Jerusalem – Rabbi Dov Lior, one of the most senior arbiters of Jewish law in the national-religious sector, gave a ruling that it is permitted to violate Shabbat in order to assist terror suspects who will be questioned by the Shin Bet internal security service.
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Lior gave his ruling orally to an official from the Honenu organization, which gives legal representation to right-wing Jewish nationalist police suspects, after Aysha Ravi a Palestinian mother of nine was killed on Friday, October 12 by rocks apparently hurled from the roadside while travelling with her husband in their car near the Tapuah junction in the West Bank.
Far-right Jewish nationalists are suspected of responsibility for the attack in which Ravi died as a result of the injuries she sustained.
On the same Friday on which Ravi was killed, right wing activists in the settlement of Yitzhar became aware of heavy activity by law enforcement officials, including from the Shin Bet, in the nearby settlement of Rehelim and close to the Pri Haaretz yeshiva there.
The five suspects in Ravi’s death arrested on Sunday, Dec. 31 and this past Saturday, Jan. 5, are all enrolled as students at the Pri Haaretz yeshiva.
The activists in Yitzhar decided to drive to Rehelim on Shabbat morning after consulting with a rabbinical figure in the settlement, in order to tell the suspects how to respond and deal with the Shin Bet interrogation.
Travelling on Shabbat and driving a car involve violations of several strict Jewish laws pertaining to the Sabbath and is not permitted by Jewish law under almost any circumstances, unless someone’s life is in danger.
Following their actions, an official from Honenu spoke with Lior and asked whether or not his actions had been commensurate with Jewish law, bearing in mind his claim that the Shin Bet uses harsh interrogation techniques.
Lior ruled that the activists had been correct to violate Shabbat to warn the suspects due to the harsh conditions of incarceration and the danger that they could lose their mind in the interrogation.
“In my humble opinion, in accordance with what I was told that one of the boys tried to kill himself after the suffering he experienced, meaning that the conditions are not reasonable and appropriate for a democratic state, the boys [who drove on Shabbat to Rehelim] who came to encourage and give strength to the lads can be thought to have saved them,” ruled Lior.
“We have a principle that if someone is being taken to be destroyed [mentally] then it is possible to violate Shabbat for them, despite it not being a physical problem but rather a psychological one. Here too, there is a problem that these boys are likely to lose their minds as has happened [in the past], so certainly there is a principle to save them and strengthen them for these reasons.”
Rabbi Yehoshua Schmidt, dean of the Nahalat Yosef Yeshiva in the Shavei Shomron settlement has publicly backed Lior’s position.
According to Honenu, one of the activists who made the journey said that because of past reports of Shin Bet practices, “we understood that the right preparation and support for the youths for this situation [questioning] could actually save lives.”
How is it that with regards to their dealings with Arabs the Shinbet’s tactics are lauded and defended and yet when they deal with Jews they are essentially accused of psychological retzichah.
Also astounding is that these accusations and its corresponding psak is being issued by Mizrachi Rabbonim. One would almost expect such type of accusations against the internal security arm of the Israeli government to come from Satmar or the like.
Supporting right-wing Jewish nationalist is like supporting ISIS.
These religious Jewish right wingers care zero about Jewish lives.
They are going in the footsteps of Meir Kahane who supposedly cared about Jews.But in reality he was a Jewish terrorist. Who did anything to incite non-Jews toward Jews so Jews will be forced to go to Israel.
These religious Jewish right wingers took upon themselves a made up mitzvah as if you must die for land. A bunch of crazies who have no mercy on their own children. Living in these dangerous settlements is like living in a zoo between animals.
Archy, the esteemed and distinguished scholar in residence, on this site, tries to brainwash everyone, that the individuals who threw rocks at a car, and killed a Mother of nine, were “troubled Israeli youths”. In reality, they are low class scum. They are no different than the rock throwers in Mea Shearim, who throw rocks at Israelis, whom they perceive to be too secular. In that regard, they are identical to the Taliban, and the religious police in Saudi Arabia. A rock being hurled through the air, at another human being, is just as deadly as a bullet. The authorities should show no mercy to those trash, who pretend to be religious. I don’t care about there motivations. You do the crime, and hence, you will do the time!
Why are the Arab Muderers and terrorists let out on exchanges after 3 years whilre these children rot in Jail. It is reverse racism!! If they did a crime they should be incarcerated just like the arab youth who throws a stone not a second longer
i (hope) believe that in this case the INTENT was to damage the car and never to maim or kill unlike the arabs who do this all the time
this is a (i hope) sad case of youthful exuberance that is not common among the Jewish people
BUT
are you prepared to call every arab who just throws rocks at vehicles of any kind or at people on the street an attempted murderer
because in this medina arab rock throwers are treated like innocent kids blowing off steam with little to no prosecution
To #7 - What does it matter what their intent was or not, as the end result is the same, as the woman (a Mother of nine) is dead. Is her life worth less, because she was not a Jew? She was driving in her car, with her family, when she was killed. If a group of robbers go to a convenience store, and stick it up, and one of them kills a customer, it is not a defense for the other robbers (who never fired their guns) to state “Well, I didn’t know he was going to shoot”, or for the getaway driver to state “I was just driiving the car; I had nothing to do with the shooting”. Incidentally, don’t insult us with your phrase “youthful exuberance”. The last time I heard that was when George W. Bush (#43), was running for President in 2000. He used that idiotic phrase to excuse the bad behavior which he participated in, when he was younger.