Jerusalem - Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef said on Saturday night that a person is obligated according to religious law to kill a terrorist who is armed with a knife and is trying to commit a violent attack, saying that one shouldn’t be afraid of being tried in court over such an action.
Yosef is the latest in a long list of rabbis who have advocated killing terrorists, in line with a precept in Jewish law which permits killing a person seeking to kill you.
“If a terrorist is coming with a knife, it’s a mitzvah [commandment] to kill him.” said Yosef in his weekly Torah lesson on Saturday night.
“One shouldn’t start being afraid that someone will petition the High Court of Justice or some [army] chief of staff will come and say something different. There is no need to be afraid. ‘He who comes to kill you, get up and kill him’,” continued Yosef, citing the rabbinic dictum of self defense.
“This also deters them. When a terrorist knows if he comes with a knife he won’t return alive, it deters them, so therefore it’s a mitzvah to kill him.”
Yosef said however that if the attacker no longer has a knife or other type of weapon then he should be put in prison for the rest of his life. The chief rabbi added that when the messiah comes and determines who of Israel’s enemies are from Amalek, the ancient enemy of the Jewish people, only then could those deemed to be of Amalek be killed even if they are imprisoned.
In referencing the IDF chief of staff, Yosef was referring to recent comments by head of the IDF Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot who said in February explicitly that the IDF should not operate according to this precept, adding that “a soldier should not empty a magazine of ammunition into a girl holding scissors.
This was a reference to a controversial incident in November when security officers shot two Palestinian teenage girls after they stabbed a 70-year-old Arab man (in a case of mistaken identity) in the head with scissors in downtown Jerusalem.
One of the girls was killed and the other critically wounded.
In October, municipal chief rabbi of Safed Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu called for terrorist attackers to be killed at the scene of the attack.
“The fact that there are terrorists that are still coming out alive after committing terrorist acts means that we haven’t understood that we’re in a war, and we need to destroy these enemies,” said Eliyahu.
Yesh Atid MK and faction chair Ofer Shelah criticized Yosef for his comments.
“Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, who at the age when Israeli youth endanger their lives in military service was editing his father’s books, pretends to give rulings on the ethics of battle and even challenges the chief of staff. The IDF is led only by its commanders and rabbis should not try and take their place.”
Yair Sheleg, head of the religion and state project of the Israel Democracy Institute, said Yosef’s comments were troubling since they could be considered binding by those who heard them.
“As a senior arbiter of Jewish law, the positions of Rabbi Yosef are taken not simply as those of another citizen but rather as a ruling in Jewish law which are supposed to obligate those hearing them [to adhere to them], said Sheleg.
“In this context, he is joining a long and problematic list of rabbis who seek to rule for the public on issues for which responsibility lies with other state authorities, the security services, the political echelon above it, and the justices of the High Court of Justice who examine the legality of an action.”
Sheleg said the rabbi’s comments would put religious citizens in a quandary; “Should they listen to the chief of staff or the chief rabbi?” he asked, and called on the prime minister, religious services minister, and heads of the national-religious community to condemn Yosef’s statement.
