Rabbinic Text Or Call To Terror?

Extremist rabbis? Or an extremist Chabad-influenced movement?

Rabbinic Text or Call to Terror?

By Daniel Estrin • Forward

JERUSALEM — The marble-patterned, hardcover book embossed with gold Hebrew letters looks like any other religious commentary you’d find in an Orthodox Judaica bookstore — but reads like a rabbinic instruction manual outlining acceptable scenarios for killing non-Jewish babies, children and adults.

“The prohibition ‘Thou Shalt Not Murder’” applies only “to a Jew who kills a Jew,” write Rabbis Yitzhak Shapira and Yosef Elitzur of the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar. Non-Jews are “uncompassionate by nature” and attacks on them “curb their evil inclination,” while babies and children of Israel’s enemies may be killed since “it is clear that they will grow to harm us.”

“The King’s Torah (Torat Hamelech), Part One: Laws of Life and Death between Israel and the Nations,” a 230-page compendium of Halacha, or Jewish religious law, published by the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva in Yitzhar, garnered a front-page exposé in the Israeli tabloid Ma’ariv, which called it the stuff of “Jewish terror.”

Now, the yeshiva is in the news again, with a January 18 raid on Yitzhar by more than 100 Israeli security officials who forcibly entered Od Yosef Chai and arrested 10 Jewish settlers. The Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security agency, suspects five of those arrested were involved in the torching and vandalizing of a Palestinian mosque last month in the neighboring Palestinian village of Yasuf. The arson provoked an international outcry and condemnation by Israeli religious figures, including Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, who visited the village to personally voice his regret.

Yet, both Metzger and his Sephardic counterpart, Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, have declined to comment on the book, which debuted in November, while other prominent rabbis have endorsed it — among them, the son of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Sephardic Jewry’s preeminent leader. Also, despite the precedent set by previous Israeli attorneys general in the last decade and a half to file criminal charges against settler rabbis who publish commentaries supporting violence against non-Jews, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz has so far remained mum about “The King’s Torah.”

“Sometimes the public arena deals with the phenomenon and things become settled by themselves,” Justice Ministry spokesman Moshe Cohen told the Forward.

A coalition of religious Zionist groups, the “Twelfth of Heshvan,”—– named after the Hebrew date of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, has asked Israel’s Supreme Court to order Mazuz to confiscate the books and arrest its authors.

“You open the book, and you feel that you read a halachic book. And it’s a trap,” said Gadi Gvaryahu, a religious Jewish educator who heads the coalition. It was, in fact, “a guidebook [on] how to kill,” he charged.

Family members who answered phone calls placed to the homes of both authors said they did not wish to comment.

In 2008, author Shapira was suspected of involvement in a crude rocket attack directed at a Palestinian village. Israeli police investigated but made no arrests.

Co-author Elitzur wrote an article in a religious bulletin a month after the book’s release saying that “the Jews will win with violence against the Arabs.”

In 2003, the head of the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva, Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, was charged by then-Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein with incitement to racism for authoring a book calling Arabs a “cancer.”

In 2006-2007, the Israeli Ministry of Education gave about a quarter of a million dollars to the yeshiva, and in 2007-2008 the yeshiva received about $28,000 from the American nonprofit Central Fund of Israel.

“The King’s Torah” reflects a fringe viewpoint held by a minority of rabbis in the West Bank, said Avinoam Rosenak, a Hebrew University professor specializing in settler theology. Asher Cohen, a Bar Ilan University political science professor, thought its influence would be “zero” because it appeals only to extreme ideologues.

But the book’s wide dissemination and the enthusiastic endorsements of prominent rabbis have spotlighted what might have otherwise remained an isolated commentary.

At the entrance to Moriah, a large Jewish bookstore steps from the Western Wall, copies of “The King’s Torah” were displayed with children’s books and other halachic commentaries. The store manager, who identified himself only as Motti, said the tome has sold “excellently.”

Other stores carrying the book include Robinson Books, a well-known, mostly secular bookshop in a hip Tel Aviv shopping district; Pomeranz Bookseller, a major Jewish book emporium near the Ben Yehuda mall in downtown Jerusalem; and Felhendler, a Judaica store on the main artery of secular Rehovot, home of the Weizmann Institute.

The yeshiva declined to comment on publication statistics. But Itzik, a Tel Aviv-area book distributor hired by the yeshiva who declined to give his last name because of the book’s nature, said the yeshiva had sold 1,000 copies to individuals and bookstores countrywide. He said an additional 1,000 copies were now being printed.

