By Rabbi Binyamin Kahane (1997)
If there was not a Tzachi HaNegbi, we would have had to invent him. What better example is there to illustrate the bankruptcy of secular nationalism? Who can better teach us how even the most fervent of them has no real true stance, because only faith in G-d is the ingredient which enables the Jewish leader to withstand the immense pressures with which one will be faced. One who does not possess the objective and absolute values of Judaism cannot withstand the pressure. Some may require mild pressure to fold, while others may require more, but in the end, there is nothing of substance to hold him. And so he proceeds to convince himself that it isn't so terrible, and it's better to concede a little than to lose a lot, and all the other "cheshbonot" to which there are no end.
It is important to note how Tzachi HaNegbi himself explains how he underwent his change: "As a result of my learning law, I began to understand that without democracy, there is no life on the 'monument' (in his younger days, HaNegbi barricaded himself on the top of a monument in Yamit in an effort to prevent the "legal" government decision to evacuate Yamit). It is democracy which enables the people to fight for what it believes in, without having a hair on its head harmed." Afterwards, he proceeds to pour praise on the judge Aharon Barak.
On the other hand, one who embraces absolute values according to the Halacha, knows that the Halacha is stubborn and can't be toyed around with. What we have here are two entirely different and contradictory points of view which will eventually collide, as exemplified by the Halachic ruling forbidding soldiers to fulfill orders negating the Jewish Halacha. What is frightening, however, is how far some Jews, who start out with good intentions, can actually go.
Last month Hanegbi as Justice Minister demanded that the rabbis nullify their Halachic ruling which forbids soldiers to carry out orders which negate the Jewish law. Our faithful readers know how much we have stressed over the past few years the cultural war taking place in Israel between the Jews and the Hellenists. And now, the Justice Minister's call to the rabbis sounds like a returning nightmare which we thought had gone away and wouldn't come back. After all, such behavior we had grown accustomed to in recent years from past Justice Ministers such as David Libai, or from the likes of former ministers Yosi and Shuli from the Meretz party who openly fought against Torah and Judaism. And now, we are getting the same treatment from one of "our" Justice Ministers, who, incidentally, recently replaced one who was spit out by the system because he was religious! Yes, one of "our own" is now demanding that the rabbis - the same rabbis whom he stood by boldly in the struggle for Eretz Yisrael - take back their halachic ruling!
Well, let Tzachi HaNegbi know: Just like your predecessors in generations past did not succeed in forcing Jews to nullify Halachic rulings, G-d's word, so too will you fail to nullify even one Halacha! You, who once barricaded yourself on the Yamit monument to prevent the withdrawal from the Sinai, and who has now become a supporter of the Hebron withdrawal and an eager slave of Netanyahu's ambitions and your own quest for power; You, who with such utter ease went from being a bitter enemy of the left to a defender of the leftist-occupied legal system which today you warmly embrace - Know: Relief and deliverance will arise to the Jews from elsewhere, and you, despite your past "record", will be tossed into the trash can of history in but a short while...
