The Jewish Press: Is it permitted to vote for Benjamin Netanyahu now that he has been indicted for several serious crimes?
Rav Dov Lior (former chief rabbi of Hevron and Kiryat Arba): Yes, it’s permissible. If it were a case of appointing a person to a public office, and that person has been charged with a crime, then, at the outset, the appointment shouldn’t be made. But in a case where the person charged with a wrongdoing already holds public office, the person is not removed from his position until the truth of the matter has been determined in court.
This is especially true in the case of the prime minister since many upright people maintain that a false case has been purposely woven against him, with all sorts of slanderous accusations. He has been hounded day and night. It fills the news. They speak as if he is a criminal when there hasn’t been a trial. How can this occur in a country guided by law?
All of this tampering with justice has caused the public to lose faith in the judicial system. Our Sages state in the Gemara (Yevamot 24) that if the accused person has enemies, we don’t automatically assume he is guilty…. According to the Torah, every man is considered righteous. So long as the person has not been fully convicted, there is no reason to consider him guilty.
Not only that. The Torah demands a far more enlightened and humanitarian approach to the accused suspect than what we encounter today when a person is told via the media how many years he will be imprisoned even when a trial is nowhere in sight. The first thing the head of the Sanhedrin would tell a suspect was, “If you didn’t commit a wrongdoing, you have no need to fear.”…
The loss of respect that the public feels toward the justice system will only be corrected when the system is purified from polluted motives and political agendas. Therefore, in the upcoming election it is proper to vote for parties that will endeavor to establish a judiciary based on true justice.
From a Torah point of view, what standing do the secular laws of the country possess?
According to the Torah, civilian laws like traffic law, tax requirements, zoning and consumer regulations, and the like, decided upon by the government, must be obeyed. If the elected leaders of the government legislate laws in an upright manner for the public’s benefit, so long as they don’t conflict with the laws of the Torah, they have halachic validity.
If a person has to go to court to resolve a financial dispute, should he or she take the case to a civil court or to a beit din?
It is important that the general public learns to value the justice that exists in Torah law and judgment. Therefore all religious Jews, and all of our brothers and sisters who value truth, in cases of monetary dispute, should seek out the beit din in their area.
On an unrelated note, a court in Paris the other week announced that an Arab who beat up a Jewish woman in her apartment, and threw her out the window to her death, cannot be tried in court because he was under the influence of marijuana. Is there any basis for such a ruling in Torah law?
In certain situations, such as in cases of mental disorder, a person who has committed a crime when not in control of his senses is considered unfit for trial. From what people have told me about the effects of marijuana, however, it isn’t something that alters a person’s being to the point that he is not in control.
Therefore, the explanation of the court in Paris cannot be considered serious, especially when testimony was given that the murderer previously cursed the woman for being a Jew in past encounters in the building where she lived. Obviously it was an anti-Semitic killing that the gentile court is attempting to cover up and deny.
In almost every place on the globe, violent acts of anti-Semitism are increasing. We have to wake up to this reality. It is not enough to talk about anti-Semitism. Talking about it will not cause it to disappear. In Poland, before World War II, my brother went to hear Jabotinsky speak. In Yiddish, Jabotinsky warned the Jews about the dark storm cloud that was coming. He begged them to flee. But they didn’t listen. They pelted him with tomatoes.
Jews aren’t listening today as well. They are blind to the writing on the wall. Now the guardians of evil in The Hague threaten to arrest Israeli soldiers and politicians who travel to Europe as war criminals. Tzahal is the most righteous army in the world, to the point of risking the safety of our own soldiers to prevent civilians from being harmed – something I don’t agree with at all. And The Hague is called the International Court of Justice? It is the International Court of Evil. We shouldn’t pay any attention to them at all.