Mendy Feldheim, owner of Feldheim Publishers, Israel’s largest Judaica publishing house, said he considered this a “nice” sales figure for a tome of rabbinic Halacha in Israel. He said his own company, which owns 200 bookstores nationwide, is not distributing “The King’s Torah” because the book’s publishers did not approach the company.

Prominent religious figures wrote letters of endorsement that preface the book. Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, son of former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, blessed the authors and wrote that many “disciples of Torah are unfamiliar with these laws.” The elder Yosef has not commented on his son’s statement.

Dov Lior, chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba and a respected figure among many mainstream religious Zionists, noted that the book is “very relevant especially in this time.”

Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg, one of the country’s most respected rabbinic commentators, initially endorsed the book, but rescinded his approval a month after its release, saying that the book includes statements that “have no place in human intelligence.”

A handful of settler rabbis echoed Goldberg’s censure, including Shlomo Aviner, chief rabbi of Beit El and head of Yeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim, who said he had “no patience” to read the book, and spoke out against it to his students.

Previously, Israel has arrested settler rabbis who publish commentaries supporting the killing of non-Jews. In addition to Ginsburgh, the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva head, in 1994, the government jailed Rabbi Ido Elba of Hebron for writing a 26-page article proclaiming it a “mitzva to kill every non-Jew from the nation that is fighting the Jew, even women and children.”

“The atmosphere has changed,” said Yair Sheleg, senior researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute, who specializes in issues of religion and state. Previous governments took a tougher stance against such publications, he said, but “paradoxically, because the tension between the general settler population and the Israeli judicial system…is high now, the attorney general is careful not to heighten the tension.”

It is not uncommon for some settler rabbis, in the unique conditions of West Bank settlement life, to issue religious decrees, or psakim, that diverge from normative Jewish practice. In 2008, Avi Gisser, considered a moderate rabbi from the settlement of Ofra, ruled that Jews may violate Sabbath laws and hire non-Jews to build hilltop settlements. And In 2002, Yediot Aharanot reported that former Israeli Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu sanctioned Jewish harvesting of Palestinian-owned olive trees.

What's missing from this story?

Correct rabbinic affiliations.

Ginsburg, Shapira, and Yaakov Yosef are all Chabad-affiliated, and Elitzur may be, as well. Dov Lior is from a Chabad family.

Yaakov Yosef is considered to be his father's black sheep, and was estranged from Rabbi Ovadia Yosef for several years.

At the root of this racist, fascist theology is Chabad's fundamental text, the Tanya, written by the first Chabad rebbe in the late 1700s, which states:

מה שאין כן נפשות אומות העולם הן משאר קליפות טמאות שאין בהן טוב כלל

The souls of the nations of the world, however, emanate from the other, unclean kelipot which contain no good whatever

כמו שכתוב בע׳ חיים שער מ״ט פרק ג׳: וכל טיבו דעבדין האומות לגרמייהו עבדין

as is written in Etz Chayim, Portal 49, ch. 3, that all the good that the nations do, is done out of selfish motives.

Since their nefesh [soul] emanates from kelipot [husks] which contain no good, it follows that any good done by them is for selfish motives.

וכדאיתא בגמרא על פסוק: וחסד לאומים חטאת — שכל צדקה וחסד שאומות העולם עושין אינן אלא להתייהר כו׳

So the Gemara comments on the verse, “The kindness of the nations is sin” — that all the charity and kindness done by the nations of the world is only for their self-glorification ––Tanya, end of chapter 1

Now why don't Jewish newspapers report this? 

Comments

[Rob Wisler]

Mr. Hitler himself couldn't have produced a better text on genocide. I can now throw out my copy of Mein Kampf! There's a new revised edition!

[alternative childcare]

Avinoam Rosenack is a wonderful human being and an authority, so if he says this is very fringe then it certainly is. That small element puts out many such things, and Ginzburg has been insane for the last thirty years. However, it only takes one person to commit murder, so this is less of a theological issue than it is a police issue. Anyone who has this book on their shelf, and certainly anyone who contributed to the text, much like the infamous volume on the Hevron murderer, should be on a surveillance list.

