At Least one Rabbi Knows that the Torah Comes First

ערב יום הכפורים תשע"ד

Arutz 7: Rabbi Backs Civil Disobedience over 'Meaningless' IDF Orders
Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu supports civil disobedience in the face of orders to leave one’s home.

Maayana Miskin, September 12, 2013

Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of Tzfat, has publicly declared his support for civil disobedience in the face of administrative distancing orders.

The military is currently able to issue distancing orders to Judea and Samaria (Shomron) residents without bringing charges against them or allowing them a hearing. While lawmakers have urged the army to use administrative orders only as a last resort, in practice, several men in Judea and Samaria have been repeatedly barred from the area in which they live without ever facing charges, or even an explanation from authorities.

“Any order telling a Jew to leave his home has a black flag waving over it,” Rabbi Eliyahu declared, referencing IDF training which teaches soldiers to disobey orders if a moral “black flag” marks them – that is, if they are clearly immoral.

“This is an order that contradicts the word of G-d,” he declared. “It is worth less than the dust on the ground.”

Rabbi Eliyahu expressed his condemnation of distancing orders while visiting Boaz Albert, a farmer from the town of Yitzhar who was given a distancing order several weeks ago. Albert has declared that he will not abide by the order.

He was violently arrested for violating the order in an incident that brought the question of police violence to the headlines, but has said that the arrest will not dissuade him from returning home despite the order.

Rabbi Eliyahu and others came to expressed support for Albert. They danced and sang with him, and visited his vineyard, where Rabbi Eliyahu said a blessing and picked a cluster of grapes.

“We came to give our support, and we were very impressed by this place and by the vineyard. We came to be part of the blessing here,” he told Arutz Sheva.

“We came to tell Boaz, ‘You are our brother,’” he added.

Esser Agaroth (2¢):
The main point I want to emphasize in this report is Rabbi Eliyahu's distinction between Torah Law and Israeli Law. Even more so, the message here appears to be quite clear:

חוקי התורה קודמין לחוקי האדם.

"Torah Law takes precedence over man made laws."

No elaborate discussions about implications and complications, like the mamlakhtim (undying state loyalists) would have you but into, nor long and involved explanations about this situation or that situation, what the goyim might say, from "rabbis" receiving their salaries from the Israeli government, or who are even ministers and MK's in the same government.

Rabbi Eliyahu, who also receives a salary from the government, simply states the halakhah (Torah Law), and teaches us to follow us to follow it.

And for this, he is labeled an "extremist."

Rabbi Me'ir Kahane was demonized for pretty much the same thing. Say the truth, act on the truth, and whatever happens is מן השמים (the will of Heaven). And, the truth is the Torah.

I disagree with Rabbi Eliyahu on one minor point, and probably due only to semantics.

The distancing orders are not at all meaningless, nor worth less than dust to the Israeli Government.

The government has a plan, and it may involve the town of Yitzhar intimately. Once it manages to eliminate Yitzhar (May The Almighty forbid!), many in Yehudah and Shomron (Judea and Samaria) will unfortunately, just get up, and walk away. I do hope that I am wrong, and that these Jews will wake up, and smell the bulldozers already.