On Jewish Values

On Jewish values

On Jewish values

Sad, sad are the words of the State Attorney's Office of the Menachem Begin government, comparing my ideas to those of the Jew-hater Hitler, may his name and memory be erased. Sad, but not primarily because of the irresponsibility and blatant hatred of Prof. Zamir. The main sadness and danger lie in the fact that in the mouth of the State Attorney's Office, the astonishing ignorance is clearly evident, in everything related to the true values ​​of Israel that originate in the holy books of Israel - the Bible and the Talmud; and thus the degradation of a holy, pure and distinct people, to the lowliness of a Gentile like all Gentiles, with the same foreign ideas, concepts and values ​​that open wide the gate of assimilation and assimilation.

Prof. Zamir's criticism was particularly directed at two issues that I constantly emphasize. One is the problem of the Arabs in the Land of Israel - including those within the country's borders - and especially the political status of non-Jews in a country that was established as a "Jewish state." And the other is the danger of assimilation and assimilation, intermarriage and sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews, which endanger the sanctity and existence of the Jewish people in Israel.

Regarding the first, the Begin government's prosecution rejects outright any idea that attempts to preach a Jewish state that is not based on the foundation of democracy, and that does not grant every non-Jewish citizen exactly the same rights - including political rights - that a Jew enjoys. And if a person like Meir Kahane does arise and preaches a Jewish state in which non-Jews have equal status, then in the eyes of the esteemed professor this is nothing but an ideology similar to that of Hitler, the Nazis! Well, it's time to teach the learned professor (but not one who is learned in the values ​​of Judaism), and especially to the Jewish people living in Zion - a chapter on the subject: the status of the non-Jew in the Land of Israel according to the Jewish view.

When Joshua and the original IDF entered the land of Canaan to take their land from the inhabitants of the place - according to the command of the owner of the house, the Creator of the world, the Blessed One - the Israelites were commanded with a clear law: "And you shall dispossess all the inhabitants of the land from before you... But if you do not dispossess the inhabitants of the land from before you, and it shall be that those whom you leave of them - they shall be thorns in your eyes and briers in your sides, and they shall hinder you from the land in which you dwell" (Numbers 33:3).

Listen, please. To disinherit the inhabitants of the land? To expel them? Heaven forbid! At the sound of this, wouldn't the ears of every liberal person and every legal advisor prick up! Doesn't the smell of a "certain comparison" rise in our nostrils? And here are the words of the great commentators, the elders of the nation, on this divine command: "'And you shall disinherit it' from its inhabitants, and then 'and you shall dwell in it' - you shall be able to exist in it. And if not - you shall not be able to exist in it" (Rashi). And further: "When you burn the inhabitants of the land, then you shall be entitled to bequeath the land to your children, but if you do not burn them, even though you conquer the land, you shall not be entitled to bequeath it to your children" (Sefronu).
This step of eliminating the inhabitants of the land is considered so essential that the Sages describe the flooding of the Jordan River, when the Israelites rush to cross it before the waters return and wash it away, and say: "While they were still in the Jordan, Joshua said to them: Know for what you are crossing the Jordan: in order to drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you. If you do so - well. And if not - the waters come and wash you away. Me and you" (Sotah 34).
Perhaps it is really time for the State Attorney's Office to discuss the proposal to remove this terrible incitement from schools, with all the unpleasant associations that accompany it.

In fact, when the Sages ruled that non-Jews were nevertheless given the opportunity to reside in the land, it is instructive to see the conditions under which Judaism conditioned this right. Here, in Deuteronomy (chapter 20), the Torah speaks of a war of conquest (that is, even against nations that are not among the seven nations of the land of Canaan), and rules regarding the surrender of the city: "And it shall be that all the people who are found therein shall be your tribute and serve you." The great commentator, the Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi), comes and explains: "And if they were to complete and uproot idolatry and accept the seven commandments [of the children of Noah], it is still necessary that they should be tribute and serve Israel and be subdued under their hands" (Joshua 9).
And the Maimonides (who is known to all the liberals among us as enlightened and progressive) expands on the idea of ​​"slavery", in this way: "And the slavery that they will receive is that they will be vile and lowly, and will not raise their heads at all in Israel, but will be subdued under their hand and will not appoint Israel to anything in the world" (Laws of Kings 6:1).
And so that we do not make a mistake regarding the exact status of the non-Jew, the Maimonides repeats and writes: "And not to the kingdom alone, but to every authority in Israel... even the one appointed over the water supply that divides the fields - and it is not necessary to say a judge or a president - let him be none but from Israel (Laws of Kings 1:4). Indeed, long live the enlightened (and terrible...) "progress."

