Monday, June 30, 2014

#BringBackOurBoys Why Were They Really Killed?

ג׳ לחודש הרביעי תשע״ד

Statements as to why three Jewish boys were recently abducted by Arab terrorists have been flooding the Internet, and have been accompanied by the usual finger pointing and blame game.

Now that the boys have been found murdered, May God avenge their blood!, it is of the utmost importance to answer the question in title.

Most of you may find this to be insensitive and distasteful. However, I intend to answer the questןon anyway, if for no other reason that piqu'ah nefesh (saving a life).

Eyal Yifrah (19), Naftali Frenkel (16), Gil'ad Sha'ar (16)

First, here is a sample of the opinions being thrown around as to why the boys were abducted in the first place.
The Yated Ne'eman newspaper "holds the government of Israel responsible for the kidnapping of three teenage boys...a direct result of the Israeli government’s effort to draft Hareidim into the army."

Rabbi Dov Lior (Qiryath Arba-Hevron) said Thursday that the abduction of Eyal Yifrah, Gil'ad Shayer and Naftali Frenkel "was God’s punishment for what he called “anti-religious” legislation pushed by the current Knesset, and for Israel’s stated willingness to abandon parts of Eretz Yisrael."

Mekubal Rabbi Yaakov Adas, "who is admitted to Shaare Zedek Medical Center, hinted on Friday night the kidnapping of the youths was due to President Shimon Peres taking part in a prayer service with Pope Frances and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) during his recent visit to the Vatican."
There were also statements of the obvious, that the Arabs are seeking to kidnap more Jews, in order to exchange them for more prisoner releases.
On a more direct, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu shlit"a (Tzfath) "accused the family of abducted soldier Gilad Schalit on Sunday of weakening Israel by appealing to the public’s sentiment in order to ratchet up pressure on the government for a prisoner swap."
Odd that no one mentioned anything about...
  • allowing heinous desecrations on the Temple Mount
  • allowing pork sales in Jerusalem
  • inviting avodah zarah into the Land, and helping it to dig its claws into it
  • I am sure that someone also blamed Israeli Gay Pride events. I just happened to miss these reports. 
How is it that, in times of tragedy, no one ever seems to bring up what is explicitly mentioned in the Torah, if we fail to heed a few of its commandments in particular, removing these  perei adam (wild asses of men) from our midst...
במדבר לג
נ 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.נג וְהוֹרַשְׁתֶּם אֶת-הָאָרֶץ, וִישַׁבְתֶּם-בָּהּ: כִּי לָכֶם נָתַתִּי אֶת-הָאָרֶץ, לָרֶשֶׁת אֹתָהּ. נד וְהִתְנַחַלְתֶּם אֶת-הָאָרֶץ בְּגוֹרָל לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתֵיכֶם, לָרַב תַּרְבּוּ אֶת-נַחֲלָתוֹ וְלַמְעַט תַּמְעִיט אֶת-נַחֲלָתוֹ--אֶל אֲשֶׁר-יֵצֵא לוֹ שָׁמָּה הַגּוֹרָל, לוֹ יִהְיֶה: לְמַטּוֹת אֲבֹתֵיכֶם, תִּתְנֶחָלוּ. נה וְאִם-לֹא תוֹרִישׁוּ אֶת-יֹשְׁבֵי הָאָרֶץ, מִפְּנֵיכֶם--וְהָיָה אֲשֶׁר תּוֹתִירוּ מֵהֶם, לְשִׂכִּים בְּעֵינֵיכֶם וְלִצְנִינִם בְּצִדֵּיכֶם; וְצָרְרוּ אֶתְכֶם--עַל-הָאָרֶץ, אֲשֶׁר אַתֶּם יֹשְׁבִים בָּהּ. נו וְהָיָה, כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּמִּיתִי לַעֲשׂוֹת לָהֶם--אֶעֱשֶׂה לָכֶם.

Numbers 33
50 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. 53 And you shall drive out the inhabitants of the land, and dwell within it; for to you have I given the land to possess it. 54 And ye shall inherit the land by lot according to your families--to the more you shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer you shall give the less inheritance; wheresoever the lot fall to any man, that shall be his; according to the tribes of your fathers shall ye inherit. 55 But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then shall those that ye let remain of them be as thorns in your eyes, and as pricks in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land in which you dwell. 56 And it shall come to pass, that as I thought to do unto them, so will I do to you.

Wouldn't want to be labeled a racist, would we? Even though the Torah makes no such distinctions here.



Well, now it is my turn to up the ante. Please allow me to bring you back down to earth, from the spiritual realms. Leave your guesswork to the Gedolim, and take a look at what is within your control, and that is following the halakhah.

Let me also preface this by stating very clearly where I personally place the blame,...on the Israeli religious educational system, and thus the the Israeli Government and its Statist "rabbis" who not only support, but collaborate with this system on a daily basis.

And of what exactly am I accusing the State and its puppets?



I am accusing them of teaching Torah against the halakhah. Well, it has already been forbidden to listen to anything Shlomo Aviner has to say regarding halakhah. But what about the other diehard, State loyalists?

The negative commandment of לא תחנם/Lo Techonem (Deut. 7:2) encompasses not saving them from danger and not providing them with any medical treatment, if at all possible.

