Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein will likely choose not to prosecute the authors of the controversial “Torat Hamelech” book.
According to a report on the Haaretz website on Thursday, Weinstein will not indict Rabbis Yitzchak Shapira and Yosef Yirmiyahu Elitzur who authored the book, nor will indictments be issued against Rabbis Yitzchak Ginsburg and Dov Lior, who gave a haskama - a stamp of approval - to the book, a routine measure when a book is logically coherent halakhically.
“Torat Hamelech contains the authors’ interpretations of Jewish law regarding the use of force when dealing with enemies.
The book was a cause for controversy because, although it makes no direct mention of Arabs, some have said that the book incites to kill Arabs. Rabbi Shapira was arrested by police for questioning over the book, as was Rabbi Lior for his approbation of it. Both were later released.
While an arrest warrant had been issued for him, Rabbi Lior later explained he believed he was not obligated to appear before the police despite the normative practice that one follow the law of the land because it was Torah itself being put on trial.
Last month, the Reform Judaism movement and eight other organizations filed a petition against Justice Minister Ya'akov Ne'eman and Weinstein, among others, in the Supreme Court, demanding that the authors of the book and those who gave rabbinical endorsement to it be prosecuted.