The following is an excerpt from the Biblical book of Kings Chapter 3 according to the translation by The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J (I dispute the translation used regarding the profession of the 2 women, but it is not essential to this post).
Then two women, innkeepers came to the king and stood before him.One woman said, “Please my master, I and this woman live in one house, and I gave birth with her being in the house.And on the third day after giving birth, this woman also gave birth. We were together, there was no stranger with us in the house. No one besides the two of us were in the house.The son of this woman died at night, for she had lain on him.She got up in the middle of night, and she took my son from beside me while your maidservant was asleep, and she lay him in her bosom; and her dead son she laid in my bosom.I awoke in the morning to nurse my son, and behold he was dead. I scrutinized him in the morning and behold it was not my son to whom I had given birth.”The other woman said, “It is not so. My son is the live one and your son is the dead one.” And this one [the first woman] said, “Not so, for your son is the dead one, and my son is the live one.” And they spoke [argued] before the king.The king said, “This one says,, ‘This is my son who is alive and your son is the dead one;’ and this one says, ‘it is not so, for your son is the dead one, and my son is the live one.’ ”And the king said, “Bring me a sword,” and they brought a sword before the king.And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to one and half to the [other] one.”The woman whose son was the live one said to the king, for her compassion for her son was aroused, and she said, “Please my master, give her the live child, and do not kill him.” But this [the other] one said, “It shall be neither mine nor yours, divide him.”The king declared and said, “Give her the live child, and do not kill him. She is his mother.”And all of Yisroel heard the judgement that the king had judged and they feared the king; for they saw that the wisdom of God was within him to do justice.
Several Leaders of the Israeli Right are citing this story as proof that we should not resist, if the Far-Left decides to start an Active Civil War for either selfish or ideological reasons.
For example, in a recent Facebook broadcast, Moshe Feiglin leader of the Zehut political party that advocates rebuilding the Temple on the Temple Mount discussed a debate he had with Ultra-Leftist Avraham Burg.
Burg was asked, what he would do if Feiglin came to power and tried to build the Temple. Burg responded he would form a Jewish underground to fight against Feiglin.
Feiglin was asked how he would respond to such an underground.
Instead of answering the correct answer, I would punish him according to every legal punishment available, he answered with the story of the trial of the 2 mothers discussed above. That just as the real mother gave up her rights to the save the baby, so too, those who truly care about the State of Israel should give up their legitimate claims to rule the country as they see fit in order to protect Israel from Civil War.
The following are some rebuttals to this argument:
- In the case of the baby, the King was the ultimate authority. The true mother did not seem to have the power to undo the King’s initial verdict to split the baby. If she did have the power she would probably try to struggle to retain her baby and save her baby at the same time! In a situation where we do have the political power we should use our power to both impose our agenda and save the country at the same time.
- The Deep State and the Far-Left have already started the Civil War. The October 7th / Shmini Atzeret Massacre would have not taken place without the passive cooperation of the Deep State and Far-Left. See the post: Spy Expert Jonathan Pollard Views the Hamas Sim Card Revelation as Evidence for a Conspiracy and the post: Besides Bibi Netanyahu, Aharon Haliva Should Be Blamed for the Shmini Atzeret / Oct. 7th Massacre and the post: The Israeli Far-Left Wants Israel to Lose the War against Hamas and see the post: The Proxy War of the Israeli Left Against Religious Zionism and their Allies. At the outset of the war it was unclear if Netanyahu wanted to suffer a “Pearl Harbor” attack in order to convince the country to go to war or was it a plot of the Deep State to damage the current coalition government led by Netanyahu. The actions of the Deep State since the start of the war lead me to believe in the second possibility.
- In the struggle between the false mother and the true mother, there was no issue of the conquest of the land of Israel at stake. In contrast, the struggle against the Deep Left is in essence a struggle for the control of all or parts of the land of Israel by the Jewish people. In theory this takes precedence over saving individuals. See the post: Winning the War to Conquer the Land of Israel Overrides the Commandment of Saving Lives and see the post: The Tribe of Levi (according to Rashi & Talmud Yerushalmi) Fought a Civil War to Prevent Israel’s Attempt to Go Back to Egypt and see: Audio: Unity – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly – Part 1 by Menachem Gottlieb
- The Chafetz Chaim endorsed active resistance in order to save Judaism from anti-religious decrees. The progressive left like the communists of Jewish origin in the Soviet Union call for government decrees to stop elements of Jewish observance. See the article: The Chafetz Chaim Hated Russian Communist Leaders. In contrast the dispute between the two mothers at the time of Shlomo was seemingly a personal dispute and not a dispute over Judaism.
- One stage in the future redemption involves standing up against the wicked. See: Israeli Agriculture, Ingathering of the Exiles, and Good Judges Come Before the Advent of David for details.
post by: Shlomo Moshe Scheinman