Haaretz
September 19, 2004
"And surely your blood of your
lives will I require; at the hand of every living thing will I require it,
and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require
the life of man. Whoso sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed;
for in the image of God made He man" (Genesis 9, 5-6).
The seven
Noahide laws are universal, and apply to every person and every nation -
and even more so to the Jews, who were specifically commanded: "Thou shalt
not murder." The person who spills human blood undermines the image of
God, "for in the image of God made He man."
It turns out that power
has turned the heads of the rabbis of Yesha (the settlements of Judea,
Samaria and Gaza) and the rabbis of some of the hesder yeshivas which
combine military service and Torah study. The occupying army, the greed
and the ability to satisfy it, the ease with which one can dispossess the
Palestinians of their land, turn their cities into holding pens, block the
wells and caves of the shepherds on Mount Hebron, and in effect destroy
the foundation of their existence - all these have intensified the disdain
and the arrogance, until they gave rise to a manifesto that as a "halakhic
decision" (made in accordance with Jewish religious law), permits - in the
course of an act of revenge against a terrorist or someone suspected of
terrorism - the murder of women, children, old people and ordinary
citizens who, strangely enough, are human beings who were created in God's
image, and who have, according to any law, a right to life.
It's
true that these rabbis are not the first to permit the murder of
innocents. The late Rabbi Shaul Yisraeli, in a comprehensive
"dissertation," philosophized after the murder of Arab villagers in Kibiya
in 1953, and justified the killing that had embarrassed most Israelis and
for which they tried to deny responsibility. In his opinion, a small Arab
becomes a big Arab, and a mother can give birth to more little Arabs who
will become big.
The Yesha rabbis, who are busy making innovative
halakhic decisions when it comes to what is not theirs, don't have the
time for innovation when it comes to issues that benefit others. For
example, the status and rights of women, or Israeli citizens who came here
by dint of the Right of Return and who are being asked by everyone to
change their religion as a condition for receiving full rights - in spite
of the fact that we have learned that "a family that has become integrated
is considered integrated, and that all families will be considered
`kosher' in the future" (Even Haezer).
That was said regarding a
mamzer (in Jewish law, a child born of a woman's relations with a man
other than her husband, while the woman is still legally married, and who
consequently is not allowed to marry another Jew), and is even more true
of those who are not mamzerim, who are not bound by the law of "what is
distorted cannot be repaired."
Yes, in the name of God, they are
allocating power to themselves in every area that is convenient for them
and their followers. And instead of all the Biblical verses that
vigilantly protect the rights of the stranger, because "you were strangers
in the land of Egypt," they prefer to adopt the verse that relates to the
seven nations of Canaan: "That shalt destroy them utterly, thou shalt make
no covenant with them nor show mercy on them" (in other words, don't
enable to live alongside you, Deuteronomy 7:2); and the rabbis have
already forbidden the rental or sale of an apartment to Arabs, and some
have even ruled, in the name of the halakha, that one is permitted to
expel them.
The new halakhic ruling gives the army a free hand to
bomb densely populated areas and to use lethal weapons without checking
whether there are children or old people. Although as we know, the army
didn't wait for the rabbis' permission, it is now receiving approval from
those who speak in the name of the God of Israel. Although it should be
mentioned that there are great rabbis who rule differently from those who
grant permission to murder civilians, or who praise Baruch Goldstein (who
massacred Muslims praying in the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron), Yigal
Amir (who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin), and the hilltop
youths, and all the destroyers and murderers who wander about the occupied
territories and sow destruction all around - none of whom has been
indicted.
I recall the essay by the late Rabbi Israel Hess, the
rabbi of Bar-Ilan University, who wrote in the university newspaper that
"we are all obligated to carry out genocide," because he did research and
discovered that the Palestinians are descendants of Amalek, the tribe that
the Torah commands us to destroy (and that has become a symbol of evil for
Jews). Rabbi Prof. Emanuel Rackman, who was then president of the
university, brought about his dismissal. It's no coincidence that in the
settlements the Palestinians are called "Amalek," and the intention is
obvious to everyone.
The new ruling, which determines that the
blood of a Jew is redder than that of others, will not bring great honor
to the Jewish people. It is a shame that at a time when the Jews are
sovereign in their country, the rulers of the strongest country in the
Middle East, the "image of God" has become so worthless in the eyes of so
many.