Neturei Karta: No Mitzvah To Save Shalit

Gilad Shalit isn't Orthodox, doesn't keep Shabbos, no reason to call saving him a mitzvah.

Netueri Karta compares attempts to save Shalit to dancing around a the golden calf.

Neturei Karta: Returning Shalit not a commandment
Letter sent to mailing list of activists of radical group asserts, 'Gilad does not keep mitzvoth. According to his statements on video, he eats in non-kosher restaurants. Shabbat must not be violated in order to save his life.' Haredi headquarters in response: This is ingratitude towards someone who dedicates his life to Israel. Rabbi Eliashiv ruled he must be rescued
Kobi Nahshoni • Ynet

"The mitzvah of redeeming prisoners does not apply to captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit because he does not keep the mitzvoth and observe the Torah," claimed members of the extremist haredi group Neturei Karta in Israel. According to them, this is "a simple halachic truth" that the central stream of haredi Judaism is trying to hide, but that "this is the Torah and it will not be changed."

A letter titled "The truth must be told" sent to the community's mailing list by one of its most prominent activists claimed: "Gilad Shalit, who does not observe the Torah and the commandments – and the recent video informed us where he eats (at restaurants in the Galilee under Druze sector Badatz kosher certification), and that he even publicly violates the Sabbath and does not lay phylacteries, is not at all 'your brother.' There is no obligation to redeem him or to rescue him according to Jewish law. Shabbat must not be violated in the case of saving his life.
"Unfortunately, around the national calf called Gilad Shalit, everyone blindly dances. It does not occur to them that, with all the pain and sorrow and 'the baby taken prisoner', there is halacha (Jewish law) first and foremost," wrote the author.

"Until this day, we have yet to hear this simple halchic truth from any 'haredi speaker' on duty, but this is the simple truth, and the truth, as you know, cannot be changed."

The Neturei Karta letter explained that this does not mean that Shalit should not be rescued at all because there is a chance that he will become religious. However, "if Gilad is released in order to continue violating the Sabbath, eating in Druze restaurants, and not laying tefillin, etc., then there is no mitzvah here, and certainly not the mitzvah of redeeming prisoners," claimed the letter.
'Returning Gilad one of most important mitzvahs'

Association of Friends of the Sons of Torah for Gilad Shalit said in response that this generation's decisor (posek hador) Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv ruled unequivocally that the mitzvah – one of the most important in the Torah – applies to Gilad Shalit in Gaza.

"It was so clear to him, as it was to other rabbis from all the denominations that we contacted, that he didn't even get into a halachic deliberation on the issue. A Jewish soldier who has dedicated his life for the entire nation of Israel is observing one of the biggest mitzvoth. It is outrageous ingratitude to claim that there is no obligation to redeem him."

The members mentioned that "Rabbi Eliashiv, who is the unchallenged leader of the haredi public, is unbiased to any side," and implied that Neturei Karta is afflicted by foreign considerations.
The haredi association of Shalit affairs published announcements in haredi newspapers before the holidays calling upon the haredi population to increase Torah study, acts of loving kindness, prayers, and supplications for Gilad Shalit "until our outcries reach He who resides in the heights and will take him out of captivity to freedom, from darkness to light." 

Under the title "Responsible for one another also on the Day of Judgment," it was written: "At the start of the awesome and great Day of Judgment, we come to ask our brothers, all of the House of Israel, for captured soldier Gilad son of Aviva Shalit who has been in cruel captivity for more than three years immediate mercy.

"This generation's great and enlightened have already pronounced the magnitude of the obligation on each and every person to pray for him, because it is an issue of saving life and redeeming captives."

Comments

[reuven sabel]

after having been tortured inan arab prison gilad shalit has probably done teshuva and must be rescued

[Rachel]

Who cares what Neturei Karta think?

[R]

they make me sick. They should all be deported off to Iran.

[Pablo Faird]

Why do you give the Neturei Karta space on this website. It grants them the legitimacy they seek. Everyone knows that they are a group of nutcases. I have yet to find a meah shearim yerushalmi yid who does not support the release of Shalit.

[effie]

Pretty bad that NK is so desperate for attention that it acts like complete and utter assholes to get it.

[steve]

It is not only the NK attitude, but the attitude of many "frum" Jews. They truly believe that Sholom M. Rubashkin and Avrohom Mondrowitz are Pidyon Shvuyim candidates, while Gilad Shalit is not. It is because SMR and Mondrowitz wear beards and Gilad is clean shaven. The lesson is that you can commit any crime(s), blue collar or white collar, as long as you belong to this club, you will be protected. This attitude will not change any time in the near future, unfortunately. The only way to combat it is to relentlessly blog about it and take these idiots to task. Similarly, they will continue to protect the child molesters and argue that they should remain teaching in yeshivos. How much longer must we tolerate the fact that Avrohom Reichman is still teaching at UTA Satmar? How much longer are we going to allow Dovid Niederman to put these pure and innocent Jewish children at great risk? These reshaim continue to spew their venemous hate for the State of Israel, which provided a safe haven for millions of Jews, including their rebbe. Why do we have to continue to tolerate their crap? If you tell me that we need to tolerate them in the name of Ahavas Yisroel, then where is their Ahavas Yisroel? Their Ahavas Yisroel is targeted towards the criminals and child molesters. Their allies are Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Vito Lopez and the Catholic Church.