[INFORMED]

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!
IDIOT ORTHODOX JEW BRINGS PLANE TO EMERGENCY LANDING BY PUTTING ON TEFFILIN!!!!!!!
A USAIR JET MADE AN EMERGENCY LANDING IN PHILADELPHIA AFTER AN ORTHODOX JEW STRAPPED TEFFILIN ON WHILE IN THE AIR. PASSENGERS MISTOOK IT FOR A BOMB
THE PLANE LANDED AND WAS BEING INSPECTED.

DON'T THESE IDIOT ORTHODOX KNOW BETTER

[Althelion]

This is a great illustration of why I gave up accepting rabbinic interpretation of halacha and most things about Judaism in general.

If you think these current rabbi's viewpoints are wacked out, consider rabbis of hundreds of years ago. Those guys based their interpretations on an incredibly limited understanding of nature, science, humanity, etc.

Maimonides was the greatest doctor of his time. Who would you rather have treat you today: Maimonides or a mediocre MD circa 2010?

These fanatical rabbis have a Book of Joshua understanding of life and death and war. Remember Manis friedman's quotes.

There are no rabbis. we are all rabbis.

[Successful Messiah]

Scotty, why is it that you bought into this texed for a very significant portion of your adult life?

[shneerhere]

Don't worry, you can't really learn how to kill from a book.

[Harold F]

To paraphrase General Sherman: "The only good non-Jew is a dead non-Jew."

[For the love of my fellow Jew]

You don't have to like what it says in Talmud Zohar Kisvei Arizal and other Kabbalah seforim but its true. Did you ever hear about the censors? They forced the Jews to take out parts of the Talmud because they didn't like how it spoke about non Jews and Christianity. If anyone is a student of history they understand the evil non Jews are capable of. It doesn't matter what country we were in we were butchered and the streets were flooded with Jewish blood. There was only rape, torture mutilations hangings and beheadings and blood libels for Jews. Many tens of millions of Jews were slaughtered throughout history with the full approval of the Church and the citizens. In fact the citizens were spectators and they cheered when there were public beheadings of Jews. They get off on that kind of stuff. There were only small pockets of a few years here and there in various countries throughout history where Jews actually lived in relative peace and harmony. Face it, the Holocaust happened not so long ago in Germany the enlightened "refined" Germany. They were the cruelest people on Earth and it can happen again anywhere. These non Jews are hard wired for anti Semitism. Read comments on blogs forums news sites and youtube videos we are HATED HATED HATED. Don't fool yourself that your non Jewish neighbor likes you. They "tolerate" you.

[OMG]

For the love of my fellow Jew
I would be the last one to argue that the Church was benevolent vis-à-vis the Jewish population, but let me point out that the church and protestant were equally killing each other as much as they killed Jews, killing Jews was more of a business deal for the church, the money always flowed into their coffers. Additionally here in the US and Canada Jews were never prosecuted as they did in Europe, but you fail to mention that. That said to legalize killing of none Jews is ridicules and should be dealt in very harsh manner and without mercy, this is the seedling of Jewish extremisms, we Jews need to eliminate this view from our people.

[Althelion]

For the love of my fellow Jew

So I guess all of us yiddin are stuck in a time warp until Big Mo (Moshiach) comes around. Things can never get better for us. Even when it appears that the goyim are treating us ok, they're really not. The goyim are just setting us up with a false sense of security. Then, once we gullible Jews trust them enough, those evil goyim (idolators) will line us up to get on train.

You wanna live with that bunker mentality, zei gezunt. Close the door tight in your ghetto at night.

I'm not gonna.

[Harold F]

For the love of my fellow Jew: Why don't we wage a preventive war against non-Jews?

[For the love of my fellow Jew]

OMG
Protestant didn't show up on the scene until the 1500s. Before then and since then Jews have always been the scapegoats. Thank G-d there's democracy in the US and Canada I don't know where Jews would be without that!!! Yes there are checks in place to make sure that we won't have a repeat of Nazi Germany but I guarfantee you if the conditions are ripe for it it can happen again. Think if the economy completely tanked and unemployment hit 30-40 percent what do you think would happen? I don't want to go there because its too frightening. Just remember as long as things are good the non Jews will tolerate us.
I agree with you regarding Jewish extremism though. This can't be condoned in any way. It must be crushed I don't care if thwy have to arrest the whole yeshivah and shut down the whole settlement of Yitzhar. Its not the Jewish way to be extreme and call for the deaths of non Jews. Obviously Israel is in a war and its up to the IDF to handle it. We can't accept vigilantism under any circumstances. We aren't terrorists let's not borrow the Arabs tactics.

