Torat Hamelech
May 14, 2012 
3 Comments
There are times in which we will want to harm the innocent from the outset. And their presence and their killing is actually beneficial and helpful to us. For example, harming the infants from the wicked king’s family, who are currently innocent; their killing helps us to harm and pain the king so that he will stop fighting us.
– Excerpt from the book “Torat Hamelech”
For some reason, when ideas are put down in a book they are given more authority. Seeing something crazy in writing makes it literature, and if it is written in Hebrew it is holy. The book I am talking about today is neither literature nor holy. It is simply evil.
In 2009, Rabbis Yitzhak Shapira and Yosef Elitzur, who head the “Od Yosef Chai” Yeshiva, wrote a book that permits the killing of non-Jews. This book is called Torat HaMelech (The King’s Torah), and it is a manual on how Jewish law can justify hate and violence.
This outrageous book received official rabbinic endorsement by prominent orthodox rabbis in Israel including Rabbi Dov Lior, who is employed by the State as the rabbi of Kiryat Arba. At IRAC, we have been working to end the careers of these rabbis as civil servants.
When the Mufti of Jerusalem gave a sermon about killing Jews, the State opened a criminal investigation in less than a week. But when rabbis widely distribute their manual for violence to the masses, the State remains silent. We will not remain silent.
After our countless complaints to the State, IRAC petitioned the Supreme Court demanding that the authors of Torat HaMelech and those who gave it official rabbinic endorsement be prosecuted. We are anxiously awaiting the State’s response to our petition.
Last week, when we were at the Supreme Court fighting for Miri Gold’s right to be recognized as a rabbi, the State entered the hearing with full knowledge that the backing of thousands of supporters all over the world were with us.
Very soon, we will need your help again applying pressure on the State to prosecute these rabbis.
Israel needs to be a Jewish state that uses its Jewish values to build a safe and inclusive home for all its citizens. Help our numbers grow, and together we will stop this perversion.
The book is certainly not a practical manual that incites violence. Rather, it’s an overview of how different Halachic authorities understand this topic. If we believe that Torah covers all aspects of life why not wartime as well? Throughout Tanach the Jews fight with other nations. It makes sense that there was a Halachic procedure to follow rather than go out to the battle field and swing at random. Shapira and Elitzur were not being innovative. They wrote a mere summary of perspectives from different Halachic rulings from different time periods. In essence, this book has existed for centuries!
Perhaps it is the brevity of this blurb, but the reader is left in the dark regarding the author’s take on free speech. Does she support it for everyone? Clearly not. For Arabs but not Jews? For those who advocate violence as opposed to those who justify it in theory? We don’t know, because she doesn’t say whether she supports the government’s prosecution of the mufti, or not.
A Rabbi, a Mufti, and a Blogger walk into a bar. The Mufti says, “kill the Jews!” The Rabbi says, “it might be possible, under certain circumstances, theoretically, at some future date, to envision the possibility of killing certain Arabs within the confines of the law.” So the Blogger says, “lynch the Rabbi!”
So it’s free speech for all that agree with you, eh?