"The Alien, Non-Jewish Opposition to 'Religious Coercion'”

1 Elul 5786
Rosh Chodesh/Erev Shabbat Kodesh
Parashat Shoftim 

(Excerpted from The Jewish State - Rabbi Meir Kahane)

...The Jewish government, the king and the police apparatus were mainly intended to run the Jewish State as a theocracy in accordance with G-d's mitzvot.  Regarding the verse, “Appoint yourselves judges and police [officers] (Deut. 16:18), R. Eliezer ben Shamua says (Sifri, Shoftim, 144), “If there are police, there are judges. If there are no police, there are no judges.”  The intent is clear: If there are police to enforce the judge's Torah rulings, then the judges' word will endure.  Otherwise, it is as though there are no judges.  Their rulings are then nothing but a farce.  In essence, G-d commanded that there be governmental coercion so as to ensure that the people follow G-d's path.  G-d scornfully cast off of Himself and of us the alien non-Jewish opposition to “religious coercion”, opposition that is nothing but rebellion against G-d and His decrees.  Sefer haChinuch wrote (Mitzvah 491): To appoint judges and policemen who will coerce mitzvah observance and restore to it by force those who have strayed from the truth.  They will command regarding what is appropriate to do and will prevent unsavory acts from occurring, and they will uphold punishments against violators until people cease to relate to the mitzvot and prohibitions according to how they personally interpret them. This concept stands in absolute opposition to the alien culture and to the licentiousness and abominations at its core.

...For Jacob, however, there is only one truth, and it does not matter whether the whole world differs with it, because it is impossible to decide against the truth.  Even if, to our great chagrin, most of Israel choose falsehood over Torah, that does not matter, since Jacob already has the truth.  Thus, it is explicit that among Israel there is just one viewpoint, that of Torah; and even if a majority of the Jewish People differ with it, their view is considered deviant and is discounted.  A great rabbi once gave a reason for this: The law is that we do not follow the majority when there is testimony for the opposing view; and since Israel saw the Sinai Revelation with their own eyes, confirming G-d's existence, no majority in the world could decide anything against this testimony (See Torah Shlemah, Shemot, 23, se'if katan 38).  R. Chama's comment[...] - “If one of them sins, it is attributed to them all” (Midrash HaGadol, Shemot, 1:5) - ...] serves to establish the other side of the rule that there is one truth, and not two.  Not only must the righteous minority not surrender to or tolerate the erring majority, but they have a duty to protest against them.  Not only must they not accept their viewpoint, but they must also demand that they correct their error and accept G-d's viewpoint.  The mutual responsibility which exists among the Jewish People requires every Jew to share in the fate of his fellow; and if he does not protest the sins of the individual, let alone those of the community, he, too, will be punished.

Do you see any wiggle room here that would allow a Torah-observant Jew to actually vote his support for any non-Torah observant leader or party?

The thinking of the vast majority of Jews in this generation, especially in Eretz Yisrael in regard to the State, is so corrupted, that the vast majority measure the worth of a leadership candidate by his adherence to right-wing ideology rather than how strictly he conforms to the Torah ideal.  

The tragedy of our times is that very few Jews can see how unworthy we are of redemption right now.  How many of us are ready and willing to accept everything that the Torah demands of us without argument or disagreement or complaint.

Elul is the perfect time to work on getting this right.

~ SHABBAT SHALOM and CHODESH TOV ~