[soso]

I once talked to one of these Kiryat Arba folks. And he really told me that it is allowed (or even a Mitzwah) to "kill Goyim".

Ginsburg was the one who wrote a book in praise of the murderer Baruch Goldstein, "Baruch hagever"...

What is interesting that this same Itzhak Ginsburg has missionary activities towards "Bney noach" with his organisation "Gal Einai"
http://www.inner.org/nonjews/intro.htm
http://www.inner.org/responsa/leter2/resp86.htm

[Althelion]

"For the love of my fellow Jew: Why don't we wage a preventive war against non-Jews?"

Great idea, Harold.

And when the goyim try to resist or protect themselves, we'll accuse them of anti-semitism.

[sage]

G-d forbid, if this abominable attitude takes hold in Big Chabad in general, the US Government would not be in error, if it lists Big Chabad as a terrorist organization, among all of the others.

[Y. Aharon]

I wouldn't attribute the hateful screed in question to a Chabad attitude going back to its origins. It's one thing to disparage Gentiles and their alleged motives. It's another to justify murder. Rather, it is an indication of the extreme positions taken by those infected with a messianic fervor, be it in Chabad or the religious zionist camp. All those who oppose the fulfillment of their messianic program are deemed evil and even worthy of death. Those who teach such vicious nonsense should be prosecuted and shunned. Their yeshiva should be closed down before some of those idiots commit murder. They represent a danger to both Arab and Jew - dare we forget the Rabin assassination.

[harold]

outlining acceptable scenarios for killing non-Jewish babies, children and adults

Something is missing here. Could anyone list some of the "acceptable scenarios ". It is fishy that what appears to be absurd should get endorsements from some rabbis.

This is something along the line of someone saying that the torah condones murder without stating the scenario, i.e. killing in self defense.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the scenarios are probably talking about collateral deaths in times of war.

Note the wording "outlining acceptable scenarios for killing non-Jewish babies, children and adults" as opposed to "outlining acceptable scenarios for killing non-Jews". This is done to bring forth as much anti-Semitic feelings as possible. I am surprised that they did not include women in the list.

I am uncomfortable about a book about the permissibility of killing, but in Jewish tradition, all actions must be scrutinized from a halachic point of view, even the issue of collateral deaths in war. I am therefore not surprised that a book would come out that examines the issue (assuming that it does). However, if the book says something like that one may kill non-Jews for target practice after one finished learning shas that I would call for its burning.

I would imagine that analysis of non-Jews vs Jews would be one of halachic and practical simplification. i.e. first of all Jews don't usually kill other Jews in a war time environment (again assuming the books focus being collateral death or direct combat deaths) and I assume the rules of killing and punishment is probably different between Jew and non-Jew and would require a different halachic line of reasoning between the two and for practical expediency explores the non-Jew line.

Mind you I have not read his book and have no knowledge about its content except from this short blog post. I am simply trying to fill in the holes, of which I am sure there are many.

[For the love of my fellow Jew]

Althelion
Read up on the Holocaust. Jews were secularized they were prominent in all areas of social life they called Berlin their Jerusalem. Well guess what Hitler butchered these same secular Jews going back 4 generations. Explain that? Jews were Doctors Lawyers professors, professionals business men......Why should they be hated. They were clearly secular. They had zero connection to Judaism? Why? Ill tell you why because they hate us and they don't need a reason. Convince yourself that you are surrounded by Jew loving goyim but you live in a fantasy. Guess what you may never have heard it but non Jews use the term Jew in the most derogatory ways. Can be used as an insulting term for a person who is 1) stingy, 2) scheming, 3) fanatical, or 4) insists on using past injustices to justify special treatment.
The word Jew is very much a part of todays slang. Face it they don't like us.

[For the love of my fellow Jew]

For those who have a tendency to take people out of context and to see what isn't there I previously responded to OMG that extremeism and violence is deplorable and can't be tolerated. We have the IDF to defend us and we have no right to take matters into our own hands. If we commit acts of terror then they have won.

[alternative childcare]

harold, if you lived in yesha at any time in your life, you'd know how off your "fills" are. Ever read "Baruch Hagever"? I'm a religious guy, oleh, etc, and I can tell you, this stuff is frequently out there, and if the Bet El folks are condemning it, there's no reason to take the religious reflexive defensive position.