[danny]

I'm currently writing this from my hotel room in Krakow, Poland. I visited Auschwitz today with my family.

When I think about how brazenly they can compare Hadassah Hospital Physicians to Mengele, my blood boils. They are reaching at the very bottom of the barrel, and should be shunned and condemned.

I know that Judaism does not have any equivalent to excommunication, but there should be something to separate these fanatics from the rest of us.

[Shmarya]

Judaism has excommunication. That's what happened to Spinoza. (Me, too.)

[BaltimoreYid]

And you shall not stand by while your brother's blood is shed. These people are plain evil pure and simple.

[Shmarya]

Shalit is not their "brother," because they say he is not an "amasecha" because he isn't Orthodox.

[chabad of MDR]

the sad thing is if one of the NK nut jobs were kidnapped on their visit to gaza or iran many frum yidden would help them, using the logic that they probably did teshuvah. many would say that they got what they deserved but some yidden with maybe too much ruchmooones will help them out

hows that for ironic?

[rabbidw]

Who cares what they think? They do not vote, so their opinion does not matter. Aren't we lucky? BTW if they were ever taken captive my attitude would be nothing happens unless God wants it to happen so who am I to interfere with God's plans.

[soso]

Yeah. They are so busy doing "pidyon shevuyim" for people like STrulowics, Rubashkin, the starving mom, that they have no time left for shalit.

[Levi G]

Heres a link to hyepark, where rabbi hirsh of neturai karta denies these remarks and attributes them to a lonely young man
He then goes on to state that he personally tried to help free shalit

http://www.bhol.co.il/news_read.asp?id=12846&cat_id=1

[Hotspur]

My heart breaks for this innocent young man who is held in cruel captivity. May God punish people who would ignore his plight.

[reuven sabel]

stop calling yenta markowitz THE STARVING MOM. she was trying to feed her son chaim solid food the whole time that her son chaim was at hadassah hospital but the doctors, nurses, and staff of hadassah hospital would not let her feed her son because some evil zionist nazi gestapo doctormengala at hadassah hospital got the idea that her son chaim should be starved because he believed that haredi children dont deserve to eat, and this evil zionist nazi gestapo doctormengala got all the other doctors, nurses, and staff of hadassah hospital to believe that chaim markowitz was too sick to eat and gave doctors orders that chaim markowitz is not allowed to eat. instead this doctormengala gave chaim markowitz chemotherapy when he didnt even have cancer.
this evil zionist nazi gestapo doctormengala is a rodef and according to jewish law he is to be killed. even firing him from hadassah hospital is not good enough because he could still do the same thing to another child if he is still able to practice medicine. even making it impossible for him to practice medicine would not be good enough because if he hates jewish children so much that he wants to see them die of starvation, he doesnt have to be a doctor to accomplish that.
elior chen was able to convince yisroel wallis to kill his son and convince an unnamed mother to cause her child to ecome brain dead.both elior chen and this yet to be identified doctormengala are rodfim and both of them need to be killed.

[reuven sabel]

people from neturei karta are not harmed when they visit gaza or iran because they visit gaza and iran to tell the arabs that the real jews are anti-zionist and that zionism and zionists are against judaism.

[Mr. Apikoros]

Reuven:

I won't call the appropriately-named Yenta Markowitz the "Starving Mom." It's obvious from the pictures of her that she's not starving.

Instead, I'll call her the wicked witch who tried to starve her son. How's that?

[reuven sabel]

there is a lubavicher who is trying to get yisroel dovid weiss from neturei karta to speak at his chabad house and yisroel dovid weiss is too busy with other speaking engagements to go to this chabad house to speak. i suggested to this lubavitcher that if he cant get yisroel dovid weiss to come to speak at his chabad house he should instead ask chaim tzvi freiman ish yerushalayim to speak at his chabad house. this lubavitcher said that nobody would come to hear chaim tzvi freiman ish yerushalayim speak because people dont hate him like they hate yisroel dovid weiss because chaim tzvi freiman ish yerushalayim didnt have the guts to go to achmejinidad like yisroel dovid weiss did.
i then told this lubavitcher that i would give an anti-zionist speech at his chabad house and this lubavitcher told me that nobody would listen to my speech because i didnt have the guts to go to achmejinidad. when i gave my preannounced antizionist speech at this chabad house very few people stayed after havdala to hear my anti-zionist shalosh seudos torah.

[nachos]

Judaism has excommunication. That's what happened to Spinoza. (Me, too.)

Posted by: Shmarya | October 19, 2009 at 03:42 PM

Can someone volunteer to be excommunicated!!

[reuven sabel]

shmarya, as far as i am concerned you are not excommunicated and i seriously doubt if anybody ever formally excommunicated you. just because you got kicked out of a chabad house does not mean that you are excommunicated. you are like trotsky who became a communist because he got kicked out of yeshiva decause his father didnt have money to pay the tuition. you and nachos have chosen to excommunicate yourselves.

