Torat Hamelech controversy leaves chareidi community caught in the middle
The controversy over Deputy State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan’s decision to confiscate copies of Torat HaMelech a work by two rabbis from the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar and to summon for police questioning two prominent national religious rabbis who wrote haskamos for the book inspires one to shout “Shame on you” at all sides.
I have seen only excerpts of Torat HaMelech but those excerpts might as well have been deliberately crafted to provide ammunition for anti-Semites who claim that Jews believe that only their blood has value. That is why Rav Elyashiv reportedly condemned the work as endangering Jews around the world. And Rav Zalman Nechemiah Goldberg who initially also wrote a haskamah subsequently withdrew it due to halachic errors that were pointed out to him and other conclusions that “defy logic.”
The authors show a casual regard for life — Jewish as well as gentile. They classify those who lower national or IDF morale as rodfim. Ironically that definition could include those who called upon soldiers to refuse orders to evacuate Gush Katif.
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