Racist Rabbi Should Be Fired From State Job

Rabbi Dov Lior, the state-funded chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba, should be fired for his refusal to follow the rule of law, and for his incitement against it.

Rabbi Dov Lior should be fired
Freedom of expression must be strictly maintained, but Rabbi Dov Lior should be dismissed from all his positions. Democracy is not supposed to employ fomenters of riots who are trying to crush it in the name of halakha.
Haaretz Editorial

The arrest of Rabbi Dov Lior two days ago is a controversial act that has aroused worrisome reactions. Those who favor freedom of expression will of course find it difficult to accept as self evident the arrest of a person, any person, for things that he said or wrote. An open and liberal democratic society is not tested by its support for speakers or writers of texts of which it approves, but by providing an opportunity to say harmful things, as infuriating and subversive as they may be, about it and even against it.

From the start, therefore, the investigation against Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, author of the inflammatory work "The King's Torah," which among other things preaches in favor of killing Arab infants - and the investigations against the rabbis who wrote their "endorsement," in other words a kind of halakhic seal, is proceeding on thin ice.

It may have been wiser for the police and the Shin Bet security services to decide to allow these inciters to continue to trade in their dubious merchandise, and at the same time to continue to keep tabs on the practical results of their words, using the methods permitted in a democracy. But from the moment that the police decided to summon Rabbi Dov Lior to an investigation, he should have reported, even if he is firmly opposed to doing so, and taken advantage of every legitimate way of protesting against the claims against him.

Rabbi Lior is a central figure among the religious right, the rabbi of a settlement (Kiryat Arba ) and the head of a hesder yeshiva (which combines Torah study and army service ), and is therefore obligated to be especially meticulous about observing the official rules and demonstrating exemplary civic behavior. But in spite of the fact that all the possible ways of protest are open to him, and the media are attentive to his every word, he preferred to wage another campaign of incitement against the law-enforcement authorities, which ignited a dangerous fire among his students and his admirers.

The battle being led by Lior against the state and its institutions is a consistent and continuing one. Just as he praised Baruch Goldstein after the massacre in the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron in 1994, and changed the wording of the Prayer for the Welfare of the State after the disengagement from Gaza, he is now inciting against the rule of law. Freedom of expression must be strictly maintained, but Rabbi Lior should be dismissed from all his positions. Democracy is not supposed to employ fomenters of riots who are trying to crush it in the name of halakha.

Comments

[A Yid]

From the start, therefore, the investigation against Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, author of the inflammatory work "The King's Torah," which among other things preaches in favor of killing Arab infants - and the investigations against the rabbis who wrote their "endorsement," in other words a kind of halakhic seal, is proceeding on thin ice.

A haskoma on a book doesn't always mean a "halahic seal".
Does anyone here have the text of R. /lior's haskoma on Torat haMelech and some of his haskomot on other seforim for that matter?

[A Yid]

B"H
The authors of the editorial contend that R. Lior should be dismissed from his job for essentially statements they feel are extreme and civil disobedience.
Can they produce a precedent for such dismissal?

[zev]

Is so, they have to fire every leftest professor who call for calls against the chareadim and right. Wehn Are they going to arrest arab sheiks who daily call for killing Jews?

[What kind of goyishe name is Harold z"l?]

Someone has to be fair and rational. Pray tell, how is he "worse" than any arab MK who calls and prays (read preys) for the destruction of Israel (read Jews) every day? I can almost hear Rav Meir Kahane ZT"L (the first "racist") screaming about the crazy land. I say we let them all loose at each other. May the best (read smartest) one win.

[Bassy the Haredi Slayer]

Professor Neve Gordon who calls for economic and academic boycott of Israel, call to Israeli soldiers to leave their post, call for the intentional starvation of Settlers and their families still get his paycheck from the state of Israel

[uncle joe mccarthy]

if he loses his job, then mk zoabi should lose hers...and every arab who is on the dole should be cut off

how is lior racist? for writing a letter supporting a book about a hypothetical war scenario?

silly

[Sam The Man]

It is a sad truth, that Orthodox Judaism shares an inner core of evil with groups like the KKK and the Taliban, and they must be taken head on and destroyed.

There must not be any ambiguity or mincing of words when confronting these people. If Jewish people allow these people to gain ground then the ultimate victims will be the Jewish people, just like it is ultimately the Muslim people who suffer the most from the acts of their fanatics.

There is also no point in trying to make peace with people who call for the killing of children. Their evil should be pointed out and destroyed, period. You don't argue with people like Rabbi Lior, you just highlight their beliefs. Placating them, like some tried to placate the Nazis, or like some are now placating the Muslim extremists, only delays the inevitable conflift.

Just like Muslim extremists cannot live side by side with democracy, neither can extreme Judaism.

Sad, but true. The extremists in the religous camp are gaining ground every day, and I am sad to say that we will likely see them do very bad things. The Taliban did not take over Afghanistan in one night ...

Peace.

[uncle joe mccarthy]

hey sam the man

the torah calls for the killing of children

amalek is to be wiped out...that includes the children

is the torah racist?

[Sam The Man]

To Uncle:

The answer is YES!!!

The Bible was not written by God, and was not inspired by God.

An enlightened reader of the Bible, who takes it with a pound of salt, the Bible does not have to be racist. So long as you can say that the evil things written in the bible are not to be followed, then you can take the remaining good stuff. But if it is to be taken without the salt, as the orthodox do, then it is a very racist book.

[Adam Neira]

The crucial point that everyone is missing is that if the State of Israel is not founded on divinely mandated principles and has now morphed into a polyglot stew of competing groups with no real interest in each other then how will it stand ? As Roy Rogers said "If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything !" What does that say about the nation if some people in positions of power at their essence believe that a child is born either with a Jewish soul or an inferior goyish soul ? I have researched all the Jewish sect's beliefs and am familiar with what is wrong and right with all of them. But sometimes you just have to wait until things come to a head before people will change. At July 2011 we have reached that point. If the builder's ideas are rotten to the core the house will collapse in a termite infested heap unless repairs are done quickly. A nation, community or family has to work out how best to allocate it's budget. The promise of Judaism throughout the ages was that the wisest and most righteous would be secured, i.e. The Sanhedrin, Kohen Gadol and the King. The question now all the Jews should be asking is who should we pay to be our leaders ?