[harold]

harold, if you lived in yesha at any time in your life, you'd know how off your "fills" are

Well I did not. Like I said I could be wrong, and from what you said, I am. So be it. The statement about the permissibility of killing non-jewish childen was so absurd I was trying to find a scenario where that statement would not be so absurd.

[Althelion]

For the love of my fellow Jew

How many times have you seen "Shoah" and "Shindler's List?"

Stop obsessing!

The Jews in Germany then, like most Americans before 9/11,couldn't even concieve of what was about to happen to them. Now we can. Now we know.

[For the love of my fellow Jew]

Althelion,
I'm not obsessing. However I have 2 grandparents who thank G-d survived that hell. They told me plenty and its not something we should ever as a nation "get over" and forget about. You see how there are so many deniers already 65 years later. If we don't keep the memory alive then it will be completely forgotten.

[For the love of my fellow Jew]

Another thing about remembering the Holocaust, it reminds us to rise above and be better. That's why Israel and Jewish organizations in general have made such a strong impact in Haiti. We are a humanitarian selfless people. We aren't like the nations of the world.

[Someone]

YEah, this doesn't help the 'protocols of the elders of zion' charges .

[Shlomo]

The book sounds very much like it could have been published in quite a few Arab countrie with some names interchanged. The authors and endorsers need to be reminded that they sound like fanatical moslem extremists.
Shmarya,
You should be aware that mainstream Chabad probably all of American Chabad would be very much against this. The Rebbe was very committed to good relations to non jews especially when you consider that he started the novel idea of pushing the Noahide laws to non jews. In this he was deviating from the 18th Century Tanya written in Czarist Russia but without explicitly saying so (just like he ended up deviating from the very strong Anti-Zionist views of his predecessors without saying so)

[confused]

Out of pure perverse curiosity, has anyone read the book? Is it an instruction manual, like those “how to be a hitman” manuals (*) floating around the web? Or is it an attempt at turning halacha into a pretzel to justify what some extreme so called rabbi’s position?

I guess ill have to wait for the artscroll version.

(*) http://www.amazon.com/Hit-Man-Technical-Independent-Contractors/dp/0873642767

[OMG]

For the love of my fellow Jew;
Let me point out to you that I used the word Church which is indicative of the Roman Catholic Church, and you are right about the Protestants, Martin Luther broke away in 1520 but before that 1400’s the church wasn’t involved with the wholesale killing of Jews and definitely not in the tens of millions as you described, the Spanish Inquisition was a product of the later part of the 15th century, as to your prognostication what could happen in the states, I will not entertain your prophecy, it is irrelevant I just pointed out that you didn’t use a caveat when you wrote the in the first post,

“It doesn't matter what country we were in we were butchered and the streets were flooded with Jewish blood”

So far US and Canada are the exception

[A. Nuran]

For the Love of My Fellow Jew, the only difference between you and the Nazis is that your symbol is blue and white while theirs is red, black and white. The abominable logic is exactly the same - "They are racially inferior. They are not human. Killing them is service to the Race. Sparing them is Race Treason."

I'm not Godwinning out here. Your attitude and rationalizations are exactly like those of the German National Socialist Party or the Aryan Nations down to the rhetorical flourishes. If that is Real Torah Judaism(tm), then I have to look into signing up with the Sufis, the Christians or the Buddhists for the sake of my immortal soul as quickly as possible.

[For the love of my fellow Jew]

LA. Nuran.
Its presumptuous of you to twist peoples words around and attribute to them things they never said.
The Nazis YS"V were racists and believed in the superiorioty of their race to the degree that lower races like Jews gypsys...had to be wiped off the map. However no man or group has the right to be racist and to perpetrate a genocide!

There is a concept of elitism in Judaism too however it plays out drastically differently. We believe as said in the Torah that G-d took us out of Egypt to be a nation unto Him. We G-d's chosen nation (the Christians amongst others agree) The fact is that G-d created this world bishvil Yisrael shenikra Reishis (the world was created because of the nation of Israel which are called first) this is in one of the first Rashis in Bereishis.

The fact is we were chosen by G-d to receive the Torah and to be his nation. When Moshiach comes we will rule the world and all nations will recognize the G-d of Israel and be subservient to Him and to His nation. Unlike the Nazis we WON'T be killing anyone except who ever gets killed during the great war of Gog and Magog in which the Moshiach ben Yosef will fight in.

Some Jews can't handle being the chosen and special. I guess it puts too much pressure on them or they just like having low self esteem and being second fiddle or whatever. You might know about that better than I do. The main thing is we were chosen by G-D only He has the right to make one person or nation better than another. If you have the time get an Artscroll Chumash Rashi and learn through it. You will get a much better understanding than what I can convey here.

