Jewish law permits the release of a thousand terrorists, including those guilty of murder, in exchange for captive Cpl. Gilad Shalit, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual mentor of Shas, ruled this week. Yosef's son David, who heads the Yechaveh Da'at Beit Midrash in Jerusalem, drafted the halachic decision, which was later approved by his father. Yosef's opinion, was first published in the haredi weekly Hamishpacha. "It is imperative to free as many terrorists as necessary to save Shalit's life," wrote Rabbi David Yosef. "In life and death situations like this one, we must not make calculations precisely on how many terrorists should or should not be freed or whether they have blood on their hands or not."
In a telephone interview with The Jerusalem Post, David Yosef said that neither he nor his father had consulted with military or intelligence experts before issuing the decision. "The purpose of the decision is to give halachic backing to the government if it makes the decision to free terrorists," he said. "If the experts decide that the risk of letting those terrorists go is worth taking, they should know that they are acting in accordance with Jewish law." |