A. The Rabbis’ halachic ruling was made after careful deliberation on all aspects of the issue. It was given in response to questions asked by soldiers and civilians from all sectors of society. The Rabbis have a moral obligation to respond to every halachic-religious question which they are asked. The question which deals with the evacuation of territory is first and foremost a religious issue.
Therefore we reject out of hand any attempt to silence the Rabbis with irrelevant arguments.
B. All aspects of our lives are determined according to the torah. It is clear to every Jew that religious observance is above any directive or law that contradicts Torah law. It is inconceivable that a ruling by the Rabbis forbidding Shabbat desecration should be considered as sowing disunity in the I.D.F. and an incitement to disobey and order. This ruling, referring to the evacuation of army settlements and the army bases protecting them, is no different. And it is unthinkable that an act forbidden by Halacha shall be made permissible because of a military order of one kind or another.
C. In every debate between the majority and minority, the majority decides. However, in decisions which contradict Halacha, there is no force in the world which the majority can muster against the minority to compel it to act against Halacha.
D. The Halachic ruling is based on decisions of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate for over twenty years, that have forbidden evacuating parts of the Land of Israel and handing them over to non-Jews. Moreover, abandoning the land endangers many Jewish lives. Therefore such an act contradicts halacha and one must avoid taking part in such activity.
E. The Israeli Defense Forces is precious and important to all of us. It is a people’s army and we educate our students to serve in it. The I.D.F. is what its name says. Its role is to defend the land of Israel and to safeguard the lives of the people, not to carry out activity which has the opposite objective and endangers Jews. In addition to the Halachic ruling that it is forbidden to evacuate parts of the Land of Israel, at least half of the population is against this agreement, opinion is split down the middle, and among army officers there are also differences of opinion. Everyone is commanded to safeguard the unity of the Israeli Army, and it is immoral to place soldiers in a position where they are forced into conflict between their loyalty to religious values and their loyalty to military orders. We hope that the army leadership will continue as in the past to allow soldiers to act according to the dictates of their religious conscience.
F. We call upon the government and its leader to prevent a split within the nation and the I.D.F.
As we have read in the weekly parsha of Balak: If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of God to do either good or bad of my own mind; But what the Lord says, that will I speak.”
The secretariat of Ichud HaRabbanim.
IN RESPONSE TO INQUIRIES ABOUT EVACUATING PARTS OF THE LAND OF ISRAEL
Pursuant to Halachic rulings given on earlier occasions by the Council of the Chief Rabbinate and other rabbis on the prohibition against evacuating parts of the Land of Israel, such as Judea, Samaria, Gaza, and the Golan, we have been asked if it is permissible to take part in and to assist in the evacuation of an army base or military installation in an area inhabited by Arabs in the Land of Israel.
A. We decree that there is a Torah prohibition against the evacuation of army bases for the purpose of handing the area over to non-Jews, since this entails abrogating a positive commandment as well as risking lives while posing a threat to the existence of the State of Israel.
B. It is a simple fact that in the area held and controlled by the I.D.F. the commandment to settle the Land of Israel which includes, as the Ramban writes, the commandment “to conquer it and not to abandon it to any of the nations of the world” is being fulfilled. The areas abandoned by the I.D.F. fall under the yoke of the non- Jews and this is an arrogation of a positive commandment. In addition, at present I.D.F. withdrawal poses a danger to Jewish lives as well as a threat to the existence of the State of Israel and this is forbidden by the commandment “Do not stand idly by when your neighbor is being threatened.”
C. A permanent army camp is itself a Jewish settlement to all intents and purposes, and uprooting and abandoning it to non-Jews is the equivalent of uprooting a Jewish settlement from the Land of Israel, forbidden by Torah law.
D. Therefore, in response to the question, it is clear that a Jew is forbidden to take part in any act of assisting in the uprooting of a settlement camp, or installation, since as ruled in the Rambam (Laws of Kings, c. 3) even if the king himself gives an order to violate Torah law, he must not be obeyed.
E. The Army has never put its soldiers in a position where they were forced to act against the dictates of their religious of national conscience. we call upon the government and the army leadership not to be forced to act against the dictates of their religious or national conscience. We call upon the government and the army leadership not to force its soldiers into a position where they must struggle between their loyalty to the the values on which they were raised and military orders.
F. WE CALL UPON THE GOVERNMENT AND ITS LEADER NOT TO SPLIT THE NATION AND THE ARMY, BUT RATHER TO STRENGTHEN THE UNITY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL AT THIS DIFFICULT HOUR.
Please send any comments to
Rabbi A. Shapiro
P.O. Box 5010 Jerusalem
Israel
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