Guest Post: Moriah Goldberg: Why Did I Choose to Go to Jail? למה בחרתי להיכנס לבית הסוהר? ע"י מוריה גלדברג

כ"א לחודש השני תשע"ד

English follows the Hebrew, along with some Esser Agaroth (2¢) personal comments about Moriah, who was a neighbor of mine, when I lived in K'far Tapu'ah in the Shomron (Samaria).

הקול היהודי: למה בחרתי להיכנס לבית הסוהר?

מוריה גולדברג, ע"ה אייר תשע"ד

משפחה יקרה, עם ישראל

לאחרונה נגזרו עלי שלשה חודשי עבודות-שרות ע"י בית-המשפט המחוזי בלוד. החלטתי להתעלם מהחלטת בית המשפט, גם במחיר של ישיבה בכלא, מהסיבות שאנסה להסביר במכתב זה.

אני מואשמת ב"סיכון חיי אדם בנתיב תחבורה", בכך שהשלכתי אבנים על ערבים, כתגובה לטרור האבנים הערבי העובר בשתיקה.

כהצדקה למעשי, אינני מתכוונת להאשים את הממסד באזלת יד מחפירה ובהפקרת דם יהודי, לפרט על הטרור הערבי הרצחני, לפרוש עובדות מוצקות המוכיחות התדרדרות כללית שמובילה המדינה, להצביע על אשמים "מרכזיים" וכו'. כל זה נכון, אך הדברים גלויים וידועים, ואין טעם להוסיף ולהתבכיין. כל עם החפץ בחיים אינו יכול לשבת בחיבוק ידים במציאות כזו.

אך אני רוצה לגעת בקצרה בשרשי הבעיה, היישר מהראש והלב היהודי שלי (מבלי להאריך כאן בהסברים ודוגמאות):

כיהודים, איננו יכולים להזדהות עם מערכת המשפט במדינת ישראל, המתכחשת להבדלה בין ישראל לעמים – הבדלה שרק על-גבה ניתן להגיע להשפעה מתוקנת. כך למשל בית המשפט מדבר על "סיכון חיי אדם" גם כאשר מדובר בפראי-אדם הנלחמים בעם ישראל (כפי שהתורה קוראת לישמעאל "פרא אדם" – 'פרא' כשם העצם ו'אדם' כשם התואר). (ללחוץ לקרוא טת ההמשך)

נא להתפלל לשיחרור מוריה בת יעל מבית הכלא במהרה! וששיחרורה תבוא עם תקופה מחודשת של יהדודות אמיתית דביקות מחודשת לקדוש ברוך הוא ולתורתו הקדושה וגאולה שלימה וסופית!

The Jewish Voice: Why Did I Choose to Go to Jail
Moriah Goldberg, May 4, 2014

Translated by Eliezer Ben Avraham, and posted on The Torah Revolution as In Honor of Moriah Goldberg, the Moriah Goldberg Tzomet!.

To my dear family, the Nation of Israel,

I was recently sentenced to three months of community service by the Israeli court in Lod. I have defied this court order and as a result am sitting in jail. In this letter I will attempt to explain my rationale. I was found guilty of “endangering human life on the roads”, specifically by throwing stones at Arabs. This was done in response to Arab stone-throwing which continues to this day without a word from the government or police. I don’t plan on detailing all the instances of Arab terror in the past few years including murders, Molotov cocktails, stone throwing, and many other incidents. All of these events are well-known to anyone who follows the news and there is no need to enumerate them. Any nation that wishes to survive cannot accept such a situation.

Therefore, I would like to explain, directly from my Jewish head and Jewish heart, what I think is the root of the problem: As Jews, we cannot abide by the rulings of the Courts of the State of Israel because they refuse to differentiate between Jews and non-Jews – a differentiation which is required in order to reach proper decisions. For example, the courts discuss “endangering human life” even when dealing with savages who murder Jews (the Torah specifically calls Yishmael a “human savage”, ‘savage’ is the main noun and ‘human' is merely an adjective).

The problem with the Israeli Court is reflective of a general problem with the entire establishment. After carefully pondering our current situation, with the help of the words of Rav Binyamin Kahane HY”D and Rav Yitzchak Ginzburg Shlit”a, even someone as small as me can understand that there is only one option: the Hellenistic and confused establishment in the State of Israel must be replaced. We don’t need just a new coalition or a new Prime Minister; rather we need to replace the entire system. We should view this shift as a change from the kingdom of Shaul to the kingdom of David. The Zionist Movement, which established the State and its institutions, can be likened to the Jewish Nation that requested a king. Their motive was flawed, for they demanded “to be like all the nations”, a demand which the Holy One Blessed be He compared to idol worship. Similarly, the current State of Israel developed from a desire “to be like all the nations.” It is a state, which just like the first Kingdom does not recognize its faults and needs to be replaced.

