On Rabbi Meir Kahane's 25 Yartzeit: Torah vs. State

י״ט לחודש השמיני תשע״ו

Rabbi Meir Kahane hy"d

This Shabboth marked 25 years since the murder of Rabbi Meir David Kahane hy"d, at the hands of the FBI-handled El Sayyid Nosair.

For this year's yartzeit, I will take the opportunity to give you some of my impressions of Rabbi Kahane, based on a prompt from a friend on Facebook.

I love when I hear Israeli activists "talk tough" but stay away from Rav Meir Kahane's words because they view them as extreme. News flash, most of what Kahane said was about core Jewish values from the Torah. I guess all these activists know what is better for Israel.....*sigh*.

During this string, the issue of "coexistence" came up.

Rabbi Kahane’s position against coexistence was not based on emotions, as is so often the case in Western “progressive” culture, in other words the culture of American and European galuth (exile). His position was, and is, based on Torah reasoning, devoid of emotional influence. His emotions expressed in his speeches were due to his passion for the truth, and frustration over the inability of the Jewish People to see it.

Almost no one has been able to refute his halakhic (Torah legal) claims, falling back on name-calling and demonizing instead. Those who have attempted to do so, have done so with questionable arguments, or with arguments which have not held up to halakhic scrutiny.

Rav Kahane’s greatest “crime” was to quote Biblical verses and halakhic statements from the podium in the Knesseth. My favorite was his mention of the Ramba”m’s Laws of Kings and their Wars, chapter 3.

י [ט] ...ואין צריך לומר אם גזר המלך לבטל מצוה, שאין שומעין לו.

10 [9] ...needless to say, if the King rules the cancelling of a mitzvah, one does not heed him.

The mention of this is not just about whether non-Jews may reside in Eretz Yisra'el (Land of Israel), or marry Jews, issues for which Rabbi Kahane was particularly known, but any situation in which a strirah (conflict) exists between Torah Law and State laws, such as the giving away for Land and the throwing of Jews out of their homes. 

Many mamlakhtim (die-hard State loyalists) have been taught that the Knesseth is a stand-in for the King today. So qal we'homer (even more so) does this halakhah apply.

In 2005, even “mainstream” rabbis such as Rabbi Avraham Shapira ztz”l, the late Rosh Yeshivah of Merkaz HaRav told soldiers not only to sit in jail, before throwing Jews out of their homes, but to be proud doing so. But the mamlakhti “rabbis” with the money and powerful publicity machine, not to mention the support from the government, quashed Rabbi Shapira's message, and continue to do the same to any rabbi attempting to point such conflicts between the Torah and the State. Thus most Jews outside of Jerusalem never heard that he said this, and when they finally did, most would not believe it.

It is no wonder that years before, Rabbi Kahane once said that sitting in jail for the sake of Am Yisrael (Torah, Eretz Yisrael, etc.) should be a requirement for being called “rabbi.” Machon HaMiqdash (Temple Institute's) Rabbi Yisra'el Ariel was one who fulfilled this requirement.

The very popular mamlakhti rabbi, Shlomo Aviner, who helped to throw Jews out of their homes in Azza (Gaza/Gush Qatif), referred to Rabbi Kahane as a “walking Sefer Torah.” I guess he was right about something.

Rabbi Kahane attempted to work within the system to facilitate the process of infusing Torah into the State of Israel, already in existence. In the end, he discovered that this was not going to work. Play by the rules, make gains, and the those in control simply change the rules.

Years later Moshe Feiglin (Likud), would also find this out the hard way. In the last election, MK's Eli Yishai and Yoni Chetboun (Yachad) were prevented from re-entering the Knesseth, because of thousands of fake balloting cards being smuggled into polling booths to replace the real ones. And so all of these votes, 12,000 of them were disqualified,…by the Arab judge, supervising the "fairness" of the elections.

Israeli democracy, or rather deMOCKracy, was time and again revealed to be nothing more than a hypocritical instrument in the maintenance of the citizens' loyalty to the State, above all other loyalties.

The Arab who killed Rabbi Meir Kahane may have done so, because of how he felt. The Arabs who killed Rabbi Binyamin Kahane may have done so for the same reasons. And the same could be said about the Arabs now threatening Rabbi Kahane's imprisoned grandson, Meir Ettinger. But in actuality, these Arabs are not trying to kill Jews, they particularly hate. Rather, they are attempting to kill the truth.

As the Ramba"m states...

הל׳ תשובה ג,יז
שלושה הן הכופרים בתורה: ...(3) והאומר שהבורא החליף מצוה זו במצוה אחרת, וכבר בטלה תורה זו, אף על פי שהיא הייתה מעם ה', כגון הנוצריים וההגריים...

Laws of Repentance 3:17
These three are deniers of the Torah: ...(3) and the one who says that the Creator has changed this mitzvah for another mitzvah, and has already cancelled this Torah, even though was from HaShem, such as the Christians and the Muslims, each of these denies the Torah.

Rabbi Kahane also warned Christian missionaries to stay away from Eretz Yisra'el.

The basis for the negative mitzvah of לא ישבו בארצך ("they will not settle in your Land") is to prevent kefirah (denial) of the truth from being present in the Land and influencing us negatively.

But, Rabbi Kahane's message was not just about about the dangers of coexistence with goyim, how it would not only not work, but how it would be the end of us. Rabbi Kahane's message went even further, and concerned the importance of Jews living according to Jewish principles (ie. Torah), and not the Western/non-Jewish principles we picked up over the last 1,700 years in the golah (exile).

As I write this, I wonder when Jews will realize the dangers of further attempts at coexistence between Torah and State.

With the Israeli Supreme Court calling the shots on one hand, and the Israeli Government using them as an excuse, if not overtly battling against Torah principles themselves, and the mamlakhti "rabbis" standing by to keep the wool pulled over our eyes, defending of their holy State, it seems to be a fairly futile cause, attempting to combine the two.

Unfortunately this is the state (and the State) in which we are currently living.

There is a conflict, and we are all going to have to choose.

Meir (ben Tovah) Ettinger, is sitting in administrative detention, without being charged, let alone having been indicted or convicted of any crime, because he has chosen loyalty to HaShem and His Holy Torah, rather than the State.