Ariel Sharon Dies; Israeli Thought Police Goes to Work!

י"ב חודש האחד עשר תשע"ד

Arutz 7: Internal Security 'Investigate Celebration of Sharon Death'
Yeshiva twice destroyed by Sharon scrutinized after Rambam quote posted hinting Sharon was apostate informer. Arab celebrations ignored.

Ari Yashar, January 12, 2014

Interior Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich ordered the police on Sunday to open an investigation over the publishing of notices calling for celebration over the death of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Arabs are off the hook?
(Photo Credit: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

While Palestinian leaders openly celebrated Sharon's death, calling him a criminal, and Arabs passed out candies to celebrate the former prime minister's passing, Aharonovich's reproach was reserved for Jews only. (cont.)

Esser Agaroth (2¢):
Excuse me, but did someone mention the Ramba"m, a 12th Century Torah scholar from Spain?

I believe that this particular quote from the Ramba"m's Mishneh Torah is what all the fuss is about:

הלכות אבל א,ח [י]
כל הפורשין מדרכי ציבור, והם האנשים שפרקו עול המצוות מעל צווארן, ואינן נכללין בכלל ישראל בעשיית המצוות וכבוד המועדות, וישיבת בתי כנסייות ובתי מדרשות, אלא הרי הן כך בני חורין לעצמן, כשאר האומות, וכן המינים והמשומדים והמוסרין--כל אלו אין מתאבלין עליהן; אלא אחיהם ושאר קרוביהם לובשין לבנים ומתעטפים לבנים, ואוכלים ושותים ושמחים: שאבדו שונאיו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, ועליהם הכתוב אומר "הלוא משנאיך ה', אשנא" (תהילים קלט,כא).

Laws of the Mourner 1:8 [10]
All those who separate themselves from the public, and they are the people who have unloaded the yolk of misswoth (Torah commandments) from their necks, and are not included among the Jewish People in the performance of misswoth and the honoring of the festivals, and in synagogues and halls of study, but rather they are free men to themselves, like the other nations, as well as the heretics and the apostates and the informants -- all of these are not mourned over; but rather their brothers and their other relatives push on white and wrap themselves in white, and eat and drink and rejoice: for the hateful enemies of The Holy One, Blessed Be He, have been lost, and that which is written about them in Scripture says, "Do I not hate them, Oh Lord, those who hate You?" (Psalm 139:21)

This is not the first time someone got into trouble for citing the Ramba"m, and knowing the State of Israel, probably will not be the last.

Rabbi Kahane hy"d would cite this halakhah (Jewish Law), and we all know how "dangerous" (eyes rolling) he was:

הלכות מלכים ומלחמות פרק ג,י [ט]...ואין צריך לומר אם גזר המלך לבטל מצוה, שאין שומעין לו.

The Laws of Kings and Wars 3:10 [9]...and one does not need to say that the king rules the cancellation of a misswah (Torah commandment), that one does not heed him.

You see, there are some Jews out there who actually think that the Israeli Government actually has the status of a king,...or at least a stand-in for one. So, if we are not supposed to listen to a king, when he rules the cancelling of a misswah, then even more so, when the K'nesseth tries to so.

You can imagine how hurt the egos of Rabbi Kahane's fellow K'nesseth members must have been, when he dared to stand in front of them at the podium , and suggest such a thing!

Gee. I guess that means these verses from the Torah would not go over very well, in Minister Aharonovith's book, either.

במדבר לגנ וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָה אֶל-מֹשֶׁה, בְּעַרְבֹת מוֹאָב, עַל-יַרְדֵּן יְרֵחוֹ, לֵאמֹר. נא דַּבֵּר אֶל-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם: כִּי אַתֶּם עֹבְרִים אֶת-הַיַּרְדֵּן, אֶל-אֶרֶץ כְּנָעַן. נב וְהוֹרַשְׁתֶּם אֶת-כָּל-יֹשְׁבֵי הָאָרֶץ, מִפְּנֵיכֶם, וְאִבַּדְתֶּם, אֵת כָּל-מַשְׂכִּיֹּתָם; וְאֵת כָּל-צַלְמֵי מַסֵּכֹתָם תְּאַבֵּדוּ, וְאֵת כָּל-בָּמוֹתָם תַּשְׁמִידוּ. נג וְהוֹרַשְׁתֶּם אֶת-הָאָרֶץ, וִישַׁבְתֶּם-בָּהּ: כִּי לָכֶם נָתַתִּי אֶת-הָאָרֶץ, לָרֶשֶׁת אֹתָהּ.

Numbers 3350 And the LORD spoke unto Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying: 51 'Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 52 then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured stones, and destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high places. And you shall drive out the inhabitants of the land, and dwell in it; for to you have I given the land to possess it.

Nor, I imagine, would he like this map...

(Click to enlarge.)

Especially the section which undoes Ariel Sharon's handy work in Azza (Gaza/Gush Qatif) in 2005/תשס"ה.

Aharonovich was also quoted as saying,...

Yitzhaq Aharonovitch
Internal Security Minister

"...I see great seriousness in criminal activity like this, and I asked police officials to deal with the issue quickly and professionally."

"Criminal activity?" Which "criminal activity" would that be? Quoting halakhah, exercising ones free speech, or both?

Inquiring minds want to know.

This would not be the first time the Israeli Thought Police has been activated, and I am afraid that it will not be the last. As it happens, the thought police was hard at work after the death of another former prime minister, Yitzhaq Rabin. There were even mamlakhti (undying state-loyalist) rabbis in on it, happily and voluntarily serving as informants to the police regarding death parties, and why their invitations had be lost in the mail. Well, not that last part....

A source of mine personally witnessed former Israeli Sepaharadi Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu ztz"l on the phone, attempting to quell the flagrant acts of mesirah.

Ari Yashar's report continues...

Aharonovich's professionalism has been questioned in the past. 

In 2011, residents of Samaria held a nighttime protest in front of Aharonovich's house, demonstrating against police brutality against residents of Judea and Samaria under his orders in early morning and violent raids. He also admitted previously that the use of tasers against Boaz Albert "looks bad." 

Aharonovich was accused last year of submitting to the Waqf (the Islamic trust) in forbidding Jews, including MKs, from ascending to the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism.

The use of tazers "looks bad? Actually, from what I understand, the use of tazers hurts pretty badly, too,...for the one having it used on him, that is.

Or maybe, Aharonovich is just worried about the pot calling the kettle black.

In any event, the thought police has been doing push-ups, while we have been sitting in our complacency, pretending that Israel is a real democracy.