Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah
Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah
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Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah

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Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah

Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah (Hebrew: מועצת גדולי התורה, "Council of great Torah [Sages]") is the supreme rabbinical policy-making council of the Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah movements in Israel; and of Agudath Israel of America in the United States. Members are usually prestigious Roshei Yeshiva (heads of yeshivas) or Hasidic rebbes, who are also usually regarded by many Haredi Jews to be the Gedolim ("great/est") sages of Torah Judaism. Before the Holocaust, it was the supreme authority for the World Agudath Israel in Europe.

The component words of the name are transliterated in a variety of ways. This is frequently done as Moetzet, and less frequently as Gedolai and ha-Torah or ha Torah. The phrase is regularly shortened to Moetzes or The Moetzah.

Prior to World War II, only one such body existed, the World Agudath Israel. The Council of Torah Sages was established following the establishment of Agudath Israel in Katowice in 1912. It was decided at the time that two councils would be set up for the movement: a council of homeowners, and a council of rabbis, composed of leading rabbis from around the world.

The Moetzes of Agudath Israel of America serve as religious decisors, leadership, and political and policy liaisons with state and federal government agencies on behalf of many American Haredi Jews. The council, consisting primarily of rosh yeshivas and Hasidic rebbes, directs Agudath's policies and leadership. Formerly known as the Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah, the body was founded in 1948. It sets all major policies, and guides the organization according to its precepts of Da'as Torah.

The Moetzes of Agudat Yisrael likewise constituted the Israeli Ashkenazic Haredi community's religious policy leadership, and exercises strong control over political matters for strongly observant Israelis, such as joining government coalitions.

Prior to Degel HaTorah's late 1980s break from Agudat Israel (because of the dominance of the Polish Hasidic groups), there was only one Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah in Israel. With the breakaway of the Lithuanian/"yeshivish" faction (led by Rabbi Rabbi Elazar Shach), two separate, at times complementary, councils were created.

The Haredi Sephardi Jews of Israel had also at one time followed the leadership of the Moetzet of Agudat Yisrael when it was still a body that generally spoke for most of Israel's Haredim. Eventually, however, the Haredi Sephardim broke with their Ashkenazi counterparts (again because of the dominance of the Polish Hasidic groups), and established the Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah ("Council of [wise] Torah Sages"), which in turn became the source for the formulation and expression of the policies and agenda of the Shas political party in the Israeli Knesset. Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef became the main leadership figure of this council.

In Katowice (Kattowitz), German Empire in 1912 appointed to the council were Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Alter (1866–1948) Rebbe of Ger (Chairman), Rabbi Sholom Dovber Schneerson Rebbe of Chabad, Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik, Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac Halevy, Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk, Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, Rabbi Itzela of Ponevezh, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Breuer, Rabbi Ze'ev Feilchenfeld of Posen, Rabbi David Zvi Hoffmann, Rabbi Kopel Reich of Budapest.

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