by Dr. Israel Jamitovsky
These days marked fourteen years since the death of Rabbi Yehuda Amital Unquestionably one of the most important educators and spiritual leaders of our time, particularly in the space of religious Zionism.
Rabbi Amital was born as Yehuda Klein on October 21, 1924 in Oradea, Romania. In parallel with his general studies, he did the same with the Jewish sources that he accessed at the area's academy of religious studies (yeshiva) under the aegis of Rabbi Chaim Yehuda Levi. When the Nazis occupy the area, his entire family is sent and exterminated in Auschwitz.
Rabbi Amital was lucky enough to be sent to a forced labor camp, until he was liberated by the Soviet army. It is then that he returns to Bucharest and on December 11, 1944 he settles in the Land of Israel.
In his first steps, he studied in Jerusalem at the Hebron yeshiva, obtaining his rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer. At the same time, he joins the ranks of the combatant organization Haganah. He continued his studies at the Kletzk Yeshiva located in Pardes Hanna and when this educational center moved to Rehovot, Rabbi Amital did the same until 1960 when he settled in Jerusalem.
One day after Israel's independence was declared, Rabbi Amital enlisted in the Israeli army, taking part in the battles fought in Latrun and in western Galilee. He put his experiences into an article titled Experiences of a religious soldier in the War of Independence. Once the war was over, he began to teach at the Yeshiva Hadarom in whose space he began to develop the idea of Yeshivot Hasder in whose space military service is amalgamated with studies of Jewish sources
This idea was finally crystallized by Rabbi Amital when, after the Six-Day War, in 1968, he founded Yeshivat Har Tzion, initially in Kfar Etzion and later in Alon Shvut. In 1971, Rabbi Amital invited Rabbi Dr. Aarón Lichtenstein to share the direction of this prestigious house of study, so that these outstanding teachers and spiritual leaders headed this educational space for 40 years.
Under his direction, various religious and political positions emerged within said educational center that unquestionably enriched and expanded the student's worldview. Among his most notable students are Professors Benjamin Ish Shalom and Aviad Hacohen and Rabbis Dr. Benjamin Lau, Yoel Bin Nún and Yehuda Gilat.
Accuse the baby's sobs
Rabbi Amital used to tell a Hasidic story that speaks for itself and reflects his sensitivity. In a property made up of three rooms, in one there was a baby lying in his crib, in the next room there was a rabbi studying Torah and at the other end, in the furthest space there was another rabbi immersed in Jewish sources. At one point, the baby began to cry and the person in the next room was so absorbed in studying him that he did not pay attention to the child's sobs. It was precisely the scholar who was distant from the baby, who interrupted his studies and came to help him. The conclusion is unequivocal and definitive. When the suffering of the baby is ignored, like that of any human being, this study of the Torah suffers from deficiencies and is incomplete.
Pattern of your courage: from hawk to dove
His sensitivity and scale of values, as well as the Yom Kippur War and the First Lebanon War, led to a substantial change in his political stance. Shocked by the fall of his students in these conflagrations, he maintained that in certain historical circumstances when a collision appears between the sanctity of life and the sanctity of the Land of Israel, the priority lies in the preservation of human lives. In his scale of values, the life and existence of the Jewish people precede that of the Land of Israel. Hence his willingness to cede territories in exchange for genuine peace between Israel and its neighbors and adopting all security precautions. An approach and stance that required courage and courage, given that he represented and continues to represent a minority in the national religious space of Israel.
Animated by this spirit, in 1988 he promoted the founding of the moderate and centrist religious Zionist party called Meimad. After the assassination of Prime Minister Isaac Rabin, he was appointed Minister without portfolio by the government of Shimón Perez in an attempt to mitigate the growing tension existing at that time between secularists and religious in Israel. His party would eventually be part of the ruling coalition that in 1995 headed by Ehud Barak.
Rabbi Yehuda Amital passed away on July 9, 2010 at the age of 86. Thousands of people attended his funeral in which, among others, the President of the State of Israel Shimon Perez, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak spoke.
A genuine human being
The volume recently saw the light You will always be a human (in Hebrew it sounds better, Leolam Ieé Adam) that collects and expresses Rabbi Amital's reflections in different spaces, but in addition to transcending his enormous Judaic erudition that he transmitted to thousands of students, it fundamentally reflects his enormous respect and consideration for the human condition, whatever his conception of the world, political affiliation. and religious or ethnic group.