Leading Israeli Rabbonim associated with the Shas government faction ruled this week that it is permissible under Jewish law for Israel to release any number of terrorists guilty of the most heinous crimes in order to save the life of abducted Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Corporal Gilad Shalit.
The religious ruling was drafted by Rabbi David Yosef, head of a large Jerusalem yeshiva, and later approved by his father, Shas spiritual mentor Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.
According to the ruling, which was first published in a local religious publication, “it is imperative to free as many terrorists as necessary to save Shalit’s life … [without] calculations on precisely how many terrorists should or should not be freed or whether they have blood on their hands or not.”
Yosef clarified in remarks to The Jerusalem Post that “the purpose of the decision is to give halachic backing to the government if it makes the decision to free terrorists.”
“If the experts decide that the risk of letting those terrorists go is worth taking, they should know that they are acting in accordance with Jewish law,” stated Yosef.
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6 Responses
as if the govt cares about the halacha
They shouldn’t have mention they can free as many terrorists to save a yid. That information may, chas v’shalom, fall in the wrong hands.
akivacp u are correct.
joseph u are correct.
what will this krum olmert govt do? on one hand they give in to the arab mamzerim again, but on the other hand they will “listen” to daas torah.
what problems!
I think that the gv’t shud defiantely trade some terrorists for Gilad – nebech on his family and nebech on him- imagine being at the complete mercy of those Behamois……
Hashem Have Rachmonus…
Joseph, your comment about “as if…” – funny when they had the ELAL boycott, we want them to care, now that R’ Yosef came out with the ruling you make this comment.
He wasn’t telling the gov’t what to do, he simply said if they decide make the trade, it’s in accordance with halacha.
If you have something inteligent to say, say it. Give your opinion, even if nobody agrees, but that comment was just a waste of a post.
I am not sure how this situation is any different then what happened with the Maharam from Ruttenberg. He refused to even be ransomed in exchange for money, lest tthey be encouraged to do it again.