Chabad Rabbi Tries To Clarify Remarks On Killing Muslims, Destroying Muslim Holy Places

Rabbi Manis Friedman explains his position as Chabad tries to distance itself from Friedman's remarks.

Chabad rabbi aims to clarify remarks on killing civilians
By Ben Harris

NEW YORK (JTA) -- A prominent Chabad rabbi is seeking to clarify remarks in which he renounced “Western morality” and seemed to call on Israel to massacre Palestinian civilians.

"The only way to fight a moral war is the Jewish way," wrote Rabbi Manis Friedman in the current issue of Moment magazine. "Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women and children (and cattle).”

Friedman's comments were a response to the question “How Should Jews Treat Their Arab Neighbors?” The question was posed to rabbis of several denominations, and the Friedman response was identified as “Chabad.”

Subsequently he said that the comments were solely his own and not those of any movement or organization. A Chabad spokesperson also emphasized that Friedman was not speaking for the organization.

Friedman, of St. Paul, Minn., also said that his published comments were “misleading” and were meant to address not how Jews should treat their neighbors but how they should act in a time of war.

“I attempted to briefly address some of the ethical issues related to forcing the military to withhold fire from certain people and places, at the unbearable cost of widespread bloodshed (on both sides!) -- when one’s own family and nation is mercilessly targeted from those very people and places!” Friedman wrote in a clarification issued through a Chabad spokesperson. “I apologize for any misunderstanding the words printed in my name created.”

In response, Moment editor Nadine Epstein said nothing was taken out of Friedman's comments save for some quotation marks and a short paragraph that did not alter the meaning of the controversial passage. She also said that Friedman was asked the same question as all the other rabbis and that he was invited to elaborate further on the magazine's blog.

“The question did not include a reference to 'during a time of war,'” Epstein said.

Interpreted as a call on Israel to carry out massive killings of Palestinians, bloggers seized on the Moment article, with several seeing it as a confirmation of what they view as Chabad's extremism.

Shmarya Rosenberg, an erstwhile critic of Chabad, wrote on his blog, FailedMessiah.com, that he had heard this “exact logic” from Friedman himself.

Rabbi Avi Shafran, the director of public affairs for the fervently Orthodox group Agudath Israel, called Friedman's comments “shocking and wrongheaded.”

“Divine commandments in the Torah that were intended for a particular time and place, as all the 'war commandments' were, are not properly applied to any other situations -- and throughout history never have been,” Shafran said. “Torah speaks to contemporary situations only through the judgments of the greatest religious leaders of the day.”

A noted author, speaker and educator, Friedman, who lives in St. Paul, Minn., is among the country's most prominent Chabad rabbis. He has appeared on CNN, PBS and the BBC, and been the subject of articles in major national publications, according to his biography.

A 1974 New York Times article article about Friedman's school, Bais Chana, described him as using “humble humor” in his interactions with young women who are returning to Jewish practice, many of them having dropped out of school or become hooked on drugs.

As I wrote yesterday, I heard Manis say this several times. I also heard many other Chabad rabbis say the same thing. And, as I noted in the comments to that post, I said it myself.

The theology is the theology of two people: The late Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson and the late Rabbi Meir Kahane.

Chabad and Kahane shared much with regard to israeli politics and inner city Jewish community security.

The only real difference is that Kahane was theologically Zionist while Chabad is not.

By that I mean Kahane saw messianic portent in the Jewish state, while Chabad does not.

In day to day life, there is no real difference between the two positions except in religious matters. For example, Chabad does not say Hallel on Yom HaAtzmaut, but Kahane did.

That means Chabadniks and Kachniks can and do stand side by side in the dusty outposts and remote settlements of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). But on days like Yom HaAtzmaut, they make two minyans instead of one.

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Comments

[Dr. Dave]

...and Chabadniks and Kachniks disagree on the identity of the Moshiach.

[Isa]

For too long, these rabbis have opened up their mouth, garbage comes out, and everybody acts as if that is just great.

Now his telephone is ringing.

Now the Jewish left in the Twin Cities have figured out he is not some harmless 'Fiddler on the roof' quaint rabbi.

He should install a closed circuit TV to monitor who is knocking on his door-- If it is some guy with a overcoat that is bulging in the middle- he needs to call 911

Hey Yochanan Lavie how about a parody
Who is knocking on my door ha ha ha

[Robert W. Welch Jr.]

How about full disclosure, Shmarya.

