Was Rabin's Assassin An Observant Jew?

Oxford University L'Chaim Society Weekly Essay, November 16, 1995; by
Rabbi Shmuel Boteach

Few readers of the ongoing international coverage of the tragic
assassination of Yitzchak Rabin seem to notice the irony of his
assassin, Yigal Amir, being repeatedly described as an orthodox Jew.
Simply stated, murder is fervently against Jewish law, and those who
murder are therefore, by definition, not orthodox or observant Jews.
Describing Yigal Amir as an orthodox Jew is the equivalent of saying,
"I went to eat at McDonald's with my orthodox Jewish friend who
joined me for a double-bacon cheeseburger." Eating non-kosher food

constitutes an (partial) abandonment of Jewish tradition. And if one

undertakes grossly unkosher acts, one can hardly be described as
being observant or traditional.


Every student of Judaism knows that the Jewish faith can be neatly
broken down into two major categories. The first is mitzvot shebein
adam lamakom, commandments governing the relationship between man and
G-d, and the second are the mitzvot shebein adam lachavereiro,
commandments which govern the relationship between man and his fellow
man. It seems incredible to me that, in determining those who are
"orthodox" Jews, modern-day Jewish society looks only at the first
category, almost completely ignoring the latter. So, for

example, if someone observes the Shabbat, dons tefillin every
morning, and only eats kosher food, they are said to be orthodox -
even if they spend the whole day gossiping about friends or stealing
in business. Thus, whenever a Jew with a Yarmulke is caught stealing,
cheating, or lying, the cry goes out: how can an orthodox Jew do
that? The answer: if they steal, they are clearly not orthodox, or
have ceased to be orthodox. If one saw one's orthodox Jewish friend
smoking a cigarette on Shabbat, one's reaction would not be, "How can
he do that, he is orthodox?" but rather, "When I knew him he was
orthodox, and now he has changed." While Yigal Amir may once have
been an observant Jew, pulling the trigger of his handgun changed all
that.

This classification of Jewish law into two neat categories is of the
most profound significance. It means that, as discussed in last
week's essay at length, within the Jewish faith humankind is as
important as G-d. An affront to man and an affront to G-d are treated
equally within the Jewish faith, rendering transgressors of either as
having fundamentally betrayed Jewish principles. Who has ever heard
of a religion in which man is equated with his Creator? Yet Judaism
insists uncompromisingly that G-d's love for people is such that He
expects humans to accord each other the same degree of respect

and honour that they would accord the Master of the universe Himself.
Thus, in Judaism the laws governing how one human treats another are
as important as fasting on Yom Kippur. A few examples which further
demonstrate this point: Perhaps the most famous story of the Talmud
is the one in which a convert comes to Hillel requesting that the
sage teach him the entire Torah while standing on one foot. Hillel
tells the man: "That which you hate, don't do unto others. This is
the entire Torah, the rest being but commentary." And Rabbi Akiva,
one of the leading Jewish sages of all time, declared the celebrated
verse of Leviticus 19:18, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,"
to be an all-encompassing principle of the Torah.

Many are of the opinion that Mt Moriah was chosen as the site of the
Holy Temple because, as in last week's Torah reading, the binding of
Isaac took place there. The Midrash, however, provides an alternative
explanation. There were two brothers who were equal business
partners. One was married with children, the other a bachelor. The
latter felt that it was wrong to take half the wheat which they grew
together since his brother had more mouths to feed, while the former
felt that while he had security in the form of a family, his brother
had nothing save the produce of their fields, and thus he

deserved a higher percentage. So in the middle of the night, they
each secretly took from their respective wheat stockpiles and
transferred a large portion to the other's warehouse. Not knowing
what the other was up to, both were astonished in the morning to
discover that their wheat had been replenished. This ritual went on
for several nights thereafter, until one night they bumped into each
other in the middle of the field, each with wheat in their hands
which they were transferring to their brother. They immediately
realized what had been happening, and how each had been more

concerned for the other than for himself. They fell on each other's
shoulders and cried. G-d looking down at this spectacle proclaimed,
"In this spot, where such brotherly love has been shown, shall My own
house be built." And finally, the founder of the Chassidic movement,
Rabbi Israel Baal Shemtov, said that the secret to loving G-d is to
love one's fellow man first.

Following last week's essay in which I asserted that in Judaism
people are treated as ends in themselves, and not as means to higher
ends, I received a fair number of comments, even complaints that it
simply ain't so. One reader over our oxford-judaism internet list
reminded me that a human being must be prepared to sacrifice his/her
life for G-d which shows that people were created to serve G-d and
are subordinate to Him. No doubt this is so. But the simplest meaning
of 'being created in the Image of G-d' is that every human

being possesses a fragment of the divine by which they are designated
as being (a) of infinite value and (b) G-d's children. Now, in any
family there can be little doubt that it is the parents who take
priority and who can, in this sense, be said to be more important
than their children. But can you imagine any parent who would not be
offended by someone who treated their children discourteously or even
harmed them? Therefore, the fact that man must lay down his life
inorder to fulfill G-d's will is not in any way a contradiction to
the premise that man is as important as G-d, because it is

specifically G-d's will which renders him as consequential as the
Creator Himself. Every parent wishes his/her children to be accorded
the same respect that he/she receives, and feels the pain of their
child as if it were their own. By murdering a fellow Jew, Yigal Amir
violated this principle and showed contempt not just for humanity,
but to the Creator of humanity, our Father in Heaven. The lesson for
all us less culpable souls is that we must rededicate ourselves, not
just to the service of our Creator, a must in its own right, but to
public and utility and the benefit of our fellow man, which is of
equal significance.

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