Rivlin eulogizes Mishael Cheshin, ‘poet of Israel’s legal world’

Former Supreme Court justice Mishael Cheshin was laid to rest Sunday at Kibbutz Givat Hashlosha outside Tel Aviv, with President Reuven Rivlin paying tribute to his friend.

“My dear Misha, I’m bidding farewell to you today, to a friend and confidant, a rabbi and a scholar, a teacher and a brilliant academic, a sensitive, incisive, courageous and creative judge,” the president said of the famed jurist, who died from cancer Saturday at age 79.

Heshin’s rulings, delivered during his 14 years on the court between 1992 and 2006, were famous for their evocative language and original turns of phrase.

“You were the poet of Israel’s legal world,” Rivlin said. “Different, fantastic, complex and simple all at once. From your legal pen flowed one of the most unique and colorful voices that ever enriched the Israeli legal world.

“Under your judicial robes, Misha, rested a soul that was uncompromisingly Jewish and uncompromisingly democratic,” Rivlin eulogized. “Your rulings expressed unambiguously the right and responsibility of the State of Israel to defend itself and its citizens, and in the same breath expressed the depth of its commitment to human life and rights. You, Misha, knew how to grasp that complexity of the Jewish democratic state without compromises and without apologies.

“Your rulings were journeys in time and imagination, into the depths of literature and [Jewish] sources, always crafted with your biting and incisive tongue,” continued Rivlin. “Your contribution to designing the legal language and discourse of Israel was singular. You are, and will always be, irreplaceable. You grew up in a home that was all law, scion to a Jerusalemite family, zealous and ancient, but you paved your path with your own hands. You knew when to say yes and when to say no, and you knew how to insist that yes is yes and no is no.”

Cheshin’s funeral was also attended by opposition leader MK Isaac Herzog, Supreme Court Chief Justice Miriam Naor, former chief justices Asher Grunis and Meir Shamgar, Israel Police commissioner candidate Gal Hirsch, State Attorney Shai Nitzan among other current and former top law-enforcement officials, and many dignitaries from all walks of Israeli life.

Cheshin was the son of Shneur Zalman Cheshin, one of the five first justices of the Israeli Supreme Court after the state’s founding. He was a legal scholar who served as deputy attorney general before his 1996 appointment to the Supreme Court.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Cheshin as “a sharp, original and sensitive mind.”

Former chief justice Shamgar also lamented his passing on Saturday, saying, “I have lost a good friend, a man with an immense heart made of gold. Cheshin will be remembered as a foundation stone of the Israeli legal system.”

His views were “deeply influential,” said Chief Justice Miriam Naor, “even when he was in the minority.”