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The Honorable Acting President Dalia Itzik,
The Honorable Outgoing Supreme Court President Aharon Barak,
Madam Incoming Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch,
The Honorable Acting Minister of Justice, Mr. Meir Sheetrit,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today, one of the greatest judges of the Jewish people retired from the judge’s bench, Justice Aharon Barak. Aharon Barak’s retirement from his position is not an event solely in the field of law – or the courts. This is a national event – central to the life of the country. Aharon Barak is first and foremost a judge. However, as a judge, he succeeded not only in dealing with legal matters. Chief Justice Barak made rulings, designed and determined the norms of behavior and procedures relating to every aspect of our lives, in every public role he filled, starting with Attorney General, in the Supreme Court as one of its justices and ending with his years as its president.
Aharon Barak was not a legal arbiter in the narrow sense. We are all familiar with Justice Barak as the father of the constitutional revolution, the revolution of civil law, the revolution of good faith. In his unique way, he designed content, determined patterns of life and redefined the priorities by which the State of Israel was managed and will continue to be managed for many years to come.
However, the keystone of the revolution initiated by President Barak was his concern for the citizen, for the dignity of the individual. If I may paraphrase Justice Barak, the law is subservient to the individual, not his master. To Aharon Barak, the law is meant to serve the individual.
Aharon Barak is an illustrious jurist, a thinker and a philosopher who confronts the complex reality of our lives from a broad perspective, but molds and shapes it while considering the deepest layers of our daily existence.
I remember a story that Aharon Barak told about the time when he was 5 years old, and the Germans conquered the city of Kovno, where he lived. Miraculously, he survived, and after the “action of the children”, he found himself staying with a Lithuanian farmer who saved his life. Justice Barak said that he learned two lessons from that experience: one, the importance of the State of Israel and a strong army; and two, that there is nothing more important than a person’s dignity and freedom. These two lessons were implemented faithfully through the vast body of legal work left behind by Justice Barak.
Aharon Barak – he is all of these – but first and foremost, he is a man, tender, warm, humble, perhaps even a bit shy, who did not like the elevated status determined for him, but one who never tried to escape the supreme responsibility required by his position and the many duties it placed on his shoulders.
Aharon Barak’s retirement is a comma, not a full stop. It is true that he will no longer write verdicts in court. But Aharon Barak will continue to add to his work to develop Israeli law. He will continue, as best he can, to influence the shaping of the patterns of our lives, wherever he chooses to be and whichever matter he decides to tackle.
Dorit Beinisch’s assumption of the position of President is a very significant event, and not only because she is the first woman to fill this role in our country.
Dorit Beinisch matured into this responsibility over decades of illustrious public service.
She is prepared, shrewd, experienced in all spheres of life in the country, sensitive to the rights of the citizen, concerned with matters of security, familiar with all the shades of the advantages and accomplishments of the public systems and their weaknesses, as well as what is required to improve and fix them. She is courageous and determined to act to improve and fix, and to enforce them.
The Supreme Court is a fortress of stability, continuity and the enlightenment of Israeli society.
Its existence is the guarantee of the State of Israel’s strength, no less and perhaps even more than any other institution.
We, the Government, the Knesset and the entire Israeli society, feel a profound sense of blessedness and appreciation for this island of moral fortitude, and promise to use every tool in our possession to preserve it, defend it and ensure the continued contribution to the strength of the State of Israel.
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