[Nobody]

Wasn't Rav Dov Lior a talmid of Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook ZT"L ? Or am I mistaken? If so, (and even if not so) it's silly to try to paint him Chabad. He's not a chabad rabbi. Although he is a great rabbi.

[Nobody]

I find it ridiculous that Rabbi Aviner trashes the book without having read it. How does he know what's in it to know if he disagrees or not, if he hasn't read it? This is just a stupid rehashed story designed for soundbites and innuendos.

OBVIOUSLY the rabbi is speaking about warfare, and collateral damage, when he mentions women and children of the enemy side. That was the same problem when the book was first published and shmarya posted the article on here about it. They twisted it out of context and pretended as if some rabbi had "advocated" killing children, chas ve shalom. I'm sure he did not. But I doubt the authors of these articles or the interviewers or the bloggers bothered to read them. Otherwise bloggers could have in depth posts critiquing the material in the book itself instead of citing 2-bit journalism with paraphrased quasi-references that are ever so spooky and scary, let's hide in the closet because the boogeyman is coming.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

"You should be aware that mainstream Chabad probably all of American Chabad would be very much against this."
sez a shlomo
no sir, that's not true, stop throwing sand in peoples eyes, shame on you and your leaders. see abraham hecht, manis friedman pronouncements and hey some of you know how to keep quiet, but watch their faces twitching when they hear things they don't like. is now manis friedman no longer mainstream? what is mainstream anyway? those why deceive better? why don't 'mainstream' chabad centres host ginzburg or kachniks as heroes when he/they comes visiting. stop lying!
"The Rebbe was very committed to good relations to non jews especially when you consider that he started the novel idea of pushing the Noahide laws to non jews."
adds that same shlomo,
the rebbe copyrighted deceipt. that's how he get education day, while calling catholics avi avos hatumo!
"In this he was deviating from the 18th Century Tanya written in Czarist Russia but without explicitly saying so (just like he ended up deviating from the very strong Anti-Zionist views of his predecessors without saying so)"
ooooooh ya! now you are permited to reject the tanya to enable yourselves to cheat better?

[yankele]

Shmarya,

Why don't you chime in here.

While I was in Chabad Yeshiva, I was troubled by the end of the first perek of tanya. So I asked two mashpi'im. The mashpiah who was a complete and total dickhead told me that I was troubled because I was Jewish and I couldn't help myself because as a Jew I was a "rachmon, a baishon, and a goimlei chesed" and so that's why I had a problem with the end of perek 1 of Tanya. But still, that is how it was. non-Jews had no souls, etc. only cared for themselves. He then proceeded to tell me the story of how when the Russians asked the ba'al haTanya to explain that part of Tanya, he looked at them and smiled.

I also asked another mashpiah, one who escaped the Holocaust, who had family killed in the Shoah, a man who had every "right" to be seething with anger at non-Jews. And he was the one who told me that the ba'al HaTanya is not referring to Chasidei Umos Ha'Olam and that I should not apply it to every one. (BTW: I am not a BT, and I have Chabad yichus.)

Over time, and as I left Chabad, I read and discovered that Chabad Chasidim have been troubled with this passage in the Tanya since the very beginning of the movement. Those who had hatred in their heart, those who lived under the thumb of a Poritz or an abusive czar, looked to the end of Tanya to justify their hatred or at least to make themselves feel better. Others changed the meaning of what the Ba'al HaTanya said to limit its application to a certain type of non-Jew.

In a sense the Talmud did the same thing with "Ve'ophavta le'rei-acha ka'mocha." In some places we see it being applied only to Jews and in other places, to all of mankind.

The funny thing is, that just like my mashpiah, it was Rabbi Akiva, a man who would be killed by the Romans, who makes it seem like it applies to all mankind.

[yankele]

Shmarya,

were your experiences within Chabad similar? or were you hanging out with the haters??

[Yosef ben Matitya]

yankele
with your yichus, you may notice that chabad people express themselves differently when speaking to anash or otherwise when they speak to plain foolish rachmonim jews. maybe because conditions are somewhat better for chabad -and jews in general- i think those who spread hatred have the upper hand. they do it discreetly among anash, yes including mainstreamers like manis friedman, while overtly, they behave 'dvash vecholov'.
and it's not only in the tanya. saint mamesh himself, in his moomors isn't any kinder than manis friedman. hey! doesn't anybody blush anymore?

