Ed. Note: The article's title is a paraphrase of the verse about High Priest Aaron's sons Nadav and Avihu who brought a strange fire to the Tabernacle, one not commanded by God, and died. This article first appeared on Arutz Sheva's Hebrew site and was translated by Rochel Sylvetsky.
Let us begin with what needs no explaining, except that in times like these it is important to emphasize the self-evident once again:
I am a proud “settler". I love every inch of this land with every fiber of my being. My father and mentor, Hillel Cohen OBM, was one of the founders of “Garin Shechem" (a pioneering group who worked to establish a Jewish presence in the Shechem area after the Six Day War), before Gush Emunim was founded. I am a second generation pioneering “settler" in Judea and Samaria, proud to be raising the fourth generation in Gush Etzion, the Judea-located Etzion Bloc.
I am a law-abiding and proud Zionist, love the State of Israel and its institutions (even the ones I criticize harshly), love its army, the IDF, in which my father and my grandfathers served, in which I and my brothers (who still volunteer for reserve duty) served, and in which all my children serve, with emphasis on our three reservist-fighter-sons who have served countless days since October 7. I am a fourth generation Zionist, continue the activities initiated by my great grandfather, Rabbi Aharon Shvelb, the first founder of an industry in Petach Tikva, and by my grandfathers, one of whom was a Haganah commander and the other a member of the Etzel Underground.
I am a proud Religious Zionist, retainer of the magnificent heritage I inherited from the previous generations of my family, in addition to that which I received from my rabbis, ZT"L, especially Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Neria, Rabbi Chaim Druckman and Rabbi Chanan Porat whose soul was intertwined with mine. We embrace and hold on to this complex, deep mix of identities and loyalty together.
And I am a proud Jew and a proud human being, happy to belong to this unique nation of mine, the apex of whose glorious future has yet to be reached, and to the family of man, every man created in the image of God.
And all these identities, borne by me with trembling and joy, are threatened by a dangerous and strange, aberrant fire whose flames have burned on over the past few years, a fire coming from a small part of the farms and hills of Judea and Samaria.
What was crystal clear to every generation of previous settlement pioneers has been shattered. The boundaries have been crossed openly by this small group, boastfully, haughtily and arrogantly. I am talking about fundamental ethical, moral boundaries, halakhic boundaries, legal boundaries of law and order.
And this strange, aberrant fire is not aimed only at any “Mustafa or Mahmoud", as Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook ZT"l warned us to be careful not to do, to be careful not to ignite in every struggle over the land, but is directed against Jews who oppose the alleged lawbreakers among the hilltop and homested dwellers, and it is directed against the security forces themselves.
Many years ago, on a tour conducted for the leadership of our sector, on the hills of Binyamin and the Shomron, I had the opportunity to ask one of the rabbis there, whose views were known, how he allows and even encourages the youth he mentors to take part in what was then called “pricetag" activities. Did we not learn the prohibition of stealing from a gentile, brought by the Rambam and all the other halakhic sources? I asked. The rabbi looked and me and at the entire group with a searing glance, while a thin smile hovered on his lips, and said unflinchingly: “I learned it from kal vachomer (a Talmudic method of reasoning, similar to a fortiori, ed.): Since we are allowed to attack them physically, we can certainly vandalize their possessions."
We were shocked, but realized something we had kept at bay until that moment: In a few, luckily a very few, of the hilltop homesteads, the Torah studied is diametrically opposed to what our rabbis taught us, and seems to be a bigoted form of Judaism that ignores thousands of years of Beit Midrash study - our Talmudic Sages, Tanaim, Amoraim, Savoraim, Geonim, Rishonim and Achronim, both the early and late commentators. Theirs is a Torah that goes back to the days of the Judges when, the biblical verses tell us: “In those days, there was no ruler in the Land of Israel - each man did as he wished." As if today as well, there is no state, no government, no army and no security forces.
They allegedly cause actual damage to property and even physical and psychological damage to civilian Arabs. And there may well be young people who are tempted to join these so-called “new pioneers" - as if they were today’s Hasmoneans and Trumpeldors.
The logos of the pre-state underground Etzel and Lehi are printed on their t-shirts alongside more lethal words such as “death to Arabs," or “let us expel the Arabs" and so on. Most of the time they wear masks, although the IDF officer in charge of the area forbids them to do so, some are as young as 14-15 years old, careening on Rangers or going on foot, in groups, raiding Bedouin encampments or the outskirts of Palestinian Arab villages. These are delinquents, allegedly from the area, who vandalize property, ruin crops, damage livestock and more - who throw rocks and engage in violence towards civilians, violence which has resulted in loss of lives.
Hundreds of Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria have formed the “Pro-'settlement', Anti-violence" organization, which opposes this lawless behavior, so foreign to Judaism, and are working closely with the IDF and security forces. They hear how this destructive activity negatively affects the central mission of guarding us, all of us, whether in Judea and Samaria or the entire country, from Palestinian Arab terror. Security forces are forced to spend precious time trying to prevent the violence and friction initiated by these young people instead of concentrating on their vital mission.
The majority of residents, however, remain silent in the face of this lawless behavior.
We know these young people are reacting to years of brutal and barbaric Arab terrorism [1], but we cannot let them take the law into their own hands and victimize others.
Without referring to the harm they are doing to the image of the normative Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria, and even to the Jewish state as a whole, I wish to posit, first and foremost, that we must focus on stressing what was once self-evident and has been trampled underfoot due to an extremist ideology that has no place among us. These things that were once considered utterly unacceptable, totally out of the pale.
Most of the “silent majority," its educators, social workers, heads of local authorities and rabbis, would like to transfer the responsibility for dealing with these lawbreakers to government institutions and the security forces.
But if anything results from the words I have put to paper here in an attempt to calm my seething heart, it will be due to the following call with which I turn to all of us: every parent, grandparent, sibling, aunt and uncle, educator, neighbor, yeshiva, seminary and high school head, social welfare professional, council head, community rabbi. Each and every one of us must ask themselves: Do I know any young people who are drawn or in danger of being drawn into this “strange, aberrant fire"? Am I able to talk to them, to try to divert their flaming pioneering energies to a better, positive place? Am I inadvertently allowing this anarchic lawlessness to continue?
It is incumbent upon us to encourage the local and state government authorities to act, but we must begin the process with those in the our own close circles. We must not abandon the Torah, community building and the future of Jewish-Israeli life to destructive elements. We must strengthen the responsible, law-abiding hilltop youth and homesteaders, strengthen the security forces who guard us night and day. And we must fight those who are trying to drag us all into an unholy fire.
Eliaz Cohen is a noted Israeli poet, one of the leaders of the"pro-settlement, anti-violence" movement and a member of Kibbutz Kfar Etzion.
[1] In 2024, there were more than 6,300 Palestinian Arab terror attacks against Jews in Judea and Samaria, leading to 27 murdered Israelis and more than 300 wounded. In 2025, there were 5,051 terror attacks by Palestinian Arabs, during which 24 Israelis were murdered and 400 wounded, including 458 attacks with Molotov cocktails, 655 attempts to blind drivers with laser pointers, 286 explosive charges and 19 terrorist shooting assaults. The UN claims there were 1400 acts of Jewish violence in 2024 and 1700 in 2025, but most were proven to be in self-defense.