To Be A Kahanist by Ohad Kamin

"The laws and mandates of a government or a king in Israel that go against the laws of the Torah, the laws of God, must be disobeyed. It is not an issue of an Israel defying the government and violating the law, but rather an Israel that asks to obey the law that tries to prevent Jews from living in accordance with the law. Not only is it forbidden to accept and obey a mandate or a governmental law that contradicts the Torah, it is, a fortiori, forbidden to assist the transgressors in its actualization."

The life force of the above lines is independent of political activism, string-pulling behind the scenes, populism or bribery. The power of these words rests in their logic, rational structure, depth, sharp distinctions that they are able to make between relevant concepts, and in the coherent manner in which they are conveyed.

There is no need to agree with the text; it is possible to argue against it, to pose an opposing point of view, to criticize, to point to shortcomings, mistakes, and so on. However, it is not possible to ignore the fact that the author of these words was a man who presented his readers a point of view in the most correct and humane way-through reason. Therefore, it is a moral imperative to denounce all those who had portrayed the author of these words as a criminal.

The above text was written by Rabbi Meir Kahane, a great man, a 20th century Jew, with a superior mind. The words appear in one of his books in which he attempted to explain his position. As a true man of reason-and as a Jew-Rabbi Kahane made every effort to explain, clarify, and justify many of the views that turned him, in the eyes of his enemies, into the symbol of evil. By doing so, these enemies themselves have turned into this symbol.

No other entity embodies evil more than the man who deprives other men of their humanity-the essential expression of the human mind: expressing an opinion. This is the way in which senseless people behave when they encounter ideas that frighten them, ideas that are too great and too ominous for them to handle intellectually. Then, they turn to war through physical means-to violence. An evil man who cannot deal rationally with an idea to which he objects, turns to violence. Therefore, Rabbi Kahane found himself persecuted for his ideas in the most vicious manner by senseless public personas who, not only failed to offer rational opposition to his ideas, but also admonished him and punished him severely-ultimately leading to his death.

But a man's spirit cannot be suppressed through physical force, and ideas do not succumb to violence. It is only natural that when the ideas of Rabbi Kahane were not stopped by contradicting ideas, that they should be ratified-at the very least to the extent that they are legitimate topics for discussion and evaluation. The ideas of Rabbi Kahane continue to live in our midst, and despite the violence directed by the hostile regime at those who have embraced these ideas, they continue to be part of a living discussion of the body of Jewish thought, a body of thought that never shunned, never turned away from, grappling with any idea, no matter how controversial.

Recently, because of the intensification of the war, a war in which the son and daughter in law of Rabbi Kahane were murdered (a murder that brings into question the actions of Israel's secret police), those who continue his way, the "Kahanists," are in a more difficult situation than they were in before: they are caught between a rock and a hard place-between the difficult predicament that the people of Israel are in as a result of the Arab's attacks, and the arrows of Israel's "security" services who restrict the freedom of thought and speech of an enemy state: the Jewish State. Moreover, the Kahanists are fighting against those who are, supposedly, on their side-the settlers.

The current situation, and especially the situations in which the notion of transfer is brought up alongside the complications of Minister Zeevi's murder, who in his life was also condemned and vilified, emphasizes the fact that those who hold Rabbi Kahane's ideas are perceived by a large part of the public-the part that is exposed to the national media-as criminals. This fact renders guilty all those who oppose Kahane-guilty on account of cowardly throwing away an entire body of thought, and running away from a potentially constructive political confrontation.

It is irrelevant whether Kahane's notions are right or wrong-what matters is that those who rejected his notions did not do so in the only way that is becoming of a human being, in the only way in which it is permissible to object to another's opinion-based on rational ideas, pointing to faults or shortcomings in the argument. How severe it is that the inability for rational discourse, so typical of the left in Israel, can now be found in the camp of those who hold the Torah as their guide, whose essence was always free and open debate and discourse.

People who prefer to destroy their opposition, to neglect them or to censor them, instead of dealing with their ideas-as the Kahanists did and still do-do not deserve to be part of a developed society-and cannot see themselves as human beings, as Jews or men of the mind, because the basic requirement for being human is the maintenance and advancement of ideas-and this can only be done when there is the capacity to deal with the other side on the basis of ideas and not through violence.

The Kahanist is an idealistic Jew; he is the contemporary conveyor of the philosophy of a man, whose politics includes a legitimate idea that could solve some of the pressing problems of the people of Israel. The Kahanist who stands by his ideas and refuses to give them up despite the oppression and against all odds, is the true intellectual warrior of our times who refuses to compromise on the truth in which he believes. The Kahanist is the fearless heir and carrier of a Jewish thinker who, despite having fallen in a war for his ideas and despite having his memory smeared by the establishment, has not been relinquished by the true people of the mind, who found in his ideas a source of light. The Kahanist belongs to the idealists who are fighting for the preservation of the flame of a significant body of knowledge.

The words of Rabbi Kahane that are quoted at the beginning of the article are, in essence, no different than the call of Matityahu, who challenged the foreign rule of the enemy in Israel. The difference between the possibilities open to Matityahu and the ones open to us today--led Kahane to act in the spirit of his time, to act as a contemporary man of thought: he did not kill anyone, but rather chose to write an article.