[yankele]

Reb Yosef,

I don't recall any ma'amorim where the rebbe says anything to back up your claim.

If you were to say that his ongoing "halachah" that "esov soneh ess yaakov", then we are on the same page. Ma'amorim, however, I think you are making a mistake.

Having said that, the rebbe was a good politician/poker player. He kept his opinion to himself. He smiled at David Dinkins at the height of the crown Heights riots and told him that there were no two sides. He also seemed to get that warm tingly feeling, a la Chris matthews, about Ronald Reagan. (I remember going to a litvishe yeshiva at that time and being slapped in the face for parroting what I had heard at the Chabad shul I grew up in that Reagan was one of the Chasidei umos ha'olam. After slapping me in the face, my teacher sneered mockingly at me, "who said that, the Lubavitcher rebbe???")

As, for Chabad people, again, I think it boils down to the person. Just because you are soft-spoken (Manis) doesn't mean you are a nice guy.

[Stating my opinion]

Yankele
I am not Chabad nor have I learned Tanya, however I think that the 2nd opinion you bring is correct. I mean looking back at the Holocaust I heard many times how Jews friends and neighbors were the very ones who gleefully handed them over to the SS. In general I think there are some non Jews who are good but its mostly those who are religious and spend time discussing, learning and thinking about kindness and righteousness. However most people who have never had any religious training or never worked on themselves will be very low selfish people. I look around at the non Jewish society and its terrible what goes on. There was just a story where the police caught a drug suspect and arrested him and once handcuffed the 2 arresting officers beat the guy up while 2 seargents stood by and watched with an expression of business as usual nothing out of place going on here. This was caught on tape. Its just an example of what society is today. I really try to have respect for non Jews but its hard when you hear mature businessmen talk with the language that used to make sailors blush. Its just how it is. Non Jews for the most part live a low life.

[EDITED BY SITEOWNER: Stop using multiple aliases. Your original alias was For the love of my fellow Jew.] You ARE Chabad. And you're now BANNED.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

'Stating my opinion' claims that he isn't chabad nor learned tanya, to me however it looks like if he were to join chabad, he qualifies to be appointed mishne lemelech.

[Shlomo]

I also would like to back up Yankele Chabad doesn't really spread hate or negativity of any kind That may be an aspect of chasidic heritage from the Bal Shem Tov - they don't talk of punishment for wrongdoing. Israel because of its environment brings out extremes most people I know would describe an Israeli as abrasive and pushy for example. It seems to do this to Chabadniks as well hence this book.
The Rebbe was very into spreading education and ethics among non jews (there was a motion passed in the US parliament that he pushed. If you take Tanya literally that non Jews only do things for selfish reasons and have souls from Klipot that can't be elevated what would be the point of pushing the Noahide laws which until the Rebbe was hardly even mentioned let alone pushed

[yankele]

You may support me, but you may want to read what I wrote before you do.

The last time folks did that, they elected a nude model to the US senate and a do nothing with great oratory skills to the presidency.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

"what would be the point of pushing the Noahide laws which until the Rebbe was hardly even mentioned let alone pushed"

good question
i believe mamesh came up with promoting the noahide farce, in order to position himself as melech mashiach - with universal significance; as well as to deceive jews who don't see thru his scam into "sensing" him as a messianic sovereign with universal importance.

[Robert Wisler]

I agree 100% Yosef.

[Robert Wisler]

Shlomo at 10:06 PM,
The gentile world doesn't need Schneerson's "education"or "ethics" since anything that Schneerson's cult had to say was said in a superior and more ethical way by Christian, Muslim, or Buddhist teachings. Schneerson's "ethics" are well displayed by such characters as Cunin, Feller, etc. and the evil that they've perpetrated onto the world.

[Elliott]

for the love of my fellow Jew:

You are DAMN RIGHT about Youtube!

[Elliott]

For me, its permissible to kill a non-jew when its permissible to kill a Jew.

Scenario 1: A gentile wants to bodily harm you. Defend yourself

Scenario 2: Another Jew wants to bodily harm you. Defend Yourself!

[A E ANDERSON]

Sadly, it's hard -- morally -- to severely punish these hateful Jewish clerics for their writings when Israel periodically releases real Arab terrorists, not just writers, from their sentences in prisoner exchanges.

