Too Many Lamms, Not Enough Lions

Gary Cooperberg
April 5, 2005

Arutz Sheva published a report of a panel discussion held at Yeshiva University concerning the halachic aspects of the intended giveaway of Jewish Land to the PLO. Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, Chancellor of the university, propounded the halachic view that the law of the land must be obeyed, even if we disagree with it. Thus he, and his esteemed associates, clearly stated that halacha requires police and soldiers to follow orders to throw Jews out of their homes, and that the evacuees themselves must comply with their expulsion.

Rabbi Lamm explained that rabbis are not qualified to make military or political decisions, and thus his position was based purely on halacha. He mentioned that King Solomon gave Jewish land to Hiram as a reward for his help in supplying materials to build the Temple. Thus a King has the right to give away Jewish land as he wishes.

While Rabbi Lamm may well have good intentions, and while he made a noble effort to find Jewish sources to justify his opinion, clearly he is mistaken. Even were Ariel Sharon King of Israel (and maybe he even thinks that he is), that does not give him the right to give away Jewish Land to our enemies. Hiram was not an enemy of the Jewish people, and it was wrong to even give him Jewish land. One needn’t be a military expert nor a political insider to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that retreating from an enemy who seeks your destruction, who is currently attacking your civilian population, and who has not surrendered to you, will not improve the security of the country. On the contrary. We have clear evidence from military and political leaders that surrendering Gaza to the PLO will endanger Israel.

While it certainly is true that we must obey the law of the Land, that mitzvah is not an absolute, above all other mitzvot. There are times when the law of the Land contravenes Torah Law and even democracy. This dastardly expulsion plan was not made in a democratic fashion. It was arbitrarily concocted by our prime minister, in contravention of the will of his own party and the platform upon which he was elected. It was railroaded through the government and the Knesset by firing ministers and bribing others. Were Rabbi Lamm a little more sensitive to the real issues we are facing here he would not have made some of the snide comments which implied that Jews who live in Judea Samaria and Gaza are defying their own government by making the mitzvah to settle the Land more important than life itself. First of all it was the government of Israel who encouraged Jews to live in these areas. Second, it is a mitzvah to fight to keep the Land which is already under our possession. Thirdly whatever danger might exist by virtue of the fact that Jews live in Gaza, is infinitely less than the danger which will face the entire country were they not living there.

Like it or not we are, indeed, in a state of war with the PLO. No general, in the history of warfare, ever waged a war by submitting to a less powerful enemy. One needn’t be a rabbi nor a general to know, without a doubt, that the only way to deal with the likes of the PLO is to completely destroy them. That is a halachic opinion which would take courage for any rabbi to issue, but it is Jewish Law.