This course of action, however, did not help him or the group that he founded, and did not protect them or save them from the harsh hand of the regime. For over a hundred years, the men of reason of the Western culture have agreed that in a humane society, a society that protects man's right to free speech, people have the full right to express their opinion in a non violent manner. This is exactly what Kahane did. In fact, that is all that Kahane and his sons did, and that is what those who promote his ideas do today.

It might astonish some people, but in contrast to the allegations and rumors about Kahane's movement, what has characterized the movement from its beginning has been its intellectual activities. This, perhaps, is the right place to note that the allegations concerning the violence that is associated with Kahane's movement are a product of the imagination of those who oppose Kahane-led by the Israeli left that was not satisfied with merely sending provocateurs to the movement's conferences, but also succeeded in outlawing Kahane's movement.

The left, especially, is responsible for the negative misperception that the Kahanist is a violent person. Through decades of brain washing, the left has succeeded in associating brutality with Rabbi Kahane's ideas. The success of the Bolshevik leadership (which, it should be noted, rules Israel even when the official government changes) manifests itself in the principled rejection of Rabbi Kahane's ideology-so that in our days, even groups that oppose the left (the "right") and even the orthodox Jews will not invite a Kahanist to partake in a discussion. Kahanism has been thrown out of the public discourse.

In the eyes of the evil, the foolish, and the fearful, there is no legitimate place for Kahanism in society or in public discourse. The evil are not interested in confronting with Kahane because they use force against all those who threaten them. The foolish do not understand that Kahanism is first and foremost a system of thought and ideology, and even if they do not accept it and do not agree with it, it is still a legitimate part of free public discourse. The fearful are the most dangerous: they believe that it is justified not to enter a discussion with Kahanism to escape its negative consequences-as if any political force can ever defeat an ideological force-and they believe that they have the right to censorship, to prevent people from expressing their ideas.

More than anything, to be a Kahanist is to be a Jewish man of thought; the term "Jewish man of thought" is expressed in the Jewish notion of "thought precedes action." In Judaism (in contrast to the resident of the ivory tower of the Platonic-Christian school, who generates detached ideas), thought is the antecedent of action-and an idea is practical and is intended to be applied.

A Jewish man of thought is a coin whose one side is the realization of an idea and its other, essential side is principled non-violence. This non-violence approach stands at the core of the notorious and vilified notion of Kahanism-the transfer-because the essence of the idea is the protection of human rights of the Jewish people in the land of Israel. Yes-those who are portrayed as immoral and violent, those who serve as the political and psychological scapegoats for the cowards among the settlers who are afraid to stand for their rights-they are the true men of reason who can teach us an important lesson in human ethics.

Consequently, when we observe the way in which the Kahanists are unjustly humiliated and vilified year after year, while those who harm them from within and murder them from without are being supported, we must recognize and appreciate the resilience of these fearless warriors, who do not respond through physical force but through reason. These proud men do not break, bend, or forget the truth that guides them; they write and write again. They respond thoughtfully and appropriately, and they learn and teach. Their work is precisely what causes those who oppose them to fear and hate them.

Rather than the allegations of violence that are directed at the Kahanists, the guiding principle of these people is the noble principle of self defense. Because even if they err here and there, their methods are correct-they engage in humane, civilized, and enlightened discussion. Against them, we have those who need the violence of the governmental system to situate the Kahanist outside the law, to forcefully throw him to the roadside, to vilify him. Actions speak louder than words, though, and it is clear who is the truly violent party.

Self defense was the Jewish League's motto-and the rapid emergence of an opposition from amidst the Jews was a declaration of cowardice that was never part of any Arab organization. The contribution of Rabbi Kahane to modern Judaism will be investigated by objective research institutions, but already today there is no doubt as to his value and significance. It is sad that so few people know that Kahane and his people were the first to do something about the oppression of Russian Jewry-while the Israeli government and other Jewish organizations ignored the situation. Through their action, Kahane and his people earned a place of honor in Jewish redemption, because there is no doubt about their contribution to the ultimate liberation of Russian Jews from slavery-and the reader must remember this when he encounters sound bites such as "death to the Arabs" and "transfer" that are attributed to Kahanists, but that are actually products of the General Security Service, that acts without compunctions against the tax payers who provide for their families.

Kahanism is a symbol of forbidden thought that must be protected. We must not allow the psychological war that includes slogans, concealment, half-truths, and suspicions, to prevent us from independently verifying issues. We need to understand that one of the reasons for the existence of the smoke screen that our society imposes on Kahane's movement is to prevent us from coming in contact with Kahanists under the impression that "we already know what they're worth." These are techniques of the opposing side who desires, through creating a cognitive vacuum, to disallow a real discourse about Rabbi Kahane's ideas. These forces did not learn from history that ideas cannot be overcome by physical force; that if an idea takes root, no violence can eradicate it. Kahanism presents to you the fact that only two options are open to you: reason, the enlightened possibility of a man of culture-or barbarism, which reverts to the use of physical force. If the first is a Kahanist, if to be a Kahanist is, in our days, to be a man of reason who fights for that which he believes in in a non-violent way-then I am a Kahanist.