Seizing Rav Dov Lior and hauling him away for a little questioning is indeed a way of humiliating the Jewish residents of Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem, Hevron, and its supporters in order to prove just who’s the boss, but it begs the question, “Who really is the boss in this case?” Certainly not the State of Israel.
The Israeli Government has already announced that it has relinquished ownership of Judea and Samaria but still holds much of it under “belligerent occupation,” regardless of Netanyahu’s declaration that Israel "is not a foreign conqueror in our land,” a policy widely ridiculed in the msm.
And in the meanwhile, Israeli homes are still being destroyed for the sake of Arab rule, but in no way for the sake of the Israeli government. There is no connection between rhetoric and actions.
But could this not also be said of all of us?
The same old persecution from the Israeli authorities continues, which may only turn out to be a slap on the wrist in the event that Assistant Attorney General Shai Nitzan is fired. When reflecting on the current series of events, it is clearly the latest in the history of the persecution of talmideihakhamim by ameiha’aratzot, (of Torah scholars by the Torah ignorant). Ameiha’aratzot, who lack any real Jewish education, can be found in any position in Israel, from the Presidents office down to the rookie cop. Just like the congregation of Korach, they are a judicial, political, military, and media elite.
We even find orthodox rabbis among them providing halakhic and ideological sanction to this congregation of the uneducated, and no one bothers to ask how rabbis could have ever joined forces with such a congregation.
The national religious camp has developed an, “ideology” whereby the Jewish State is held high above all else, so high, indeed, that it kicks God’s throne of glory. And now it has allowed itself to become a cover-story about the golem that turned upon its creator.
“Democratic” surrender to terror is a sort of testimony as to how the current regime uses its law courts to reject Israel’s standing as amsegula, the chosen people, by arrogantly deciding that Jewish points of view just don’t fit into their worldview because any matter that is inherently Jewish is considered racist.
The courts proclaim that since they were chosen by a group that includes both non-Jews as well as Jews whose intent is to uproot Israel from any hint of Torah and its mitzvot, then for all intents and purposes the observant Jew is barely a part of their constituency. And their constituency has the legitimate right to rule regarding matters of Jewish Sovereignty, which in their myopic vision they call “matters of State.”
A masochistic desire leads part of the nationalists into honoring governments simply because they are in power. “The law of the state is the law,” is a Rabbinic maxim, but it is not a fixed fule, and here, there is no symbol of exile greater than this. The prayer for the ruler, “He who saves kings”, still echoes in the hearts and minds of Jews of the Diaspora raised on saying it in the synagogue on the Sabbath, but this prayer continues, “whose strength is a lie and whose mouths speak vanity.” And yet here, the devout who stand during the prayer for the state of Israel have succeeded in doing nothing less than exchanging the state of Israel for God.
Indeed, Rav Dov Lior is a Holocaust survivor and knows how to appreciate the Jewish state in the land of Israel. He is willing to suffer just about any humiliation, as long as the community at large doesn’t also suffer. Still, situations requiring self-sacrifice may not be whitewashed.
One might ask, “why doesn’t the national religious camp simply forgive those who disgrace it just as Rav Lior does?” In such a case an individual may grant forgiveness for being humiliated, but the humiliation of a community or a nation may not be forgiven.
In the days of Yitzchak Rabin the Israeli government demanded that the Jewish residents of Hevron be forced out of their homes as a response to the Goldstein affair. This decree was averted through the concentrated efforts and genuine love for the Jewish people from rabbis like Rav Goren, Rav Neriya, and Rav Yisraeli, all of blessed memory, together with others.
However, they did not prevent Netanyahu from giving nearly all of Hevron to the Arabs later on and placing the Jews, like lepers, under special administration. Any protest against this division was quashed due to a lack of power and will. It was believed that protesting such an action would lead to a civil war, Jew against Jew, and everyone knows that such wars are forbidden. “Yeharegv’alya’avor - die rather than disobey.”
