RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:JEWS CAN OPPOSE WAR:OP/ED FROM FEB 03, A MONTH PRE-INVASION

RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:JEWS CAN OPPOSE WAR:OP/ED FROM  FEB 03, A MONTH PRE-INVASION of IRAQ

 

Shalom:

 

The below was printed in our local newspaper one month before the present administration invaded Iraq looking for weapons of mass destruction. 

 

It was sent to me today by a friend who apologized for sending me an email a day after it was published, all upset then with my opinion, doing teshuvah today, saying he was wrong and should have listened to the ethics of our sages.

 

Unlike the Vietnam War, which Rabbis and Jews like myself protested, the present war has sounds of silence from most rabbis in the media and from pulpits.

 

Well, one can speak out and not be afraid. One MUST speak out and not be afraid. Standing idly by is not part of Judaism.

 

May we petition God with prayers for Shalom.

 

Many Blessings,

Rabbi Arthur Segal

Hilton Head Island, SC

Bluffton, SC

 

 

Home » /IslandPacket/editorial/letters

Jews can oppose war

Published Thursday, February 20, 2003

 

To The Packet:

I respectfully take exception to the local rabbi's position stated in your Feb. 15 "Faith & Values" section: "It's the obligation of the Jewish community to support the government's decisions once it makes them." This flies in the face of 4,000 years of Jewish philosophy and teaching.

Abraham argued with God over God's decision to destroy Sodom. Moses argued with Pharaoh. Esther pleaded with the King of Persia. Arbranel scolded Isabella and Ferdinand. South Carolina's Francis Salvador stood up to England and died in our Revolution. South Carolina's Judah Benjamin stood up to Lincoln as the secretary of war, state and attorney general of the Confederate States of America. Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer spoke out against nuclear proliferation. Jews and their rabbis spoke out against the war in Vietnam. Jews and their leaders today are speaking out against the proposed war in Iraq nationally and on Hilton Head Island at the biweekly peace meetings.

Jews were cautioned in their Torah not to have a king but to have faith only in God. The Jewish path is very clear. Peace is the highest of virtues. Jews "are to be like the disciples of Aaron, loving peace, pursuing peace, and bringing people closer to God."

If any government goes against that, any Jew at any time has an ethical obligation to stand up to it.

Dr. Arthur Segal
Hilton Head Island,SC