number of other rabbis are also seated at the table, and behind them there is a flag of the State of Israel.
According to Jewish law, chametz may not be eaten, seen, or even owned during Pesach. A traditional halachic solution is to sell the chametz until the end of Pesach. Individuals and organisations “sell” their chametz to a rabbi who, in turn, sends the list of names and addresses to a central Beit Din (rabbinical law court) that sells all of the chametz to non-Jews. After Pesach, the sale is annulled, and the chametz is returned to its original owners.
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Rabbi Israel Lau – Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau was born in Poland in 1937, a descendent of a famous rabbinical family. During the Holocaust, he was sent with his family to the Piotrków Trybunalski Ghetto. His father was sent with most of Jews of his city to Treblinka, but fortunately Rabbi Lau managed to escape deportation with his mother. His mother was subsequently murdered and, along with his older brother Naphtali Lau-Lavie, he was sent to a work camp and later to Buchenwald. Rabbi Lau, aged 8, was the youngest survivor from Buchenwald, and a few months after liberation, he arrived in Israel, where he was adopted by his aunt. Rabbi Lau wrote about his life story in a book called Out of the Depths. Rabbi Lau was ordained as a rabbi in 1961, and in 1988 he became the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv. Between 1993 and 2003, he served as the chief rabbi of Israel, subsequently resuming his position as chief rabbi of Tel Aviv.
Chief Rabbi of Israel – The State of Israel appoints two chief rabbis: an Ashkenazi chief rabbi and a Sephardi chief rabbi. Both chief rabbis serve for ten years and have jurisdiction over matters of marriage, conversion, kashrut, burial, and religious courts. The term Rishon leZion, meaning “The First of Zion,” was first used in the seventeenth century to designate the chief rabbi of Jerusalem and later became the title used for the Sephardi chief rabbi of Israel.
