JTA
A prominent Chabad rabbi is seeking to clarify remarks in which he renounced “Western morality” and seemed to call on Israel to massacre Palestinian civilians.
“The only way to fight a moral war is the Jewish way,” wrote Rabbi Manis Friedman in the current issue of Moment magazine. “Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women and children (and cattle).”
Friedman’s comments were a response to the question “How Should Jews Treat Their Arab Neighbors?” The question was posed to rabbis of several denominations, and the Friedman response was identified as “Chabad.”
Subsequently he said that the comments were solely his own and not those of any movement or organization. A Chabad spokesperson also emphasized that Friedman was not speaking for the organization.
In a clarification issued through a Chabad spokesperson, Friedman, of St. Paul, Minn., said that his published comments were “misleading,” since they were meant to address not how Jews should treat their neighbors but how they should act in a time of war. “It is obvious, I thought, that any neighbor of the Jewish people should be treated, as the Torah commands us, with respect and compassion,” Friedman said, adding that he had been attempting to “briefly address some of the ethical issues related to forcing the military to withhold fire from certain people and places, at the unbearable cost of widespread bloodshed (on both sides!) — when one’s own family and nation is mercilessly targeted from those very people and places!”
Friedman added: “I apologize for any misunderstanding the words printed in my name created.”
In response, Moment editor Nadine Epstein said nothing was taken out of Friedman’s comments save for some quotation marks and a short paragraph that did not alter the meaning of the controversial passage. She also said that Friedman was asked the same question as all the other rabbis and that he was invited to elaborate further on the magazine’s blog.
“The question did not include a reference to ‘during a time of war,’” Epstein said.
Interpreted as a call on Israel to carry out massive killings of Palestinians, bloggers seized on the Moment article, with several seeing it as a confirmation of what they view as Chabad’s extremism.
Shmarya Rosenberg, an erstwhile critic of Chabad, wrote on his blog, FailedMessiah.com, that he had heard this “exact logic” from Friedman himself.
Rabbi Avi Shafran, the director of public affairs for the fervently Orthodox group Agudath Israel, called Friedman’s comments “shocking and wrongheaded.”
“Divine commandments in the Torah that were intended for a particular time and place, as all the ‘war commandments’ were, are not properly applied to any other situations — and throughout history never have been,” Shafran said. “Torah speaks to contemporary situations only through the judgments of the greatest religious leaders of the day.”
A noted author, speaker and educator, Friedman is among the country’s most prominent Chabad rabbis. He has appeared on CNN, PBS and the BBC, and been the subject of articles in major national publications, according to his biography.
A 1974 New York Times article article about Friedman’s school, Bais Chana, described him as using “humble humor” in his interactions with young women who are returning to Jewish practice, many of them having dropped out of school or become hooked on drugs.
Well, let’s just see where he gets Shlichus!
The Torah commands us to approach our enemas first with peace nowhere in the Torah have we been given permission to kill women and children (expect for Amelek) even the 7 wicked nations had a choice to leave Israel in peace.
OF COURSE MANIS REPRESENTS CHABAD. CHABAD.ORG HAVE A TON OF HIS ARTICLES, HE HAS SPOKEN AT HUNREDS OF WEEKENDS IN CROWN HTS AND HE SPOKE FOR JLI.
HE IS A TRUE GENERAL OF CHABAD AND WE THANK HIM FOR HIS BRAVE WORDS.
just imagin if a Meshichist would have said this…..
(benny)
Everyone needs to keep in mind the people who run Moment Mag are leftists and try to paint settlers to be the Jewish Jihadists, and being how much the Rebbe was against giving up one inch, as well making out Chabad into fanatics. R Friedman made a mistake by taking part in the type of a discussion with such a left wing rag, bc they wanted to put him in a set up. Unfortunity these days media has become just propaganda machines. In the future I hope R Friedman, and others do not take part in such events unless its… Read more »
For anyone looking for a source that Rabbi Friedman’s statements are against Halacha, please see the Rambam in Hilchos Melachim U’Milchemoisehem, chapter 5. The Rambam says that there are only two types of wars in which an entire nation must be killed: milchemes shiva amamim and milchemes Amelek. These are the only two times when there is an obligation to kill entire nations because there are specific commandments from the Torah regarding these two types of war. The implication from what the Rambam does not say here is that there is no obligation to destroy entire nations of men, women,… Read more »
The inconvenient facts are that for all of recorded history there have been only 3 ways that wars really end: (1) One side realizes that they have too much to lose and nothing to gain and packs up and leaves – the Red Coats in 1783. (2) One side is utterly destroyed by the other and dragged to unconditional surrendor – our Civil War and WWII. (3) After a few hundred years everyone forgets why they are fighting and sue for peace – the Brits and the Irish. Rabbi Friedman confronts reality. War sucks! But the first morality of war,… Read more »
What Friedman said is exactly correct = directly from Torah (ex: by Amalek) but any how, it should not have been published on this article – publicly…
putting aside the damage a bad quote can do, this should hopefully teach manis a little humility. not only pearls flow.