Three categories, not providing the goyim with any foothold on the Land, not providing them with gifts, and not even saying anything nice about them are emphasized as keys points to preventing from violating misswath lo ta'aseh (negatively phrased Torah commandment). (Ramba"m, Laws of Avodah Zarah and the Laws of Goyim 10:1-9) Rabbi Shmu'el Eliyahu shlit"a of Tzfath warned us of this of this prohibition, and incurred the wrath of the Left, the Modern Orthodox, and of course, as you might suspect, the ADL.

So, to what degree are all of these groups complicit in these boys' murders?

How many of you would like to bet that this halakhah was never mentioned, despite its direct relevance to these boys' lives, or if it was, it was glossed over, qualified to prevent teachers from getting arrested, or said not to have any relevance in our current time and situation, e. g. before the coming of Mashi'ah.

If I am mistaken, and this halakhah was taught in their schools, its observance has been discouraged, no, fought tooth and nail by the co-dependent, desperately politically-correct Israeli Government, by compliant "rabbis" who prefer silence to the truth, and confused and naive parents, who without fail, pass on their confusion to the next generation.

And yet, eyewitness testimony at the trempiada (hitchhiking station) suggests that these boys were lurered into a Arab's car after "doing the nice thing" of helping him in the push-starting of his car

"Such nice things" are forbidden! But, how would they know that, with the current, anti-Torah educational system of the anti-Torah State of Israel?!

Jews often talk about using this approach to negotiate a peace settlement with our Arab enemies, show them that we are willing to work with them, do "nice things" for them, give them food and medical care,...and even help push start their engines.

NO! ENOUGH ALREADY! 

How many more of our children must be murdered while we just sit here with faith in a useless, co-dependent government, and their equally useless ie. "rabbis" before we start following Torah Law instead of playing with it, crossing out what we do not like or otherwise distorting it?!

*********

According to the Ramba"m (Teshuvah 148), and the Beth Yosef and the [uncensored] Ba"H (Rabbi Yoel Sirkish) in their respective commentaries on the Tur, Lo Tehonem, ALL hold that the use of the term 'oved 'avodah zarah indicates a goy who does not keep the Seven Torah Commandments of B'nei No'ah.

The few lines of the Ba"H mentioned above were apparently never seen by Rabbi Avraham Yitzhaq Kook ztz"l nor Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef ztz"l.

7 comments:

HDG, Yerushalayim, E"Y Shlemah said...

Dear Esser Agaroth,

When I visited here just a few minutes ago, this article had not been posted yet. I apologize for my impatience.

I know that you, of all people, would not be ignorant of what happened!

There is no comforting us. Too many of us have been the victims of damned arabs. We need to learn to fight - and not just through the army. We civilians need to be able to chase our enemies out too!

Anonymous said...

I knew before I even saw this post that you were going to write something along the lines of "this occurred because the gov't doesn't follow the torah". As far as the first three people quoted (which I know don't necessarily reflect your own views), I am not a big fan of trying to play connect the dots. People need to stop trying to pretend their prophets and act like the know why these happens. As far as the commandment to drive the inhabitants out of the land, quoted from Bamidbar, I believe that is only referring to the 7 Caananite groups. While I dont agree with all of the decisions by the government either, neither they or the "mamlachti" Rabbis are the cause of a pagua. you can argue that the gov't doesnt do enough to prevent terrorism, or that its a national security problem to let our enemies live with us. Terrorist attacks are caused by the terrorists themselves. So I would say that they were killed due to a savage culture with no regard for human life.

p.s. much chapter 10 of the Rambam's avodah zara refers to idol worshipers, not all goyim. Most poskim do not hold that Ishmalites are idol worships. Though I think we would both agree that a large number (maybe the majority) of them would not be considered ger toshav

Esser Agaroth said...

Aharon,

You missed the note at the end:

"According to the Ramba"m (Teshuvah 148), and the Beth Yosef and the [uncensored] Ba"H (Rabbi Yoel Sirkish) in their respective commentaries on the Tur, Lo Tehonem, ALL hold that the use of the term 'oved 'avodah zarah indicates a goy who does not keep the Seven Torah Commandments of B'nei No'ah."

Also, the reference to the verses in Bamidbar were to show the "I told you so" nature of what is occuring.

When I was in the bomb attach on 9 Tammuz, 12 years ago, I received shrapnel in my "side," while another boy, received "stingers in his eyes."

I agree with what you said about such speculation. Yet, it just continues and continues and continues.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, missed your note at the bottom ALL hold that the use of the term 'oved 'avodah zarah indicates a goy who does not keep the Seven Torah Commandments of B'nei No'ah.
I will try to check if indeed "all hold" this.

Esser Agaroth said...

All four poseqim that I mention: Ramba"m, Beth Yosef, Tur, Ba"H.

What? I'm lying?

Ben-Shmuel said...

Great post. Keep spouting the halachic truth.

Ben-Shmuel said...

Aharon,
The Or Hachaim (Numbers 33:52) states that the imperative 'to drive them out' refers to people other than the 7 nations, since the posuk already stated that it is a biblical prohibition to leave anyone alive.