Being that you and Manis Friedman are from the same place, maybe you can fill us in on what kind of personal animus you harbor against him and why.

[MisterApikoros]

Robert W. Welch, Jr. Founder of the John Birch Society. Since he died in 1985 one must assume either one of these two possibilities:

1. Robert W. Welch is speaking from the Great Beyond.

2. Robert W. Welch is the pseudonym of a man who used the persona of another right-winger, this one fictional.

Welcome back, Archie.

[face]

Robert W. Welch Jr., it probably has to do with the fact that Shmarya was looking for a shidduch during his 25 year stint as a BT and nobody helped him find one. The fact that Rabbi Friedman runs a school for female BTs and didn't hook him up is especially hurtful.

[Paul Freedman]

...another difference is that Chabad embraces chassidus which Kahane does not etc. etc. etc. tho' in terms of concrete political action imo there's something here to the joining of forces of the yellow-flag brigades, the ex-Kachists, and the wider circles of what used to be Gush--and, another differencd too, is that Chabad Central forced the guy to walk the dog backwards

[Paul Freedman]

btw--this is not directly related but it has something to do with what our mentality is going to be vis a vis hostiles (and the guy quoted is no pussycat):

Lieberman in Moscow: Israel has no intention of bombing Iran
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOSCOW

Israel does not intend to bomb Iran, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Wednesday in the most explicit comments on the matter by a top minister of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government to date.

Speaking at the end of a three-day visit to Russia, Lieberman also said that other countries in the Middle East and around the world should be concerned about Iran's nuclear program, but he added that those countries should not expect Israel to solve the problem for them.

[michal]

Yasher koach to Rabbi Manis Friedman. Keep up the good work!

[Paul Freedman]

Michal, before or after his second statement?

[Yisroel Pensack]

Absurd. Manis Friedman implicitly blames the magazine for publishing the actual question he was asked rather than his own imaginary question!

"...my answer, as published, is misleading. For it is, in truth, an answer to a different question." [which I wasn't asked]...

"The question my statement addresses [which I wasn't asked] is: how should we act in time of war, when our neighbors attack us, using their women, children and religious holy places as shields."

http://blogs.jta.org/telegraph/article/2009/06/03/1005589/rabbi-manis-friedmans-response

Rabbi Friedman's answer to his own question, however, is essentially OK with me, although obviously very poorly expressed, and I believe it is indeed as well the standard Chabad-Lubavitch and Torah-true position regarding how to conduct a war if and when attacked militarily by our "Arab neighbors" in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, someone should tell the reporter Ben Harris and his JTA editors what erstwhile means.

Also, why no criticism of the deceitful response of Gershon Winkler in Moment, who wrote, "We were told that we were to apportion land to those living among us, whether Arab or Martian" and then in support of that lie distorts and misrepresents Ezekiel 47:21-23, which clearly refers to true converts to Judaism and not to gentile resident aliens, as he would have us believe.

http://www.momentmag.com/Exclusive/2009/2009-06/200906-Ask_Rabbis.html

[Yochanan Lavie]

Apologies to Paul:

Someone's shouting out for war, somebody's raising up hell,
Someone's shouting out for war, somebody's raising up hell,
do me a favor, shut the damn door and let 'em stew. (2x)

Sister Uzi, Jihad John, Meir Kahane, Manis and Ronn,
uncle Bernie, Achma- jin, shut the door, let 'em spin, oh yeah.

(refrain)

Sister Uzi, Jihad John, Meir Kahane, Manis and Ronn,
uncle Bernie, Achma- jin, shut the door, let 'em spin, oh yeah.

(refrain)

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

[face]

Mani Friedman had a responsibility to find Shmarya a shidduch which he never did. he is held RESPONSIBLE for the fact that Shmarya is a 50 year old bochur today. I hold him accountable.

[steve]

Rabbi Avi Shafran, the director of public affairs for the fervently Orthodox group Agudath Israel, called Friedman's comments “shocking and wrongheaded.”

The pot calling the kettle black.

[Robert W. Welch Jr.]

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090602/NEWS/90602018/-1/SITEMAP

Jewish CIA agent who died in Ethiopia. Scholarship in his memory at Chabad school.

[Paul Freedman]

Steve, agudas may not be "invested" in Judea and Samaria--it's a different shade of black

[Paul Freedman]

YP: proofers and copy editors are much maligned but they help out a lot

[Yisroel Pensack]

I agree, P(roo)F. But here's my proof: they didn't catch "erstwhile."

