Following reports that the Assad regime in Syria has used chemical weapons against civilians, Rishon L’Tzion HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Yosef Shlita is speaking out, explaining that the Jewish People, which experienced the Holocaust, are morally compelled to attempt to stop the ongoing massacre in Syria.
“I have said in the past and I will say it again: What is happening in Syria is genocide of women and children in its cruelest form, using weapons of mass destruction.
We have a moral obligation not to keep quiet and to try and stop this massacre.
As Jews who have experienced genocide, as Jews whose Torah is a light to the nations, it is our moral obligation to try and stop this murder. It is an obligation no less important than the moral obligation to destroy the nuclear reactor in Syria”.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
4 Responses
Obliged To Try And Stop The Massacre In Syria Now that we have this Pesak from one of our foremost Gedolim, could this Gadol give us Hadrocho how to implement his Pesak?
I don’t understand how he could justify his viewpoints in light of tractate Avoda Zara 26a and Mishna Brura in Biur Halacha to 330 starting with the word Cutit, explains this applies to Muslims also. And Rav Yosef Karo agrees with this too.
See Beit Yosef to Choshen Mishpat 249 where he says lo tichanem applies to yishmaelites.
agree 100%
Yona123: I’ll be don lekaf zechus and assume that you’re asking out of respect with a desire just to know how the Rov understands pshat in the marei mekomos you brought. If you’re commenting here, I highly doubt you’re quite as a big a Talmid Chochom or Yirei Shomayim as he is!