Editorial: What inspires Jewish violence?

How do individuals appearing committed to Torah learning and tradition, find justification to firebomb a private residence in New Square, smash bookstore windows in Jerusalem, and vandalize a girls’ yeshiva in Ramat Beit Shemesh? In a recent Ami Magazine interview, former Edah HaCharedit spokesman Rabbi Shmuel Pappenheim, described these zealots as inspired by Pinchas, the biblical hero who massacred a Jewish prince for having an affair with a gentile woman. The sages praised his act, in restoring honor to the nation.

But these days, honor killings are more likely to appear among isolated Pashtun tribes in Waziristan rather than the heart of Jerusalem. Likewise, the Torah allows for numerous other harsh punishments, and brings down numerous plagues, famines, sieges, and natural disasters on the sinful. Throughout the centuries, Torah scholars understood that these punishments came not from human hands, but from a Creator who outlined in detail the principle of middah k’neged middah.

In the absence of prophets, the sages codified the Oral Law, which takes a merciful direction. Sanhedrin 41a states that the death penalty was taken away from Jewish courts by the Romans, and without a Sanhedrin, rabbinic courts lack the authority to impose capital punishment. Likewise, the written order for parents to execute a rebellious son is tempered in Sanhedrin 71a, “There never was, nor will there ever be, a child who meets all of the legal qualifications of the ‘wayward and rebellious son.’” If you are looking to exterminate the remnant of Amalek, Berakhot 28a states that the clear identities of descendants of ancient biblical nations have been lost over time.

Considering the leniencies prescribed in the oral tradition against violence, where do the modern-day zealots find their justification? Less than an hour from Meah Shearim, Arab neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem have secured their de facto independence through years of successful rioting. The Israeli police do not dare enter these areas. In exchange for tire burning, rock throwing, carjacking, kidnapping, bus bombings, and massacres, the Palestinian Arabs have secured an Olympic team, an observer status at the United Nations, a police force, an internet domain, and other trappings of statehood, all with the implicit consent of Israel.

Feeling ignored by the state, the extremist minority that was outvoted in a democracy, they burn trash bins, vandalize mosques with “price tags,” smash windows of modern Orthodox businesses, force women to cover up, sit in the back of buses, and banish them from public life. They curse, impose, intimidate and traumatize. In short, they witnessed the rise of Hamas as it developed from a small cell of zealots into the government of Gaza. Soon enough, entire sections of Israel could become autonomous areas ruled by the modern-day Sicarii. It is clear that for Jewish vigilantes, the Palestinians are their leading inspiration. Lost in their zeal are the words of Yirmeyahu. “Do not go in the way of the nations.”