The King's Torah: a rabbinic text or a call to terror?
Prohibition 'Thou Shalt Not Murder' applies only 'to a Jew who kills a Jew,' write Rabbis Yitzhak Shapira and Yosef Elitzur.
By The Forward and Daniel Estrin Tags: Israel news settlement buildingThe marble-patterned, hardcover book embossed with gold Hebrew letters looks like any other religious commentary you'd find in an Orthodox Judaica bookstore - but reads like a rabbinic instruction manual outlining acceptable scenarios for killing non-Jewish babies, children and adults.
The prohibition 'Thou Shalt Not Murder' applies only "to a Jew who kills a Jew," write Rabbis Yitzhak Shapira and Yosef Elitzur of the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar. Non-Jews are "uncompassionate by nature" and attacks on them "curb their evil inclination," while babies and children of Israel's enemies may be killed since "it is clear that they will grow to harm us."
"The King's Torah (Torat Hamelech), Part One: Laws of Life and Death between Israel and the Nations," a 230-page compendium of Halacha, or Jewish religious law, published by the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva in Yitzhar, garnered a front-page exposé in the Israeli tabloid Ma'ariv, which called it the stuff of "Jewish terror."
Now, the yeshiva is in the news again, with a January 18 raid on Yitzhar by more than 100 Israeli security officials who forcibly entered Od Yosef Chai and arrested 10 Jewish settlers. The Shin Bet, Israel's domestic security agency, suspects five of those arrested were involved in the torching and vandalizing of a Palestinian mosque last month in the neighboring Palestinian village of Yasuf. The arson provoked an international outcry and condemnation by Israeli religious figures, including Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, who visited the village to personally voice his regret.
Yet, both Metzger and his Sephardic counterpart, Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, have declined to comment on the book, which debuted in November, while other prominent rabbis have endorsed it - among them, the son of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Sephardic Jewry's preeminent leader. Also, despite the precedent set by previous Israeli attorneys general in the last decade and a half to file criminal charges against settler rabbis who publish commentaries supporting violence against non-Jews, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz has so far remained mum about "The King's Torah."
"Sometimes the public arena deals with the phenomenon and things become settled by themselves," Justice Ministry spokesman Moshe Cohen told the Forward.
A coalition of religious Zionist groups, the "Twelfth of Heshvan," named after the Hebrew date of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, has asked Israel's Supreme Court to order Mazuz to confiscate the books and arrest its authors.
"You open the book, and you feel that you read a halachic book. And it's a trap," said Gadi Gvaryahu, a religious Jewish educator who heads the coalition. It was, in fact, "a guidebook [on] how to kill," he charged.
Family members who answered phone calls placed to the homes of both authors said they did not wish to comment.
In 2008, author Shapira was suspected of involvement in a crude rocket attack directed at a Palestinian village. Israeli police investigated but made no arrests.
Co-author Elitzur wrote an article in a religious bulletin a month after the book's release saying that "the Jews will win with violence against the Arabs."
In 2003, the head of the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva, Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, was charged by then-Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein with incitement to racism for authoring a book calling Arabs a "cancer."
In 2006-2007, the Israeli Ministry of Education gave about a quarter of a million dollars to the yeshiva, and in 2007-2008 the yeshiva received about $28,000 from the American nonprofit Central Fund of Israel.
"The King's Torah" reflects a fringe viewpoint held by a minority of rabbis in the West Bank, said Avinoam Rosenak, a Hebrew University professor specializing in settler theology. Asher Cohen, a Bar Ilan University political science professor, thought its influence would be "zero" because it appeals only to extreme ideologues.
But the book's wide dissemination and the enthusiastic endorsements of prominent rabbis have spotlighted what might have otherwise remained an isolated commentary.
At the entrance to Moriah, a large Jewish bookstore steps from the Western Wall, copies of "The King's Torah" were displayed with children?s books and other halachic commentaries. The store manager, who identified himself only as Motti, said the tome has sold "excellently."
Other stores carrying the book include Robinson Books, a well-known, mostly secular bookshop in a hip Tel Aviv shopping district; Pomeranz Bookseller, a major Jewish book emporium near the Ben Yehuda mall in downtown Jerusalem; and Felhendler, a Judaica store on the main artery of secular Rehovot, home of the Weizmann Institute.
The yeshiva declined to comment on publication statistics. But Itzik, a Tel Aviv-area book distributor hired by the yeshiva who declined to give his last name because of the book's nature, said the yeshiva had sold 1,000 copies to individuals and bookstores countrywide. He said an additional 1,000 copies were now being printed.
Mendy Feldheim, owner of Feldheim Publishers, Israel's largest Judaica publishing house, said he considered this a "nice" sales figure for a tome of rabbinic Halacha in Israel. He said his own company, which distributes to 200 bookstores nationwide, is not distributing "The King's Torah" because the book's publishers did not approach the company.
