Torat HaMelech: Case Closed!

Sanity prevails:

The Attorney General's office on Monday announced that it would not pursue charges against Rabbis Yitzchak Shapira and Yosef Yirmiyahu Elitzur, who authored the book that was considered controversial by some over claims that it incites against Arabs. The cases against Rabbis Yitzchak Ginsburg and Dov Lior, who gave a haskama - a stamp of approval- to the book will be dropped as well.

Interesting to note are the reasons for closing the investigation:

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein said that the investigation was being closed because there is not enough evidence that the book was published with the intention to incite racism. Weinstein wrote that the Torat Hamelech is written in a general manner and does not call for violence. 

Readers of this blog already knew that.  Such a shame that the police harassed leading rabbis for no reason at all.  

Is it Better to Kill a Terorist or Turn Him Over to the Police?

The shameful release of 1027 terrorists in return for Gilead Shalit is continuing to make waves. Rabbi Yosef Elitzur, one of the co-authors of "Torat HaMelech", came out with a not so surprising suggestion following the deal. I will quote jpost's mistranslation of part of what he wrote:

“When the state apparatus broadcasts in an unequivocal manner that there is almost no price to be paid for shedding Jewish blood, it is not clear if it’s a good idea to let the police take care of these issues,” the rabbi wrote.

“At the very least, if there is a window of opportunity in which you can claim selfdefense so that the [legal] framework won’t be overtly damaged, it is better to kill the terrorist and so raise the price of Jewish blood, which has been continually cheapened.”

Now the original Hebrew:

כאשר המערכת משדרת באופן חד וחלק שעל פגיעה ביהודים כמעט ואין מחיר (צאו וחישבו לבד תוך כמה שנים ישתחררו רוצחי משפחת פוגל..) – לא ברור אם טוב להשאיר למשטרה את הטיפול בדברים כאלה. אולי, לפחות כאשר נוצר חלון הזדמנות שבו אפשר לטעון להגנה עצמית וכך גם המערכת לא נפגעת כל כך, מוטב להרוג את המחבל וכך לייקר ולו במעט את דם ישראל שהולך ונעשה זול, למרבה החרפה

This is how jpost's translation should have been (omissions in bold) :

“When the state apparatus broadcasts in an unequivocal manner that there is almost no price to be paid for shedding Jewish blood (calculate by yourself within how many years the murderers of the Fogel family will be released) , it is not clear if it’s a good idea to let the police take care of these issues,” the rabbi wrote.

“Perhaps, at the very least, if there is a window of opportunity in which you can claim selfdefense so that the [legal] framework won’t be overtly damaged, it is better to kill the terrorist and so raise, even a little bit, the price of Jewish blood, which has been continually cheapened, to our great disgrace.”

All of the omissions are a disgrace considering that jpost put Rabbi Elitzur's comments in quotation marks and did not paraphrase him. However, the omission of the word "perhaps" in the second paragraph simply distorts what the Rabbi wrote. The word "perhaps" adds an important nuance and makes jpost's headline ("Better to kill a terrorist than call the police") patently false.

Torat HaMelech 9: Those Brits Crack Me Up!

As the British are suffering an epidemic of rioting and looting, their security officials have spare time for other activities:

British security officials banned Rabbi Yosef Elitzur from entering the country over opinions expressed in the book Torat HaMelekh (Law of the King), which he co-wrote with Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira.
The book, which has generated significant controversy in Israel, is an academic treastie on Jewish Law as it pertains to warfare. In it Elitzur expressed the opinion that the lives of Jewish soldiers should be placed ahead of enemy, non-Jewish civilians in battle.

Elitzur received a letter stating he may not enter the United Kingdom for the next three years under British law. By law in the UK, someone who supports terrorism with justifying opinions, encourages an act of terrorism, or spreads hatred may not enter the country.

That'll quell those rioters! Good show!