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Crime and punishment in Jewish law : essays and responsa / edited by Walter Jacob and Moshe Zemer
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86 Moshe Zemer

With regard to Yitzhak son of Rosa, known as Rabin, permission is given by the destroying angels to send a sword against that wicked man. The angels of destruction, who are the emissaries from below, have no permission to be merciful to him and forgive him for his sins. For this reason, let any good he may have done in this world be forgotten... so he may be killed because he misleads the holy nation and hands over the Land of Israel to our enemies...

There is no escaping the echo of this monstrous death sen­tence in the assassins declaration that it is an obligation to kill a Jew who hands over his people and land to the enemy. Is this similarity merely happenstance? Or is this one small tile from the mosaic of distorted halakhah that underlay this atrocious crime?

We may therefore conclude that the questionable attempts to give halakhic support to relativelyminor acts of violence such as stoning vehicles, wild demonstrations against archaeologists, and damaging the shops and homes of those who peacefully carry on their own way of life, can and have escalated into acts which have catastrophic results.

Israelis have been told to respect the feelings of pious Ortho­ dox Jews . Indeed there is much beauty and wisdom in our halakhic tradition, which has guided the people of Israel and kept them alive through the millennia. But when these words are twisted and distorted and lead to impious violent action, they can be very dangerous. All teachers of Torah should remember the stern warning of Abtalion, the teacher of Hillel and Shammai : Sages, give heed to your words, lest you incur the penalty of exile to a place of evil waters, and the disciples that come after you drink thereof and die, and the name of Heaven will be pro­faned(Mishnah Avot 1:11).