Prominent religious figures wrote letters of endorsement that preface the book. Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, son of former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, blessed the authors and wrote that many "disciples of Torah are unfamiliar with these laws." The elder Yosef has not commented on his son's statement.
Dov Lior, chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba and a respected figure among many mainstream religious Zionists, noted that the book is "very relevant especially in this time."
Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg, one of the country's most respected rabbinic commentators, initially endorsed the book, but rescinded his approval a month after its release, saying that the book includes statements that "have no place in human intelligence."
A handful of settler rabbis echoed Goldberg's censure, including Shlomo Aviner, chief rabbi of Beit El and head of Yeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim, who said he had "no patience" to read the book, and spoke out against it to his students.
Previously, Israel has arrested settler rabbis who publish commentaries supporting the killing of non-Jews. In addition to Ginsburgh, the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva head, in 1994, the government jailed Rabbi Ido Elba of Hebron for writing a 26-page article proclaiming it a "mitzva to kill every non-Jew from the nation that is fighting the Jew, even women and children."
"The atmosphere has changed," said Yair Sheleg, senior researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute, who specializes in issues of religion and state. Previous governments took a tougher stance against such publications, he said, but "paradoxically, because the tension between the general settler population and the Israeli judicial system is high now, the attorney general is careful not to heighten the tension."
It is not uncommon for some settler rabbis, in the unique conditions of West Bank settlement life, to issue religious decrees, or psakim, that diverge from normative Jewish practice. In 2008, Avi Gisser, considered a moderate rabbi from the settlement of Ofra, ruled that Jews may violate Sabbath laws and hire non-Jews to build hilltop settlements. And In 2002, Yediot Aharanot reported that former Israeli Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu sanctioned Jewish harvesting of Palestinian-owned olive trees.
Contact Daniel Estrin at feedback@forward.com
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This is the Jewish law: "We do not kill idolaters [or gentiles] who are not at war with us" (Maimonides, Laws of Isolatry).
The Torah does call for the liquidation of the nation of Amalek. This includes men, women, children, and even animals. According to Maimonides, this commandment still applies today. The problem is that we have no way of identifying the modern day descendants of Amalek. Haman, from the Purim story, lived in Persia, yet was an Amalekite. Some will say that the Germans, or at least some of them are from Amalek. But, we have no way of knowing. Tradition says that the fiercest anti-semites of the generations are from Amalek. I would not kill Arabs (who tradition says are from Ishmael, the son of Abraham, not Amalek) based on a tradition. We await the coming of the Messiah, in whose time these people will be revealed, and only them terminated.
Unlike the 2 cases i pointed out in pt. 1 (Moses killing the Egyptian overseer and the German Officer attempt to kill Hitler--both GOOD kills or kill attemots for humanity),the thornier isue of killing "innocent civilians" including babies and their parents in a WAR on one's enemy is not a black and white "human rights" issue BECAUSE the human "right to life" could be argued to be suspended during WAR -because LOGICALLY all WAR would otherwise be a CRIMINAL ACTIVITY -but clearly not a single government in the world would agree to that. THUS we have ILLOGICAL STUPID "international humanitarian laws' that try to distinguish EXCESSIVE KILLING in war against "civilians" when in fact only ONLY the victors or their allies in such wars get to prosecute the losers under these "selective" "Laws" OR where a loser group in a war gets to plea to the Legal Tribunal for prpaganda points against the perceived winner of the skirmish who killed some civilians in the clash ...
Rabbis Shapira and Elitzur should be revoked of the status of rabbi. What rabbi can be so ignorant of the fact that "thou shalt not murder" clearly applied between moses and the egyptian... Rabbi Ovadia Yosef should reprimand his son, and rabbis of all communities MUST openly deny the validity of this text...There must be open and critical review of rabbinical texts rather than blind or politically motivated acceptance.
These rabbis seem to have overlooked the message of the Prophet Ezekiel, whose tomb in Iraq is now sadly being Islamicised. 'The father shall not die for the sins of the son and the son shall not die for the sins of the father...' This is a very rough translation, but it clearly contradicts the Stone Age view that you can kill babies just in case they grow up to be like their fathers.
You raise an interesting point. Today Amalek is purely symbolic. One can speak of Hitler being from Amalek in a purely symbolic sense. Even in antiquity the nations were mixed and no 'pure' Amalekites existed. In an earlier generation Aryan Christians tried to prove Jesus couldn't have been Jewish even though he came from the House of David in Bethlehem. I suppose they assumed God was Jesus's father and that God must be a German !
And lauded as a praise worthy text by other authorities. Take a poll Mr. Hollander, on how many of these colonists who feel they are where they are by divine right and who feel that compassion toward gentiles is not a mitzvah, feel this book expresses torah values. If these rabbis burn the New Testament, then if they are opposed to this as a work that is in contravention of Torah values, let them burn it as well.
stop complaining about the moderate muslims and get out of your house and protest about the extremist jews who follow this book. go, and protest,otherwise leave the comments of extremism alone.
