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    Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem – Mishpatim

    The Torah says, “You shall not ill-treat any widow” (Ex. 22:21).

    Rabbi Bezalel Zolty

    Rav Bezalel Zolty of blessed memory was the chief rabbi of Jerusalem but there had been other candidates.

    Menahem Begin tried to persuade Rabbi Chaim Yaakov Levin to stand for election but Rabbi Levin refused. He said that when he and Rabbi Zolty were students, Rabbi Zolty’s widowed mother cleaned people’s houses to enable her to support her son.

    Rabbi Levin said, “How can anyone take away from a woman like that the joy of seeing her son being elevated to the chief rabbinate of the Holy City?”

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