Today, in Israel, there is a question of the law as seen by the Rabbinate as opposed to the Knesset. I refer to the book, "Torat Hamelech". I believe the stated rabbinical position would be the end of Israel. What is the position of the Orthodox rabbinate of North America? The Conservative rabbinate? The Reform rabbinate?
Today, in Israel, there is a question of the law as seen by the Rabbinate as opposed to the Knesset. I refer to the book, "Torat Hamelech". I believe the stated rabbinical position would be the end of Israel. What is the position of the Orthodox rabbinate of North America? The Conservative rabbinate? The Reform rabbinate?
I must confess, until I received this question, I had never heard of “Torat Hamelech”. However, a quick search found several articles about it. Let me clarify a few misperceptions inherent in the question as it was asked. First, while the title of the book includes the word Torah, and could be translated as “The Law of the King”, “torah” in this context does not mean “law” in the sense of civil laws adopted by a state or country’s legislature that is enforced by the police and the courts. Rather, in this context, it means opinions and interpretations of a particular rabbi regarding Biblical teachings and Jewish religious (not civil or secular) law. It does not have the force or effect of civil or secular law. It is just one rabbi’s interpretations and theological teachings. Nor is this particular book the product of the Israeli Rabbinate. It is one rabbi, writing from his own right-wing, fundamentalist viewpoint. Some ultra-Orthodox rabbis have supported him, or at least defended his right to write whatever he wants. However, more moderate Modern Orthodox rabbis have condemned him and his supporters’ for their defiance of Israeli law in failing to comply with an order to appear before the police for questioning. An excerpt from the Jerusalem Post article about this is below:
“However, the Forum of Modern Orthodox Movements, representing liberal national-religious groups such as Ne’emanei Torah Va’avodah, the Religious Kibbutz Movement, Kolech and others, said it was “very concerned over the rabbis’ petition and the convention in support of not appearing [for] police questioning over the Torat Hamelech book.”
“The rabbis’ participation in the convention might be perceived by the public as a show of support for the content of Torat Hamelech, which could lead to dangerous actions,” the forum said in an announcement at the beginning of the week.
“Israel’s rabbis are subject to the laws of the state, as are all of Israel’s citizens, and that obligation also bears the halachic significance of dina demalchuta dina [the law of the state is law]. So such insubordination [of refusing police questioning] can also be considered a halachic transgression,” the announcement read. “The message of such a refusal is that some citizens are above the law and in some instances, citizens can take the law into their hands, which can unsettle the foundations of democracy and the regime of the State of Israel.”
As far as I know, no official organization of the American Reform Movement has issued a statement about this book. However, I am certain that any member of the Reform movement, rabbi or lay, would be appalled at this horrific tome and deplore its inherent incitement to violence. In these days when peace is so tantalizingly on the horizon, I pray that fundamentalists and radicals on all sides be seen as the minority they are, and that the majority voices for peace and cooperation prevail!
The book you refer to raised a firestorm, as it should have. There was great debate as to whether this was an advocacy book, or a research book.
Was the author advocating a position, or collecting sources on an issue?
Either way, the matter is serious, and affects not only Israel as a State, but Judaism as a humane religion.
No one I know in the Orthodox world has embraced this book. In fact, just the opposite. And certainly the position advocated (if indeed it was advocated) is not acceptable.
This book made lots of noise, but will not be embraced as an official position, because it is not.
I have not read the book so I can comment only on the news reports that have followed the publication of Torat HaMelekh in November 2009.According to the report that appeared in the “Forward,” the authors, Rabbis Yitzhak Shapira and Yosef Elitzur, assert that the Torah’s prohibition against murder applies only to Jews who kill Jews.The implication of this assertion is that there is no such prohibition against Jews killing non-Jews.But that position would be hard to defend.The Talmud (cf. Sanhedrin 57a) teaches that all innocent life is protected by Jewish law.That is to say, unless there is clear evidence that a person is a wrong-doer, the taking of his or her life is prohibited.At the very outset of his articulation of the laws regarding murder and the preservation of human life, Maimonides states categorically:“Anyone who kills a human being violates the negative command ‘Do not murder.’”Maimonides makes no distinction between Jews and non-Jews.And the author of Sefer HaHinukh (Law 34), reputedly Rabbi Aaron Halevi, argues that killing any innocent human being defeats God’s plan of populating and civilizing the world.Again, the author makes no distinction between Jews and non-Jews.These few references are merely suggestive of the entire thrust of Jewish law is to understand that homicide applies to any human being (cf. George Horowitz, The Spirit of Jewish Law, p.191).If the rest of the book includes assertions that are as extravagant as this one, I would have little choice but to view it with the same disdain as many of the critics have already indicated.
Copyright 2020 all rights reserved. Jewish Values Online
N O T I C E
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN ANSWERS PROVIDED HEREIN ARE THOSE OF THE INDIVIDUAL JVO PANEL MEMBERS, AND DO NOT
NECESSARILY REFLECT OR REPRESENT THE VIEWS OF THE ORTHODOX, CONSERVATIVE OR REFORM MOVEMENTS, RESPECTIVELY.
