[Avodah] royal wedding

[Dov Kaiser]

> Anyone know of a heter for chief rabbi R. Sacks to attend the royal
> wedding in Westminster abbey. I am less bothered..
> rather that the entire wedding ceremony is a religious act with use of a
> cross and prayers of the couple. One could argue about "shalom malchut"...

>>Don't you think that the Chief Rabbi shlita, Lord Sacks, worked out the
>>Halacha for himself...

In fairness, RET did not assert that the Chief Rabbi had no heter,
he only asked what it was.

If, as is likely, the heter was based on sh'lom malchus, he's hardly
likely to publicize that by sending you an email to that effect. I can
just see the headlines in the Guardian: "Chief Rabbi Says Royal Wedding
is Idolatrous - Only Attends to Prevent Anti-Semitism". I hope the
Guardian doesn't read Avodah. Of course, I don't suspect you of being
a Guardian journalist!

As to the substance of the question, my impression is that risk of
sakana need only be tenuous to invoke sh'lom malchus. In this case,
there would be the risk that Orthodoxy could lose its control over the
chief rabbinate if the Chief Rabbi had not attended - I wonder whether
this itself could serve as a heter? Does anyone know if Lord Rabbi
Jacobovits attended the last big royal wedding in the 1980s?

Kol tuv,
Dov Kaiser