YESHIVAT HAR ETZION VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH PROJECT(VBM)
**************************************************************

           YHE-ABOUT: UPDATES AND SPECIAL MAILINGS

       ON THE ASSASSINATION OF PRIME MINISTER RABIN Z"L 



	On Monday, November 6, Harav Yehuda Amital shlit"a, the 
Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion, addressed the Beit 
Midrash, in response to the tragic murder of Yitzchak Rabin 
z"l, Prime Minister of Israel.  Following his address, the 
entire Yeshiva boarded buses in order to attend the funeral in 
Jerusalem.

	Rav Amital began by stressing the importance of the 
Yeshiva students attending the funeral, even though the actual 
ceremony was closed to the general public.  He then proceeded 
to quote from the Book of Samuel.  "When Avner ben Ner was 
murdered by Yoav (II Samuel 3:33), King David intoned, 'Should 
Avner have died the death of a churl?  Your hands were not 
bound, your feet were not put in fetters; but you fell as one 
falls before treacherous men....You will know that a prince, 
and a great man has fallen this day in Israel.'  We today are 
stunned and shattered, depressed, disgraced and shamed, pained 
and sorrowed, by the abominable murder of the Prime Minister 
of the State of Israel, in this, reishit tzemichat 
ge'ulateinu, the dawn of our redemption."
	Rav Amital then cited the Ramban, commenting on the 
commandment to appoint a king, who states that whomever the 
Jewish people choose is the choice of God.  If God had not 
approved, the election would not have succeeded.  This 
horrible act, directed against the kingdom of Israel, is also 
an assault on the kingdom of God.  It is an assault on the 
entire people of Israel, not only because of the act itself, 
but because one man cannot say:  I will decide for everyone, I 
have the right to assault the anointed of God, chosen by the 
people, a man who dedicated his entire life to the Jewish 
people.  How many merits he had!  Even if one disagreed with 
all his policies, the role the Prime Minister played in the 
Six Day War alone is sufficient to atone for anything else he 
might have done.  Our sages tell us even a sinful idolater 
cannot be put to death unless the highest judicial authorities 
condemn him - and now, along comes an individual who decides 
that he is the Sanhedrin.
	Aside from this, we are obligated to rend our garments 
over the desecration of God's name.  Have we become like 
Sodom, do we resemble Gomorrah?  The Jewish people, who taught 
the world absolute morality, beginning with the prohibition on 
murder; the Jewish state, the only democracy in the Middle 
East, a nation founded on the vision of redemption - now 
resembles some Third World banana republic.  This obligates us 
in keri'a (tearing), if not in rending our clothes, then in 
rending our hearts.  What has happened to us?
	Rav Menachem Zemba zt"l, commenting on the argument in 
Agudat Israel sixty years ago concerning the partition plan, 
stated that the continued suffering of the Jews in the world 
constitutes a desecration of God's name.  The State of Israel, 
the refuge of all Jews, represents the sanctification of God's 
name after the Holocaust.  And now, Rav Amital continued, I 
tremble - for God does not forgive the desecration of His 
name.  There is a double chillul Hashem (desecration of God's 
name), when one who claims to be a ben Torah, who sees himself 
as serving God, is capable of this deed.  This is Torah?  This 
is Torah education!?  What a terrible chillul Hashem!!  Anyone 
who is not shocked lacks even an iota of yir'at shamayim (fear 
of God); he has no idea of what is the honor of God.
	On the national level, I don't know who is responsible, 
Right or Left, for using more inflammatory language.  But on 
our level, in the Beit Midrash, measuring with a Torah 
standard, I know.  When a man is found dead in the field, the 
Torah requires the elders of the neighboring city to state:  
Our hands have not spilled the blood (Deuteronomy 21:1-9).  
The sages explain that their declaration of innocence means 
that they did not send off the victim without provisions and 
without escort.  Rashi elaborates: perhaps he left the town 
without food, and, out of hunger and desperation, attacked 
another man and was killed.  This possibility, far-fetched as 
it seems, will preclude the elders from declaring their 
innocence if they did not provide him with food when he left.  
This is the Torah measure of culpability!  Those who spoke of 
the "reign of iniquity" ("memshelet zadon"), who called the 
government a "Judenrat," who questioned the legitimacy of the 
government, who publicly issued the ruling concerning 
disobeying orders in the army - are they less culpable than 
the elders who failed to provide a traveler with provisions?  
Is the connection more far-fetched?  Can they truly say "Our 
hands have not spilled this blood?"  
	And as for the title  "traitor" which they constantly 
shouted at Rabin - why did they think he was a traitor?  For 
money?  To save himself?  Or because he had a different 
opinion, because, looking ten years ahead, he feared for the 
future?  Is there here less responsibility for what happened  
than in the case mentioned in the gemara?  After the Goldstein 
massacre, how many rabbis condemned it outright, without 
hemming and hawing?  Don't you see the connection between that 
