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- 22 –Ilan FuchsIlan Fuchs (University of Calgary) and Aviad Hollander (Bar-Ilan University) – Rabbi Shlomo Goren and International law:critical dialogue with concepts of sovereignty and human rights (Session 6C)This paper is part of an ongoing research on the interaction between religion and international law. It focuses on one of the leadingdecisors in the second part of the 20 th century: Rabbi Shlomo Goren. Rabbi Goren was one of the leading rabbinic figures in thereligious Zionist community and the Chief Rabbi of the Israeli army, later he became the chief rabbi of Israel and the head of thehigh rabbinical court for appeals. His position gave him wide latitude to influence halachic policy and his rulings.The paper examines an interaction with International law from the perspective of an outsider. International law is aEuropean construct; it is a product of process beginning with the Westphalia accords that developed over time hand in hand withthe modern concepts of nationalism and liberalism. Halacha is a legal system created in a different reality and for the most partwith little connection and interest to development in modern political thought and law.Rabbi Goren was in a predicament, the establishment of the state of Israel demanded a discussion with internationalpolitics and norms. For a religious Zionist that wanted to take part in the political process and to have a say in the fashioning of theIsraeli state he had to draft a position vis-à-vis international law and it’s underlining axioms that are connected to liberalism.The paper examines this critical dialogue its points of agreement and points of disagreement and offer some conclusionthat have a broad ramification on the relationship of halacha and western values.Ilan Fuchs is currently a visiting professor at the University of Calgary, where he teaches a variety of courses on Jewishand Israeli law. Prior to arriving in Calgary, he was a Schusterman visiting Israeli professor at Tulane University. Hisresearch interests include gender and Judaism, the intersection of Halacha and modernity, and the role of Orthodoxpolitics in modern democratic society. Aviad Hollander wrote his Doctoral thesis in the Talmud Department at Bar-Ilan University, researching the halakhicrulings of Rabbi Shlomo Goren, the founder of the Israeli army rabbinate. He teaches courses at Bar-Ilan dealing with theconflict between Halakha and the State of Israel, in general, and the Israeli Military in particular.Aharon GaimaniAharon Gaimani (Bar-Ilan University) – Levirate Marriage among Yemenite Jewry: New Documents (in Hebrew, Session 5C)For a number of reasons, Ashkenazi communities preferred to perform the ritual of chalitzah rather than the ritual ofyibum, The decree of Rabbeinu Gershom Me'Or Hagolah, “Our teacher Gershom the light of the exile," prohibits multiple wives,and in order to avert polygamy the decree was upheld even in cases when the ritual of yibum was required. Moreover, according toRabbeinu Tam, a chalitzah is preformed in case the brother-in-law, the "Yabbam," is already married. Furthermore, according tothe Tanna Abba Shaul the commandment of chalitzah precedes the ritual of yibum, an opinion that Ashkenazi rabbis adopted. Theposition of Ashkenazi communities in the 13 th century can be derived from the words of Asher ben Yechiel, the “Rosh”: “TheHalacha follows that which is written in the first section of Bechorot, that now the commandment of chalitzah is preformed first, asthe opinion of Abba Shaul.”In the Sephardic communities and Islamic countries, the preference was opposite. That is, they would rather perform theritual of yibum over the ritual of chalitzah, in accordance to the opinions of the Rif, also knows as Rabbi Isaac al-Fasi, and theRambam, or, Moses Maimonides. As the Rambam writes, “It is a positive commandment of Scriptural law for a man to marry thewidow of his paternal brother if he died without leaving children, as [Deuteronomy 25:5] states: "[And one of them dies]childless... her husband's brother should cohabit with her… The mitzvah of yibbum takes precedence over the mitzvah ofchalitzah.”The difference in preference between the Ashkenazi and the Sephardic communities in the 14 th century was noted by theRosh when he moved from Germany to Spain, as he writes in one of his responses, “Know that in Germany and in France it iscustomary not to perform yibbum, even if both parties want to do so, as in accordance of the those great rabbis that ruled thatchalitzah precedes yibbum, hence we force them to perform the ritual of chalitzah. In the other countries that I have passed throughand in this country I have witnessed them perform yibbum as in accordance of the ruling of Rabbi Isaac al-Fasi, and so I have