[reuven sabel]

yenta markowitz is not a wicked witch and she did not try to starve her son. she should be awarded a nobel prize for being the best mother in the world.

[reuven sabel]

not all hadassah hospital doctors are doctormengalas. as far as i know there is only one doctormengala in hadassah hospital and he is a rodef and should be killed together with together with elior chen.

[Isa]

HUSH! HUSH!
Don't you all realize that NK are in fact Mossad/CIA agents who can go anywhere and pick up and/or deliver small 'packages'.
ONe of them was trying to see the prisoner and in his heel is a GPS/transmitter so Mossad can figure where the location is at.

The dumb Arabs fell for Elie Cohen and they are are falling for this deception

[ML]

Reuven, how many times are you going to advocate the murder of another human being on this particular thread?

[Shmarya]

not all hadassah hospital doctors are doctormengalas. as far as i know there is only one doctormengala in hadassah hospital and he is a rodef and should be killed together with together with elior chen.

We don't allow that type of talk here, Reuven.

Behave or I'll ban you.

[Isa]

To Mossad רב סרן (רס"ן Rav seren (Rasan) [Major] Reuvan Sabel:

Please cool it, yes I know you have to keep up appearances but the blog master will get mad at you and cut you off.

Isa

[reuven sabel]

you will probably falsely accuse me of being a zionist if i say what i am about to say but i dont care if you call me a zionist because i have no plans to visit arab countries. you are allready accusing me of being a mosad agent.
nowadays we have governments to decide when to sentence a person to capital punishment and there is no need for vigilantes to murder rodfim. i believe that both the ultra-religious so called rabbi elior chen and the ultra-secular doctormengala at hadassah hospital who gave doctors orders that chaim markowitz is not to be fed any food and then made up a story blaming his starvation on his mother are both rodfim and should both be killed but in today's world the method of killing a rodef is not for whatever vigilante who believes that somebody is a rodef should murder the person who he believes to be a rodef. nowadays criminals are arrested and tried in a court of law and sentenced to the capital punishment of death if the court sees fit to sentence the criminal to death.
now the bombshell for which you will accuse me for being a zionist. the only courts with juristriction to try and sentence elior chen and hadassah's doctor mengala are zionist government courts and until israel joins the european union this is the way that it unfortunatey is.

[reuven sabel]

until israel joins the european union this is the way it unfortunately is.

[Al]

when will the Israeli government:

- take away voting rights from these people
- stop collecting garbasr from their neighborhoods
- stop providing security and emergency services

Let neturei karta see what it would be like for the state they deny not to be there on their behalf.

[יעקוב]

Our Abba in heaven created all humans... Gilad is our brother, just as much as any rabbi or Hasid... And unfortunately, even the evil Arabs behind this kidnapping are our brothers, too. But there is hope for everybody... I know this as I was not originally observant, but became so just 2 1/2 years ago. I am now 23. Some people may take their whole life, but they need that life to be able to change. Any human that is suffering, Jew or gentile, has my prayers and sympathy. Our God is a God of shalom and ahavah, and We must all serve him by living out these characteristics!

בשם אבינו שבשמים , יהי שלום ! אמן

[reuven sabel]

there are only 2 possible ways to achieve world peace. one is that moshiach should come and short of moshiach coming the only way that world peace can be achieved is that all the nations of the world must join the european union including both israel and palestine.

[reuven sabel]

gilad shalit's life must be saved. the only jews whose life i would not save are the doctormengalas who purposely single out haredim to be the victims of their experimental medical malpractice and the phony so-called rabbi elior chen who tells parents to grossly abuse their children to the point that their children get killed from extremely gross child abuse.
if elior chen is not executed because israeli law does not allow for the death penalty in his case, elior chen should be sentenced to several terms of life inprisonment without the possibility of parole and he should be sentenced to solitary confinement with no visitors or phone calls or any communication with the outside world allowed so that he should never again have the opportunity to tell anybody to abuse their precious children. all child abuse in the haredi community is the fault of elior chen and elior chen has given haredim a very bad reputation being for being child abusers. dont let him claim mental illness either. he belongs in solitary confinement whether or not he is mentally ill

[nobody]

"is that all the nations of the world must join the european union including both israel and "

Where are you getting this stuff from, dude? Do you care for mental patients at an institute and then make comments here based on what they ramble about? Because the whole European Union business is rather bizarre.

[reuven sabel]

THERE WILL NEVER BE PEACE IN THE WORLD AS LONG AS THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD ARE DIVIDED UP INTO DIFFERENT NATION INSTEAD OF UNITED AS ONE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION

[reuven sabel]

the european union is a historic phenominon of messianic proportions in that many nations who used to be at war with each other are now at peace with each other and all nations that join the european union stop fighting wars with other and learn to live with other in peace. if both israel and palestine would join the european union they would be at peace with each other instead of fighting wars with each other

[reuven sabel]

the thought of peace is a very bizarre allegedly psychotic thought in a world or a country used to war