Either there is justice for all or there is no justice. We say "The Creator is your Lord, Truth" three times a day in the Shema. Shema means understand, not simply hear. We are commanded to understand. As in math, for something to be true, it must always be true. It is these pagans who masquerade as "rabbis" propogating their version of Truth who are an anathema to Judaism. When "faith" replaces understanding we are doomed to evil (Avodah Zarah).
Trust the "thinkers" of Kach, et al., to find a way around what you said. They teach that there's a "seed of Amalek" that's passed down from generation to generation among the dire enemies of the Jews -- and that today this "seed" is embodied in ... well, fill in the blanks: Muslims, Arabs, Palestinian Arabs, and so on.
In Jewish Law there are different types of Gentiles. In the earliest national period there were Amalekites who were seen as the embodiment of evil and who had no place in Israel. Then there were Canaanites whose degeneracy caused G-d to end their 'lease' on Eretz HaKodesh. Then there are ethical monotheists who believe in G-d and keep the seven universal Noahide Laws. This includes Christians and Muslims who must be treated with great respect. Some of these Rabbis are trying to place Pals, Ishmaelites from the House of Abraham our father, in the category of Amalekites. This is Halachically insane !
Many rabbinic approbations say that the author is a respected scholar, without actually referring to the book itself. Some Rabbinic books print approbations for the author that appeared in previous works, just as English books can quote reviews from the author's previous works. One has to read each approbation carefully !
This book was repudiated already in November, before it was sold publicly, by the nascent Sanhedrin, with a full explanation of the nature of the book. see http://www.thesanhedrin.org/en/index.php/Hachrazah_5770_Cheshvan_30 In the meantime, it was repudiated by other reabbis, including Rabbi Goldberg. Publishing a book today is very easy and inexpensive. This fits in with the ease of publishing other books. Koheleth said long ago: More than that, my son, beware of making many books, no end, and too much talk makes the flesh weary. [ecc. 12,12]
... just get the name right; yet haven't the practitioners and supporters of abortion also determined its ok to kill babies. Another example of hypocracy across the culture wars barriers.
Typical of the genre, this book contains self-serving, fallacious halakhic reasoning that focuses on selected rulings and commentaries only. None of the "approbations" quoted in the article actually endorses the contents of the book, let alone the quotations singled out by the author of the article. Maybe these rabbis didn't read the book; maybe they recognized the false halakhic argumentation in it; maybe they wished to dodge the whole issue.
and a regrettable deviation from traditional Jewish values. Read this article for good insights on our national shame: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1263147944560&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
But a poison that destroys those who write it and those who imbibe. What does the word "Human" mean to these folk? "b'tselem" In WHOSE likeness?
Very difficult situation. #2 yes, 'small minds' exist everywhere. But its not enough to just notice the fact. If a killer is at your window, noticing him should be the first step, not the last step.
The idea of blanket murder to those who do not agree with you seems a lot like the same ideas that show up in certain mosques. It is just that in this case it is in Hebrew. It's funny, when God called Abraham out from his family in Ur (Non Jewish Territories) that eventually God expected Abraham's descendants to to be different in all their ways. The authors of this book seem to wish to go back to the ways of those who live in those non Jewish territories. One does not need to be radical Muslim to desire murder in their heart. King David had a strong desire for something one time (not murder/ but he did end up doing that) and what did it do to his life? His family, and his nation? Consider the way of God before acting out on something because there may be no return from that choice.
up and given help. The main religious commandment, surely is to make the world a better place. What these guys do is make gullible persons paranoid and sew discord. Self defence is one thing, and hurting and even killing others unintentionally who are in proximity of those who seek to kill you, whilst unfortunate is NOT morally wrong. But going after children because they might grow up and harm you is beyond the pale of decency and mental cogency. It crosses a red line into the thinking of the enemy and that is unacceptable.
And THEY want to make the "peace process" dependent on an end of ARAB incitement?? But maybe this is a new version of Judaism and, judging by the book sales, apparently very popular. Reform Jew
Rabbis and Mullahs are free to pick and choose from sacred texts, but their authority begins and ends in their belief, not of God, but in their belief that their power to interpret allows them to make moral judgments. It is a common failing of small minds in positions of power. The vast majority of rules refer to how to respect the commandments of God.There are a handful of rules that require personal responsibility for the practices of a religious observer to others. These do not require murder, hate or vengeance.
I will run out tomorrow and get a copy. The anti Jewish censure will not shut the mouths of Jews in Israel.
It is time for Jews everywhere to speak out against these heretics. They are a disgrace and a threat to Jews and Israel. As Jews we have a duty to speak up and denounce these twisted souls for destroying all that is beautiful about Judaism, and betraying HaShem?s will. If we don?t speak up, we are guilty by omission.