[Robert W. Welch Jr.]

I'm surprised no one else mentioned that the National Review called on the US military to nuke Mecca.

Manis Friedman looks pretty tame by comparison and frankly, it's the only language that Arab savages understand.

http://cleveland.indymedia.org/news/2009/06/40911.php

Shmarya is more content making a ruckus about Friedman who he probably has it in for personally than the savage Arabs who are much worse than anything Friedman says.

[face]

Robert, he doesn't blame the Arabs for his everlasting bochur status. It's Chabad's fault.

[Paul Freedman]

YP: who knows, the author of this blog may in the fullness of time not only be an erstwhile Chabadnik but an erstwhile critic.

Well, when Moshiach comes....

[David]

It's really easy to be a coward and wirte inflammatory and racist statements behind a pseudonym.

Why don't you tell us who you really are, or are you too much of a coward?

[justayid]

I wont generalize about Chabadniks, I wont generalize about Arabs. Call me an old fashioned liberal, I prefer to judge people as individuals.

Anyone who disagrees, has a goyish kopf.

[Robert W. Welch Jr.]

You're right, David. It is easy to be an anonymous coward. Especially when some Muslim might mow you down with machine gun fire for speaking your mind like that Black guy did yesterday to two US soldiers in Little Rock, Arkansas.

And actually, many Muslims wouldn't hesitate to snuff you and Shmarya out either, despite your bleeding heart Liberal sympathy for them.

[ben Avraham]

Friedman's attitude is exactly the reason why one can posit that Zionism has destroyed and is destroying Judaism. Jews don't behave like that. The worship of the so-called Jewish state is the new getchka in the beis-hamikdosh. Neturei Karta is right.

[Robert W. Welch Jr.]

The wackos of the world really do unite here. First the anti-religious fanatics, then the Elokist from Boston, then Joachim Martillo (also from Boston), now a Neturei Karta supporter.

[Robert W. Welch Jr.]

And a word to ben Yishmoel-ben Avraham,

the Arabs fired plenty of murderous first volleys over the millenia.

The Wall Street Journal has even made the convincing case that they cannot behave like civilized members of society and should remain under perpetual colonialism.

[ben Avraham]

Be memshala shel kofrim, ain anu maaminim, etc.

[justayid]

"And actually, many Muslims wouldn't hesitate to snuff you and Shmarya out either, despite your bleeding heart Liberal sympathy for them."

I have no sympathy FOR THOSE MUSLIMS who want to snuff me. Zero. Zippo. I distinguish between those muslims and others who are indifferent to me. Kol v'chomer, I have a respect for those druze and bedu muslims who serve in the IDF.

ben avraham - these chabad guys arent really zionists, have we forgotten that?

[Robert W. Welch Jr.]

Ben Yishmoel-ben Avraham,

are you really Neturei Karta or just a stinking Arab who knows some Ivrit?

[Fred]

I'm a bit of a misogynist.Maybe.But I've always disliked the "rabbis" who teach impressionable women.They get away with teaching shallow, touchy feely crappola because women are used to deferring to "beards" especially the long ones.
Why is everybody calling this guy "rabbi"?
Rabbi, my ass!

[Fred]

Isa,
Do me a favor and stop defending Kahane.
Kahane was a nut and this Friedenstein is just copying him.
Ever read the book Hail Kahane.You should

[Yochanan Lavie]

RWW: The Neturei Karta are Kapos who hope the Islamofacists will kill them last if they genuflect enough.

Kahane had some good points, such as defending elderly Jews in marginal neighborhoods. But he became a racist later on, in my opinion.

Defending yourself against terrorists is not the same as becoming one yourself by slaughtering kids, as the non-Zionist Chabadnik Manis proposes.

Frankly, "die oylam iz a golem." If it was possible to move to another planet, I'd be there at warp speed.

Not that anyone asked.

[Isa]

FRED!!

Since I ran a Kach outfit for two years I got every dirt book I could on Rav Kahane
So I would not get blind sided by something or the other.
Rav Kahane greatest faults was he was not a pragmatist but rather tried to push through stuff as if he had 40% of the Knesset.
NOW the people that came after him were divided in two groups Kahane Chai was just plain old nuts.
Too much infighting too! made me sick!