It seems that original Judaism agrees with Meir Kahane. According to him, a Gentile who wants to live in the Land of Israel can only attain the status of a resident alien - by accepting the above conditions. Citizenship, equal political status, the right to vote and be elected - all of these are reserved only for Jews. And if so, perhaps the "time of the nightingale" has truly arrived, to prohibit Maimonides, Rashi, the Seferno, and the God of Israel from being taught in schools?

And regarding Meir Kahane's second "abomination," his outcry against sexual relations and mixed marriages between Jews and non-Jews, which is upsetting the democrats and "humanists" among us - including the lovers of Jewish justice and morality in the State Attorney's Office - it is worth studying the subject again: "Jew and Gentile - separation or fusion?" "And you shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy, and I will separate you from the peoples to be mine" (Leviticus 20). Separation! Our holy Torah sets the tone, and the Jew - every Sabbath evening - repeats it by raising his glass of wine and proclaiming: "He who distinguishes between the holy and the profane... between Israel and the peoples!" Not fusion, not mixture, not integration - but separation, as befits a "holy nation" (Exodus 19), defined by Chazal in the Mekhilta there: "Holy and sanctified, separated from the nations of the world and their abominations."

And for this the Torah commands: "And you shall not marry them; your daughter you shall not give to your son, and your daughter you shall not take to your son" (Deuteronomy 7). Why? "For you are a holy people, and it is not right that you should profane your holiness by giving birth to illegitimate offspring, as it is said (Malachi 2): 'Judah has committed treachery and abomination in Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judah has profaned the holiness of the Lord which He loved, and has married a foreign daughter'" (Seferno, Deuteronomy 7). If I were a professor of numerology, I would find no rest for my soul. What un-Jewish concepts are found in this book of the Bible and in its commentaries! What racist terms!

Holy seed? Illegitimate seed? It is impossible for us to educate our children in this spirit. And Judaism's hand is also outstretched: "The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites and the people of the lands did not differ... for they took their daughters for themselves and for their sons, and the holy seed mingled with the people of the lands..." (Ezra 9). And what was the response of a Jewish leader such as Nehemiah (who must have been a democrat, progressive, and enlightened, since innocent children study his book in the schools of the State of Israel)? "In those days I also saw the Jews marrying Ashdodite, Ammonite, and Moabite women... and I fought with them and cursed them and took men from them and killed them..." (Nehemiah 13).

And in the days before Prof. Zamir and the state, this was the punishment for a Jew (or Jewess) who violated the prohibition of assimilation: "An Israelite who marries a Gentile from among the other nations through wives... these are clearly seen from the Torah... but one who marries a Gentile through fornication prepares him for a plague of rebellion, according to the words of the scribes, a decree lest he come to marry" (Rambam, Hilchot Issurei Be'a, 12:1-2).

For years and years I have been trying to explain that the main struggle in the Land of Israel is not about territories, Arabs, Lebanon, the economy, etc. The fundamental struggle is an ideological struggle, between the ideas and values ​​of Judaism and those of the non-Jewish world. Democracy, tolerance, Jew and non-Jew, equality - in all of these there is a complete contradiction between Judaism and non-Jewish Western culture. This truth is so terrible that the educated and intelligentsia (including religious ones) prefer to falsify Judaism, provided that they do not reach a moment of truth in choosing between one and the other.

But truth remains truth, and Prof. Zamir and the Israeli government will be forced to choose: "If the Lord is the God, follow Him, and if the husband, follow Him..."
The main thing is to be honest and sincere. If Prof. Zamir is not willing to accept the values ​​of Judaism, let him reject them with both hands, and compare not only Kahane's words to Hitler's, but also the source from which Kahane drew his words. In the meantime, it remains only to quote a few more words of Chazal, who said about the verse in the Song of Songs, "The buds appeared in the earth, the nightingale arrived" - "The time has come for the foreskin to sing; the time has come for the wicked to break; the time has come for this kingdom of wickedness to be uprooted from the world; the time has come for the kingdom of heaven to be revealed" (Pesikata Ravati 9:6).

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6 Elul 5783 (15.8.83). Published in "Haaretz", p. 8. A week later, on 13 Elul 5783 (22.8.83), it was published in "Yediot Aharonot" in fragmentary form [as a letter to the editor] under the title "Racism in the Bible."