Following this rule would prevent a Jewish civil war, and those who followed it believed with perfect faith that their legitimacy flows from the fact that all citizens in Israel are equal before the state. This was the law as established by Menachem Begin, like a posek determinining halakha, after he and his comrades were shot at during the dispute over the arms shipment of the Altalena.
In the effort to prevent a Jewish civil war, Begin committed a kind of political and spiritual suicide that eventually cost him, in a sense, his own life, and with the development of history, the lives of his people. The community granted forgiveness for being humiliated and in doing so brought about it own demise.
With the creation of the state Israel was been gathered from the killing fields of Europe just as He had promised. But now we ask, “Are the malicious shepherds who beat their sheep are also an expression of Divine decree?” The sheep stand and accept this test of subjugation, believing that it is the test they must withstand in order to not let the staff slip from the shepherds hand, the very staff that he uses to beat the sheep time and time again.
There is another way. A leadership must be formed that doesn’t break its own people and banish them from their homes.
For this reason we need to put the concept of democracy in its proper place. Do we accept democracy as defined by propaganda paid for by the New Israel Fund, brought to you by Erlon (Milon) the Greek and his incarnations, a beautiful river of “freedom, equality, and brotherhood,”, long exposed as a cover-up for modern fascism? “Not God, not a king, not a hero,” just the triumph of the greed for power gained through easy manipulation of the ignorance of the masses.
Authority in Jewish law is only given to those who represent Jewish law according to halakha. Not just relegated to ritual, Jewish law is filled with centuries of experience regarding civil law and matters of the state. It is an enlightened system of justice than has contributed to humanity more than all of the declarations of the rights of man and provided justice more than all court decisions of international law.
It contributed all of these even during centuries of the exile, keeping us unified as a nation from the days of the exodus until today, save the way it is used by the renewed state of Israel. It is a familiar story. Jewish law and justice have been shamefully banished in the state of Israel, a puzzling way to establish God’s throne on earth.
The state of Israel could indeed claim authority as the “King of Israel.” Though such authority could come from the combined efforts of civic lay leaders and Torah scholars, it is clear that the king cannot rule unless he is granted authority by the community at large. He is crowned by the constituency that accepts him as his subjects. But this cannot happen unless his authority is recognized by the law of the Torah. Without them, his authority is intrinsically flawed, summed up in the words of the prophet Hosea, “they crowned him, but it was not from Me.”
The whole public melee over the “Torat HaMelekh” can only be resolved if we turn to the law of the king, or a law where the sovereignty of the community is recognized. It must be judged in a law court of clalYisrael, the united communities of Israel. This can only be achieved when Israel has a legitimate leadership in its land together with legitimate judges and officers that actually represent clalYisrael. In this way we may live in and inherit the land.
According to the Torah there must be a recognized court whereby one can “arise and ascend” to a just court accessible to the entire community. Only then can we achieve democracy and the democratic principles of “judging according to the majority of the court,” and “not being swayed by the majority” (if a judge has evidence contrary to the verdict). Once these principles are established, then sovereignty will gain victory over heresy. Until then, we will live under the rule of an imposter mimicking the Jewish state in the land of Israel.
Rav Yiskhak Ginsburg cannot lapse into the luxury of caring only for his community, only for those who accept his authority. So too with Rav Dov Lior and all Rabbis in Israel. They cannot afford the luxury of a good night's sleep until they have succeed in bringing about a transformation, a perestroika, of the court system, criminal and civil law, and the Israeli Government. Only then will Jerusalem truly be a city upon a hill.
"Through justice the king will establish the land.” At present, there is no land because there is no justice, and there is no sovereignty to lead Israel, only the rabble’s rule of “democratatorship.” With time against us, we have no recourse but to act now. It is time to establish justice in the land.
“Zion will be redeemed through justice, and through the righteousness of those who return to her (Isaiah 1).”
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