Monday, January 25, 2010

Heard of the "Seven Sins"? Or Let's Kill a Baby

Although I think the publication of the book, Torat HaMelech, was not the most astute thing, I am amazed at the misinformation and misrepresentation published about it.

I found this in a "staff report" in the JPost:-

Last month, the well-known rabbi made headlines when petitioners called on the High Court of Justice to indict him, together with Rabbi Yosef Elitzur - another teacher at the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva - for writing and marketing a book in which they say Jewish religious law permits the murder of Palestinian babies and that at times it is preferable to deliberately kill innocent people.

"There are reasons for killing babies even though they have not violated the seven sins, because of the danger that will arise if they are allowed to live and grow up to be as evil as their parents," the petitioners quoted from the book, "The Torah of the King."


"Seven sins" refers to the Noahide Commandments that even non-Jews are to observe as the minimum of a civilized society.

However, the book, as regards infants, does not state that Jewish law permits the murder of Palestinian babies.

There is a discussion of killing infants on pages 205-207 which deals with Rabbinic opinions of biblical commentary, not codified Halachah. Only three opinions are quoted with no summary as well as an admission that the subject is complicated because perhaps the reference is only to the "seven nations" which no longer exist and the other principle is whether one knows for sure that if they grow to adulthood they will be dangerous killers themselves.

The authors make no statement of conclusion.

I cannot understand where these newspaper reports are coming from except perhaps as mouthpieces for far-left propaganda.

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