Another Call to Genocide
Rabbi Yisrael Rosen, director of the Tsomet Institute says:
All of the Palestinians must be killed; men, women, infants, and even their beasts.
Oh really? I didn’t know that! Thanks for letting me in on it.
Rosen asserted that there is evidence in the Torah to justify this stand.
Uh oh, an hallucinabating Rabbi.
Rosen, an authority able to issue religious opinions for Jews…
You mean, people who do not possess the ability to think independently? I had a few of those commenting on my blog recently!
… wrote that Palestinians are like the nation of Amalekites that attacked the Israelite tribes on their way to Jerusalem after they had fled from Egypt under the leadership of Moses.
Did you learn that at a nativity scene when you were being indoctrinated as a child?
He wrote that the Lord sent down in the Torah a ruling that allowed the Jews to kill the Amalekites,…
Oh the Lord did that? That’s OK then.
The true outrage is that most of those authorised to issue Jewish religious opinions support the view of Rabbi Rosen, as confirmed by Haaretz newspaper.
Well it has to be right then! I bet the aforementioned commenters agree too, so it’s super spectacularly right! Oh wait, the truth value of the proposition was never open for analysis. Sorry Authority.
The danger of these religious opinions lies in the fact that the religious authorities issuing them have wide respect among religious Jewish youth.
You mean, your children subscribe to views of self-appointed authority without question? Hey, we have children that do that too! Does your indoctrination scheme masquerade as an education system like ours?
Wasil Taha, Arab Knesset member from the Tajammu Party led by Azmi Bishara, says that these religious opinions lead to the committal of crimes… Taha holds that the sectors of the Palestinian population most likely to be harmed by these religious opinions are those living in the various cities populated by both Jews and Palestinians, such as Haifa, Jaffa, Lod, Ramleh and Jerusalem.
I feel sick, but not as much as the hallucstibating Rabbi appears to be.
Burning question: Do Atheists have cause to be angry, despite not bearing arms to express this anger (due to a more grounded sense of morality?)?
April 14th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Answer: Yes
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:02 am
I’d say yes too. Morality does not need to have a religious foundation to be sound or ‘complete’. Confucianism is an example of such ‘implementation’. (but not without shortcoming)
Just to share: I feel that one should not let personal emotion too affected by these radical speeches. On the either side (’believer’ and ‘non-believer’) there are always some radical elements that live on publicity. These kind of talk give them what they need and strengthen their base (Think Bush and Evangelical). If we respond in less thoughtful manner, these leaders will have more ‘proof’ to their followers that they are being threaten. Played into their hands. That’s why we have to keep our cool.
February 14th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Hi. I’m a Yeshiva student, and let me reassure you, this guy does not represent Judaism in the least. There is absolutely no basis for this in the Torah, and the Torah does not provide room for rabbis to make such declarations. I don’t know why this guy calls himself a Rabbi or if he said what he is quoted as saying, but he doesn’t seem to be very religious.
February 15th, 2010 at 10:35 am
A couple of points.
First of all, why does it bother you more, that a supposed handful of supposedly influential (whatever that means–they most definitely don’t run the army) rabbis declared that the Palestinians must be wiped out–definitely a revolting thing to say, but why does it bother you more than the fact that Hamas, Fatah, and Iran all desire to completely wipe Israel off the map, as their leaders have stated–were you unaware of this?
Second of all, if you read http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/968452.html you’ll see that this Arab newspaper seems to have distorted what Rosen was saying. It seems that what he actually said, is that those who have declared their intention to wipe us out and are doing their best to do so, should not be shown mercy, but should be considered evil–just like Amalek. I’m not so sure he was saying that the same commandment applies to the Palesitinians, as the Egyptian newspaper made it sound.
See also this article: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3266113,00.html
Now, as for the quotes themselves, whether or not they are authentic, as a Yeshiva student I can tell you that they do not at all represent the Torah’s view. Unlike the various religions which have evolved over time to many different flavors, Judaism does not give room to its Rabbis to redefine it. The Torah is completely immutable, period.
Some particulars:
“Rosen asserted that there is evidence in the Torah to justify this stand” — really? What is it? None that I’ve encountered–if he said what they claim he said.
“Rosen, an authority able to issue religious opinions for Jews” — there’s no such thing in Judaism, in the sense they imply. The Torah is available in black on white to all Jews. Authorities are needed for areas which are nuanced and need someone proficient in all areas of the Torah, to shed light on doubts. They can’t make things up, sorry.
“Palestinians are like the nation of Amalekites that attacked the Israelite tribes on their way to Jerusalem after they had fled from Egypt under the leadership of Moses” — Rabbis do not have the authority to invent such comparisons in such matters. The commandment was very clearly specific to the Amalekites.
“the Lord sent down in the Torah a ruling that allowed the Jews to kill the Amalekites” — any nation in the world, if attacked by an entire nation (extended family might be a better word than nation), would wipe out that nation. Only Israel, who is commanded to emulate G-d’s attribute of mercy, would hesitate to retaliate until sanctioned by G-d.
“the Amalekites are not a particular race or religion, but rather all those who hate the Jews for religious or national motives” — this is certainly inaccurate. What is true, is that in Jewish thought the evil inclination is compared to Amalek and we are entreated to subjugate our own evil inclinations.
“He urges application of the ‘Amalekites ruling’” — sorry, but to my knowledge according to most authorities even if we knew someone was an Amalekite the commandment doesn’t apply today.
“those who kill students as they recite the Torah, and fire missiles on the city of Siderot, spread terror in the hearts of men and women. Those who dance over blood are the Amalekites…” — why is this important phrase overlooked? We are dealing with murderers, plain and simple. Rosen was discussing the Torah’s viewpoint on *retaliation.* Every nation in the world retaliates when attacked. Rosen was discussing the double standard the world holds Israel to–they are expected to make concession after concession for peace, and not practice self-defense, while the Arabs are completely free of blame and to be pitied. His point was, retaliation is normal. Is everything he supposedly said correct? Maybe not. But his main point was quite true.
“The opinion adds that sometimes it is necessary to respond with shelling to sources of fire immediately, without granting the Palestinian public prior warning” — is this a matter of question? When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, did America, “Ready or not, here we come?” Since when are armies supposed to not practice surprise? Did the Arabs warn before the shelling? I mean, please.
YET, in the recent operation in Gaza, the IDF made thousands (or was it hundreds of thousands?) of phone calls to citizens, dropped leaflets, and fired fake artillery, to minimize civilian causualties as best as possible. This is normal for Israel. Name one other country that ever did such a thing.
“And while only 28 per cent of Israel’s population is religious, more than 50 per cent of Israelis define themselves as conservative and grant major significance to opinions issued by Jewish religious authorities.” — Let me quote that again. “grant major significance to opinions issued by Jewish religious authorities” — let me guarantee, they do not take these extreme statements as religious authority, unless they were super-extreme right to begin with. And whether or not these “rabbis” consider themselves religious, the Chareidim most definitely do not consider such opinions religious.
So, yes, such statements are nauseating. But to take them out of context and turn the actual oppressor a blind eye is truly nauseating.
February 15th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
As far as your remark, “You mean, people who do not possess the ability to think independently?”, I would like to invite you to any chareidi Yeshiva, where you can debunk this myth yourself. To the contrary, we question and challenge *everything.* We don’t take anything for granted. It’s part of the way Gemara study teaches us to think — ask anyone that went to law school with a yeshiva graduate.