JERUSALEM (VINnews) — The outgoing Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, spoke during his class at the Yazdim synagogue in Jerusalem about his response to a rabbi who wrote a halachic treatise against the proposed deal to release hostages held in Gaza.
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Rabbi Yosef began by speaking about the atrocities committed by the Hamas terrorist organization. “We have seen all these things, what terrible cruelty, how barbaric these Hamas people are, we saw how they kill, such terrible things. I didn’t just say that we should release as many as possible in order to get the hostages out.”
He described how the other rabbi came over to him and told him about the opinion he had written opposing a hostage deal. Rabbi Yosef said that he asked the rabbi if he had a son of 17-18 years of age. “If he was kidnapped in Gaza, would you also write like that? Think like it’s your son or your daughter, God forbid.”
“I was exposed to all these things, I saw with my own eyes what was happening there, all the horrors there, that’s why we said this is a matter of immediate life and death,” said Rabbi Yosef.
In July, Rabbi Yosef spoke in favor of an immediate deal to free the remaining hostages, stressing that “They should finish the deal already. There’s nothing else to do – release terrorists with blood on their hands, it breaks the heart, we released [Hamas leader] Yahya Sinwar and we saw what happened, but this is a matter of immediate life and death.”
“If you don’t release them, they will kill the hostages, this is a time-sensitive matter of life and death. It could be that these [terrorists] will later go out and kill, that’s not immediate, the hostages are immediate,” he said.
A couple of points – he’s not the outgoing Sefardic Chief Rabbi, but the former Sefardic Chief Rabbi. Second, he seems to be basing his psak on that of his father at the time of the Shalit deal, that a vadai pikuach nefesh (saving Shalit) outweighs a safek pikuach nefesh (potential future terror victims of those released). That was questionable logic then, but given all that’s happened since, it’s totally unsupportable logic – it is certain that those released will return to terror and kill other Jews – rendering the correct psak to NOT enter into an exchange like the one proposed.
It’s a terrible thing, I fully acknowledge. And in answer to the question of what would one do if it were one’s own child – there are parents whose children are hostages who are part of the Tikva Forum – which opposes a deal like the one proposed due to the danger it presents in the future. They are parents who love their children too – but they are still capable of using logic, and not only emotion, in this difficult situation.
Actions speak louder than words if he has the answer to these problems maybe he should negotiate a deal see how that works out..
Maybe some of his followers will help rescue our Hostages since he’s always against our IDF.
Basic childish ultimatum fallacy and everyone seems to be falling for it like fools and pawns. Framing the argument like this is a loser’s gambit. If you are pro-deal you’ve agreed to anything and lost all military leverage. If you’re against a deal the enemy has no reason to keep them alive. The path of truth, of Torah, of life, as usual, that road is probably somewhere in the middle. Furthermore, the division itself is greatly advantageous to the vile terrorists and especially to Iran. Their primary battle is in the field of public opinion. We would do better to negotiate with a strong fist, unity, and not reveal our cards to the opponent. This Rosh Hashanah we need to open our hearts and pray that G-d gives us a brain. Actually, let’s not wait for the new year.
I find this shocking frankly. Halacha does not expect us to ask with the lack of rational behavior that a parent would naturally exhibit for their own child in such a situation. How could we possibly ever make rational life and death decisions if this was the standard?
There are many very well known difficult but clear halachos that would never work if we were supposed to treat the other yid involved as if they were our child. That’s not what the Torah expects of us.
Clearly daas Torah agrees With me
Bring them home , negotiate NOW
It is disgusting to read the comments on VIN when it comes to the hostages.Seems like most who leave comments are Frum Yidden and still they care zero about the poor hostages. All they care is about their twisted right wing Zionist ideology. What a Shanda!