The publication of a sefer entitled Toras HaMelech (The King’s Torah) written by Rabbi Yitzchak Shapira, the rosh yeshiva of Ohd Yosef Chai Yeshiva in Yitzhar, has become an item in the news in Eretz Yisrael on Monday, with the book explaining one is permitted in accordance with halacha to kill goyim who threaten Eretz Yisrael.
The sefer enjoys approbations from HaGaon HaRav Dov Lior Shlita, Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, and Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh. It is important to point out that while the media is having a field day with the sefer, it is written that the sefer discusses theoretic halachic principles, and in no way calls for the murder of goyim, “Arabs” or “Palestinians” as the media seeks to imply. The sefer goes as far as to state “one may not take the law into one’s hands” and that the sugyot discussed as strictly halachic interpretations for the sake of learning and understanding halacha and not chas v’sholom a license to kill, the words used for the bold daily Maariv headline (see photo).
The sefer adds that killing a non-Jew who has violated the Seven Mitzvos given to non-Jews because we care about torah and mitzvos, then this is acceptable. It stresses the importance of Eretz Yisrael, the halachic requirements of the land, and living within a torah framework, quoting passages from Tanach and the Rambam, citing sources for the halachic ruling.
Back in 1996, Rav Ido Elba published a 19-page kuntris on halachic guidelines regarding when one may kill a non-Jew, a publication that was also a halachic discourse, not a handbook for murder chas v’sholom. He was indicted for publishing the sefer and found guilty by the Jerusalem District Court. He appealed the conviction to the Supreme Court and lost. The court rejected the fact that the sefer deal with theoretic halachic matters, not an actual license for murdering goyim. He served a two-year jail term.
With Israel’s retreat from Shechem in 2001, the yeshiva which was established in 1982, located in the Kever Yosef complex was expelled, forced to relocate, setting up its new home in Yishuv Yitzhar. Rav Shapira, the rosh yeshiva, is a long-time resident of Yitzhar, a Chabad chossid, and a talmid of Rav Yitzchak Ginsburgh who is a known authority on kabala and runs the Gal Eini Institute.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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7 Responses
There are, B”H so VERY many baalai t’shuva in eretz Yisrael today, there is hardly a family untouched by the movement. As a result the left wing establishment is running scared!
There is not a thing in the universe that didn’t come from a common source once upon a time.
We all come from the same factory. Our ideas about our individuality is the cause of much trouble in the world. Religion. Race. Country.
These are things that divide humanity.
If we value our own survival, we must move beyond the identities that we cling to so tightly. We only cling to them because we have so little else inside.
It’s time to look harder.
x
The issue isn’t so much the halacha of the matter (does anyone hold one can’t kill a rodef?), but the factual discussion as to what constitutes a rodef is really the point of controversy(for example, medical school professors who train abortionists, or perhaps voters in a foreign country who vote for politicians who opposed the Israeli government’s foreign policy, or what about toddlers in a hostile country who may grow up to attack Jews – and this sort of intellectual exercise doesn’t even get into whether the Israeli government is a rodef due to its efforts to undermine Torah).
When the gedolim say they favor shooting people, I’ll listen – and the author in question is hardly a widely respected gadol, and certainly no one who is even arguable a “gadol be-dor”, and he isn’t arguing we should put down gemaras and take up a life of shooting people.
Can one kill western journalists, politicians and NGoO workers who hate it that the Yidden have a foothold in EY?
I’m afraid that it will get worse before it gets better. No amount of explaining the difference between “halacha lemaseh” and “lehagdil Torah ulhadiroh”, will help. The enemies of the Torah are adamant in taking everything and anything out of context if it can portray us as monsters. It is said that Reb Chaim Brisker used to ask the Rov a sheileh but asked him not to tell him the reason because “ich vell es upfregen”. Debating if someone has a din roidef doesn’t yet mean that that person must be killed. Can’t we Torah Yidden have a PR spokesman who can put these people in place? We should and must answer them, and go on the offensive instead of them going on the offensive and we go cowering under a rock.
#2 “xenon” – Why don’t you go back to the planet you flew in from (uranus?) and leave Jewish issues to us Jewish earthlings!
#2 Xexon, You have probablyy already looked, so please tell us what you found, so we can debate it.