Rabbi Manis Freidman has been for many years extremely successful in drawing the unaffiliated close to Torah and Chassidus.
He is an intellect worthy of our interest.
There is no educator, writer or public speaker who has not made at least one statement which he/she later regretted.
Let us not forget Rabbi Avi Safran’s recent article regarding Madoff and the ensuing scandal.
Remember Infalability is not a human quality.
what a dumb thing to say, i though the r. friedman thinks before he speaks!!!wow!!
you describe scot rosenberg as a critic of chabad and then quote how heard it himself he is certified liar that he reports how he hered this himself and that himself he should not have the title of critic of chabad, because that would imply that he knows something to critisize. he is a bur that is like an coin in a empty can and he is known to make alot of noise. how can you put him in the same article with a talmid chacham like avi shafran from the agudah he decided to make war with the REBBE… Read more »
its amazing how suddenly everybody is triping over what manis freidman said
he says lots of things like about sholom bayis and about ahavas yisroel, belief in one G-D and great things about the non jews
now he says something that would not even be small talk by our sworn enemies and we are buzzing
manis we love you
Bs”d
Maybe this Talmudic statement sums it up..
“..When you are merciful to the wicked, (Hitler,Ahminijihad), in the end, you will be wicked to the merciful ( the Jewish men,women and children in the death camps)”-Yoma 22B
In other words, why should Jewish people once again suffer because of misplaced sentiments towards those that are coming to destroy you and your babies.
Kohelet ( by King Solomon) the 7th chapter comes to mind as well , off the top of my head.
Dovid Benveniste HaLevy
to #8
See Tzvi Freeman’s article on Chabad.org titled Should I Pray for the Death of Terrorists?
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/807777/jewish/Should-I-Pray-for-the-Death-of-Terrorists.htm
It looks like his cousin Hatomim Shimon Ben-Tzion Simpson #1 bochur in Lubavitch today!
Could you show us where you got your info from and where we could read more details about it…kindly.
Anyone who claims Chabad supports terror is simply delusional. Look at the Chabad response to Mumbai. Was there a call for revenge? Blood of Muslims? Not one.
The statements and reaction was that Chabad will increase acts of goodness and kindness in response. Even Friedman himself who spoke on video about Mumbai said nothing about revenge. If he truly believed in killing Muslims, surely a good time for him to say it would have been right after the terror attack on Chabad in Mumbai.
The Chabad Rebbe spoke very clearly that we care about the lives of the Arabs, and for this very reason he was against namby-pamby response to terror since it encouraged more terror and more retaliation which led to more death on both sides. The Rebbe also responded to those who wanted to stop funding to Arabs in Israel who had children, to discourage them from having children, the Rebbe was against that. He said it is their duty, as is all mankind, to procreate and the Israeli government should support it. This is very different from Kahane! Please don’t mix… Read more »
Pray tell, where does it say all this?
our islamofascist enemies and our leftist appeasing masochistic brothers bless their hears are not afraid of singlemindedly fighting against their enemies and noone doubts their steadfastness and dedication even to the point of strewn body parts to prove their point i humbly still have the honor of proclaiming the torah says that when it is time to battle your enemies you kill them their wives their children and their cattle and in some cases u allow them to choose surrender and across submition and acceptance to the domination of g-ds will as it is elaborated in the 7 laws of… Read more »
#2 Do you want to put more Jewish lives at risk?
after all there were times where the jewish people even offensively went to war with the sefer torah
dont undermine your heritage and your values being committed to victory and your justice to the point of undeniable singlemindedness creates peace
It was the Bobover side of him speaking.