[Fred]

Isa
I want to tell you that I've read your comments on this website for the last couple of years and though I did not follow them closely they always appeared to reasonable, that's why I got thrown for a loop when I saw you were a follower of Kahane.
I'm sorry that I don't share your feelings for him.To me the the mere fact that the Lubab are such fans of his is the best proof of how his views would be unacceptable to rational people .
Though the Lubab are very media savvy and know how to make p.c comments, they are Kahanes biggest fans and the most fanatical right wing zealots.This Friedmans comments are par for the course for the Lubab.I guess he just forgot that this was not Kfar Chabad magazine or another internal voice piece

[Robert W. Welch Jr.]

"If it was possible to move to another planet, I'd be there at warp speed."

Now you sound like the blue character played by Billy Crudup.

(Dr. Manhattan in Watchmen)

[Isa]

FRED!!

Rav Kahane sent a letter out to Arabs, giving them three choices.
Remain in Israel with full rights EXCEPT for the right to vote.
Accept compensation and leave
Or be forced out.
I obtained this letter, one side Arabic the other Hebrew and I had both translated to compare.
It was a respectful letter telling the Arabs that if they stay and accept the no vote they will get rights of employment and religion and other things- you will have to excuse me it was ~20 years ago-I cannot remember other stuff.
If you want to call Kahane a racist fine, but he certainly was no nazi like that Freedman character that wants to kill peaceful Arabs in masse.
I am no bleeding heart commie either. If the Arab makes war -kill them. If the mosque is a weapons store house- blow it.
But to advocate nazi style extermination-one DOES become the nazi

[mordecai]

Keep dancing Friedman, keep dancing

[Isa]

FRED!

The Arabs 'complimented' Kahane
By calling him a 'Honest Zionist' or 'Honest Thief'
The Arabs say the rest of the Zionists just lie whereas Kahane will say the truth.

Kahane had something to say and took open questions from the audience. I would have loved to see someone of stature debate him and cut him up- but nobody ever did.
Do not even think that I supported 100% of what Kahane had to say but he made you think which I thought was necessary. I got burned out after two years and someone else took over.

[Paul Freedman]

Isa--if you are deprived of the vote you imo don't have much of an assurance of anything from the people who wrote the letter if they change their mind about options 1 and 2 and decide wtf, let's go to door number three. In legal terms you are stateless. I saw the man twice, once in Israel in 72 and once at a local shul in the early 80's. First time he was engaging. The second time he seemed burned out.

[Isa]

Paul Freeman
There was this Library of Congress study that we got a hold of (circa 1970s) that said in effect that Israel (67 borders) would eventually gain an Arab majority a little bit past 2020.
Of course there is NO practical way to really push the Arab out like what happened in 1948(Arabs WERE pushed out in 48 by point of bayonet and others decided to flee)

This happened to Lebanon
In the 1930s Christians were a majority NOW they are 40% (if at that) and live like 2nd class citizens.

Open up the conversion gates. Make it easy. Main requirements: Sincerity and no old beliefs .

[Shoshanna]

The Chabad bashing on the Tikun Olam website (see link below) is prejudice, ignorant, and hateful. A Chabad Rabbi makes a statment that you lefties don’t like and your immediate knee jerk reaction is to call Chabad a bunch of monsters. Tell me Tikun Olam crowd, how is this tolerance? Tell me lefties, how does your labelling of your fellow G-d fearing Torah observing Jews as ‘monsters’ make the world a better place? And exactly what have you guys done to make this world better anyway? All you seem to do is whine, try to prove yourselves as somehow morally superior to all who do not share your far left views, and Jew bash. Meanhwile, Chabad has literally thousands of tireless dedicated souls who work day in and day out on a grass roots level helping people, all kinds of people, Jew and non-Jew alike. Chabad lifts people spiritually and gives concrete help to people materiallly every single day in every remote corner of the globe, one person at a time regardless of their political beliefs or religious stance. No one can ever deny this, it is a fact that Chabad spreads goodness and kindenss throughout the world. Chabad would never label any of you as ‘monsters’, no matter what evil things you may say or do. And do you know why? Because we care, we have love in our hearts, even for those with whom we disagree. Chabad is a shining light in a dark world, spreading the wisdom and light of our holy heritage and there is not a single group within Judaism today that comes close to the self sacrifice of thousands of Chabad Jews who live not for themselves but, soley for others. This is a fact

http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2009/06/02/chabad-and-the-monsters-among-us/

[MisterApikoros]

You must have been waterboarded in Chareidi Kool-Aid. Too bad.