As to the anti-Gentile passages from Schneur Zalman's "Tanya," I have some thoughts:

1. The Tanya is regarded pretty much as a "heilige sefer" by the entire Orthodox world, even among many big snags.

2. In the pre-modern/early modern worldview, it was entirely normative to ascribe blanket characteristics to national, ethnic and religious groups.

3. At a time when Jews were blood libeled, massacred and otherwise persecuted and excluded from general society on terms of opprobrium equally if not more vituperative than the Tanya's, Schneer Zalman's extracts from Midrash, etc., seem rather sedate.

4. In the Pale of Settlement, the very epicentre of the Pogrom as we know it, it makes sense to describe pillaging, killing and raping goyim -- at times led and incited by the priests -- as lacking a Godly soul. How else can one reasonably describe a murderous cossack, an inquisiting priest, or the Jewish inkeeper's drunk peasant tenant who rapes his wife and daughters, forcing him to watch? The Jewish writers would have been morally justified in using far harsher language than the Tanya's.

5. Habad texts cannot be lifted from their origins in a very different society, in a very different time, when human relations were nasty and brutish, and human life was consequently shorter.

5. I have no doubt that these passages, and their misreadings, bothered Rebbe Schneerson. Because he foresaw that his universalist religious aspirations would eventually be impaled on these words, as this blog is attempting to do, I venture to say that Schneerson created and promoted his campaigns for Noachidism in (a so far failed) effort to make Habad universal rather than particular.

Of course, Noachidism didn't take hold because it was pretty much a curiousity, a boiled down rabbinic Judaism for non-Jews, who by the system's very existence are necessarily deemed second class appendages of True Judaism Triumphant.

[Chicago Sam]

The fact that so many Chabad and Haredi read the great biblical precept of "love your neighbor" as "Love your fellow JEW," helps creates the kind of bipolar religious attitude that so many religious fanatics today now possess, e.g., the hasidim of Yitzchak Ginzburg.

Yankela, I probably know you...where and when did you study in Chabad?

[Shmarya]

5. I have no doubt that these passages, and their misreadings, bothered Rebbe Schneerson. Because he foresaw that his universalist religious aspirations would eventually be impaled on these words, as this blog is attempting to do, I venture to say that Schneerson created and promoted his campaigns for Noachidism in (a so far failed) effort to make Habad universal rather than particular.

There is no evidence to support that.

Past that, the Rebbe clearly started his Noachide campaign for a reason – a reason he CLEARLY STATED: to prevent another Holocaust.

He believed that spreading the 7 mitzvot benei noach would prevent attacks on Jews.

His Noachide campaign wasn't to make Chabad universal – it was to make Jews safe from rampaging gentiles.

[Chicago Sam]

I think Schneersohn promoted Noahidism because of his undying hatred of Christianity, which he prayed would someday be eradicated.

[A. Nuran]

Presumptuous? Not at all. This nauseating screed is precisely the same philosophy as that of that of the NSDAP.

We are inherently superior and worthy simply because of the tribe we were born into.
Others are inherently inferior, subhuman and worthless because they are not us
Our lives have a transcendental worth
The lives of others are an affront to decency
It is a terrible crime to hurt us
It is a virtue to kill others
We are engaged in a constant war with the rest of the world for racial survival. Mercy to the Other is race-treason

I can't see any difference here. If these people really represent the true values of Judaism any decent human being should reject it with the same horror. At least, say, Islam allows as how infidels get a chance to repent and embrace that faith, and the brotherhood of Muslims is open to all.

Do you really want to put our religion in a position where it must take lessons in morals from bin Laden and the Ayatollahs?

[offthederech]

It saddens me that "For love of a fellow jew" is such a racist and a bigot. Oh, and for all his rhetoric about pogroms, he hasn't even once mentioned that Yiddishkeit and halacha have always viewed non-Jews as inferior and less important than Jews. Think "esav sonei es yaakov." The blame does not all rest with the goyim for butchering Jews (and it was less common than he likes to pretend) it also rests *partially* with the Jews for being difficult to get along with. There's more than enough blame to spread around, and he's focusing solely on his opponents.

It occurred to me that the only difference between Nazism and the views of some Jews is that the Jewish view is supported by Jewish literature, while Nazism was a political movement--not a religion. Which might explain why Nazism is for the most part dead, and Judaism is alive and well.

Reminds me of a Steven Weinberg quote: Without religion, good people would be good and bad people would be bad. But for for good people to do bad--that takes religion.