and the current tragic events?  Rav Amital then cited a 
midrash:  "You shall love the Lord your God - be loved by 
others, distance yourself from sin and from theft, even from 
an idolater, for one who steals from an idolater will 
eventually steal from a Jew, and one who lies to an idolater 
will eventually lie to a Jew, and one who sheds the blood of 
an idolater will eventually shed the blood of a Jew; for the 
Torah was given only to sanctify His great name in the 
nations."
	On an educational level, I think this tragic event also 
reveals something frightening. A law student, an educated 
person, thought that by killing Rabin he would solve all of 
Israel's problems!?  What primitivity, what shallowness, what 
a lack of thought!  In our schools and youth movements, have 
we educated so shallow a generation, where slogans have 
replaced critical thought?
	Where do people get the idea that they have to ask a 
rabbi about whether to say "ve-ten tal u-matar," but regarding 
issues which affect all of Israel, they can decide for 
themselves?  And the small rabbis who speak of the need to use 
force - would they dare to issue rulings about the laws of 
Shabbat or aguna?  I am gravely worried by this entire 
ideology of force.  And I am even more worried about the 
dangers posed by people who believe in "sinning for the sake 
of Heaven." Reb Yerucham, the mashgiach of Mir, said that the 
verse "...pen yifteh levavchem, ve-sartem va-avadtem elohim 
acherim" teaches us that the evil impulse can persuade us 
("yifteh") that even idolatry is permissible - and even more 
so, it is a mitzva!  And so too with murder, adultery, and all 
other sins.  We are not inoculated against this danger, which 
lurks especially in the ideology of force, and is doubly 
dangerous when people begin to speak in the name of God.
	Turning to the future, Rav Amital expressed guarded 
optimism.  "I have a feeling," he said, "that extremism on 
both sides will lessen.  We can continue, even while 
disagreeing, to find the will and the strength to build the 
State of Israel, for this is the will of God.  Despite our 
differences of opinion, we still have much to unite us.  I 
believe that God will continue to guide us from afar, with all 
the mistakes we are likely to commit."  He then recounted the 
statement of Rav Herzog zt"l, that we are assured that the 
Third Jewish Commonwealth will not fall.
	We must fight against hatred, Rav Amital continued.  
After the murder, we hear many people quoting Rav Kook zt"l, 
who said that just as the Second Temple was destroyed because 
of sin'at chinam (baseless hatred), so will the Third Temple 
be built because of ahavat chinam (baseless or 
undiscriminating love).  But why call it ahavat chinam?  Are 
there not many others, yes even among the non-religious, who 
deserve our love?  There are many dedicated members of our 
society: members of the security services who vigilantly 
protect us, boys who give three years to the army, doctors who 
work for meager wages rather than seek their fortunes 
overseas, and many others.  If someone does not share our 
religious commitment, it does not mean he has no values, and 
it does not mean that he has no just claim to our love.
	The real battle is over the Jewishness of the State.  
That is where we must concentrate.  Abba Kovner, the poet and 
socialist leader, once proposed to me to join him in spreading 
some Yiddishkeit among Israeli youth - I would contribute the 
Torah, he the literature.  One year before his death, he said 
to me, "We've lost a generation; as far as Judaism is 
concerned, they won't listen even to me anymore.  They 
associate Judaism only with militancy."  In the battle for the 
Jewish soul of the nation, we have received a stab in the 
back.  Now we have to prove that "derakheha darkhei noam" 
([the Torah's] ways are ways of pleasantness).  We must 
constantly remember that every action, every appearance, can 
be a kiddush Hashem (sanctification of God's name).  "We will 
increase unity and avoid hatred; we will find the ways to see 
the positive aspects of every Jew; we will pray to God that he 
will protect us and purify our hearts from hatred, envy, and 
slander; and we will continue to build this great undertaking 
which is the work of the hands of God - the return to Zion - 
until we witness the coming of the redeemer, speedily in our 
days, Amen."

**************************************************************

To subscribe send e-mail to: majordomo@etzion.org.il: subject:(leave 
blank or type word 'subscription'), on first line of text 
type: subscribe yhe-holiday  

For a complete list of YHE Virtual Beit Midrash curriculum, 
send e-mail to: majordomo@etzion.org.il:, on first line of text type: 
get yhe-about courses .

**************************************************************
Copyright (c) 1995 Yeshivat Har Etzion.  All rights reserved.
*****************************************************

                         **********

SHIURIM MAY BE DEDICATED TO VARIOUS OCCASIONS - YAHRZEITS, 
SEMACHOT, BIRTHDAYS, ETC.  PLEASE E-MAIL YHE@JER1.CO.IL FOR AN 
APPLICATION AND A LIST OF OPPORTUNITIES.


                        YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
                   VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH
             ALON SHEVUT, GUSH ETZION 90433
       E-MAIL: YHE@JER1.CO.IL or OFFICE@ETZION.ORG.IL