Towards the end of his days, Shaul became obsessive and insane. He knew that his kingdom was crumbling and lost. Nonetheless he continued to chase David, the new, true and eternal king, just as the government here continues to harass and fight against Jews who represent Torah truth. Given this situation, it is clear that we must strive to establish the kingdom of David. Some say this can be achieved by “influencing from within”, but history has shown otherwise. David was the next in line to be king and could have waited to become king after Shaul’s death, instead he realized that he had to establish his kingdom himself and that he had to do so during Shaul’s reign. When he started he was isolated; he ruled only in Hevron, but after several years he eventually came to rule over all of Israel.

We all look forward to the redemption and the Messiah’s vengeance against the nations. We want to build the Temple, bask in its glory and be a light unto the nations. To this end, we must immediately begin creating an infrastructure for the perfected state which we desire. We must build institutions, bodies and establishments for this new state. Further, we must separate ourselves from the current state. It is crucial that we only separate from the State of Israel, not from the nation of Israel. The first step is to separate ourselves in our minds and eventually we will be able to separate in practice (see “Derech Chaim Movement”).

We need a revolution. To do so, actions have to be taken, words have to be spoken. This subject must be put on the agenda and a whole new atmosphere must be created so that God willing, the nation will slowly flow towards the new alternative. As Rav Binyamin Kahane HY”D, urged shortly before he was murdered, “Let us take our destiny into our own hands.” To successfully achieve this goal, according to Rav Ginsburgh, we must be candid and even brazen about our opposition and separation from the establishment.

Those stones which came from my hand came from the strength and for the sake of the Torah. They were thrown as “an eye for an eye.” They were in response to the stones that theYishamelites throw every day. They were thrown in response to the shameful silence that follows every attack.

My actions did not come from despair, fear or helplessness, G-d forbid - rather as a Jewish act, vengeful and proud. “Just as they did to me, so too I did to them” (Samson The Mighty, Judges 14:11). Ignoring the court order of doing community service and subsequently sitting in jail was my way of cutting myself off from the system. May it be His will that those small stones I threw be like the five smooth stones of David who stood against Goliath; stones that eventually helped establish his kingdom.

The clock is ticking….. the Messiah is eager. I do not regret even for a moment what I did to those savages, nor my decision to ignore the verdict of the court. If I regret anything, it is that some things could have been done wiser (but it is all from the One Above, and is for the best!), but again I reiterate, not for the acts themselves. I am stating here that I chose to ignore the decision of the court, because as we know there is a time for everything -"...a time to build and a time to bring down…" (Eccl. 3:3) perhaps for this government, the time has come… to bring it down.

With Love of Israel,
Moriah Goldberg

Esser Agaroth (2¢):
You may recall that Moriah, Haiki Belogoradsky, and Penina Ashkenazy, teen-aged girls from K'far Tapu'ah, were jailed in 2005 for protesting the impending expulsion of Jews from Azza (Gaza-Gush Qatif). While dangerous criminals, even suspected murderers, were receiving house arrest, these girls were not accorded the same option, and they were certainly not granted release on bail.

For months the girls incurred horrid conditions in prison, conditions which I will not elaborate here, conditions which were more likely than not, brought about due to political motivations. After months of fighting, the court agreed to release them into the custody of kibbutz, while they awaited trial.

But, the girls refused their offer of release, on the basis that the kibbutz was not "religious" enough. They were familiar with this kibbutz, and stated that its standards of kashruth (dietary laws), as well as it standards of tzni'uth (modesty), were insufficient to meat their observance of Torah.

The dumbfounded judge eventually released them into the custody of Moriah's grandparents in Petah Tiqwah. "Her Honor" believed that it to be too dangerous to let them go back to K'far Tapu'ah, because, "they might talk with the other residents, and have influence over them."

Well, I hate to hazard a guess as to what the Israeli Justice System, not to mention members of the K'nesseth think of how dangerous Moriah is now.

Moriah wrote what many frustrated Jews have been thinking. Yet, she was the one with the courage to say it, and to write it!

אֵשֶׁת-חַיִל, מִי יִמְצָא; וְרָחֹק מִפְּנִינִים מִכְרָהּ. (משלי לא,י)

"A woman of valor who can find? for her price is far above rubies". (Prov. 31:10)

חָדְלוּ פְרָזוֹן בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל, חָדֵלּוּ-- עַד שַׁקַּמְתִּי דְּבוֹרָה, שַׁקַּמְתִּי אֵם בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל. (שופטים ה,ז)

"The rulers ceased in Israel, they ceased, until you arose, Deborah, that arose a mother in Israel." (Judges 5:7)

Please pray for the speedy release of Moriah bat Ya'el. May her example and her release herald a new era in Authentic Jewish thought, loyalty to The Almighty and His Holy Torah, and our complete and final Redemption!