Page 4-The Ganadian Jewish News, Thursday, June 1, 1989
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RABBI MOSES J. BtlRAK QUESTION: As we apfMiiadi Shavuoth, I would like to Imow: Does the nian who consecrates himself to the study of Torah recdve any sptecial iMivUf^?
ANSWER: Rabbi Nechmya.ben Ha-hma, in Chapter 3:6, of Ethics of the Fathers said: "Whosoever receives upon himself the ycke of the Torah, from him the yoke of the kingdom and the of worldly care will be removed. : . .
Chief Rabbi J. H. Hertz z.l. states in his commentary on this passage that *' We have no evidence that either the Roman government remitt^ taxation in the
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Rabbi Burak
case of scholars, or that the communities paid these. . . . But the Code Yoreh De'ah, Chapter 243 tells us in its Chapter heading that the talmid chacham was free of taxes, and paragraph 1 states that "a thing that isneeded for the defence of the city, for exJample, the walls of the city and its turrets, and the payment for the guards, for these they were riot Obligated to make any payment at all, for their Torah protects them." ■
There are other privileges granted those who occupy themselves excJusively-with-Jthc study of Torah. Even the non-Jewish world has a similar attitude, and in an earlier responsum on this matter, I wrote: "Civilized nations do not draft theo-logues. for army services. Israel is a civilized country. Therefore Yeshiva students should be permitted to spend their time studying Torah," and be free from military service.
In a sharp rejoinder, an opponent of this view replied: ''Civilized nations in fact ought to draft theologians for army service. Israel is a civilized country, therefore yeshiva students ought to be required to serve in Israel's defence forces."
This overlooks an unknown ruling by Mai-monides, which ought to be placed before all men who intend t6 discourse Or write on this subject. It is found in Hilchos Shemittah, Chapter 13* laws 12 and 13:
">yherefore did Levy not gain an inheritance in , the land of Israel and in the pflunder thereof, with his brothers? Because he was separated to worship . Hashem, and to serve Him, and to teach His just ways to the (immunity, as it is written: 'They shall teach Jacob Thine ordinances, and Israel Thy law.' (Deuteronomy, 3:10)
^'Therefore were they seimrated from the ways of ttie world. They don't w^;e war like the rest of Israel. And they do not acquire tilings for thonselves by the might of their hands. But^ they are the army of Hashem, as it is written (in Deutcrmiomy 33:11) 'Bless, Lwd, he army.'-(The Hebrew word is diaik); it can mean his substance, or his army. The Rambam chose the latter interpretation).
"And this applies not just to the tribe of Levy, but to each and every man throughout the world whose spirit moves him to donate himself, and whose intellect makes hini understand that he should separate himself and stand before the Lord,.
It was tlw Gaon Rabbi IsserZalnian Meltzer i'l. who cited this Rambam to Ben Gurion as the basis for leaving all students of Toriaii to their studies, even in that desperate hour. Should you say that this was to be expected of a Lithuianian Ro«h Yeshiva, here is \yhat I^bbi Isaac Haleyy Herzog z.l. isaid in an address in Tel Aviv in the year 5703, as fouikl in his Heichal Yitzchak, EVEN ha-EZER, ■page 23:' V;-
"Come and let us give honor and glory to our soldiers who serve . . .for the honor of Israel, to save the Jewish people, and to save the Land of Israel, and to save justice and human freedom . .
"But, as in the days of Hezekiah King of Judah, the nation requires two types of armies: one that stands amid the conflkt of war and guards the land of Israel, and a spiritual army that guards her sphitual treasures for gib-borai chayil and for gibborai ruach.*^
Protection at wall for women
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CJN NEWS SERVICES
CASABLANCA, Morocco —
Arab leaders concluded an extraordinary sununit last week by endorsing the PLC's recognition of Israel, but failed to persuade Syria to loosen its military grip on Lebanon in efforts to end that country's civil ■. war.
The outcome quashed hopes by moderate Arab leawiers that the presence of Egypt at an Arab summit for the first time in 10 years might lead to progress in ending the 14-year-old Lebanese crisis.
The emergency Arab League sununit opened to discuss the Palestinian issue as well as the crisis in Lebanon, where more than 400 people have died in the latest round of Christian-Moslem fighting that began • in mid-March.
On the Palestinian issue, the summit's final resolution backed Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat and endorsed the PLO's indirect recognition of Israel.
As for Lebanon, the Arab leaders created a mediation panel formed by Moroccan King Hassan, Saudi King Faud and Algerian President Chadli Benjedid.
The resolution said Arab support of the Palestmian cause should continue so the Palestinian people "under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization, their sole and legitimate rqiresentative, conthiue to escalate their honoic upri^ agafalst Israeli occupation.*''
The resolution endorsed Arafat's campaign for a 2-state solution to the Middle East question, as outlined at a Nov. 15 meeting in Algiers by the Palestine National Council, the PLC parliament in exile. J "The summit supports the position of the PLC on UN Security Council reso^ lutions 242 and 338," the final summit statement said. The UN resolutions recognize Israel's right to exist and call for aii Israeli
withdrawal from the occupied lands.
The sununit resolution called for Hassan to contact UN Security Council members to start preparations for an international Middle East conference.
The resohitkm rejected Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's plan for elections of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip to mediate an interim solution to the 17-month-old Palestinian uprising.
The Arab League called the plan "an attempt to strike at the intifada and sidestep the PLC and the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.
Arafat told the final session, "The intifada will continue wave after wave until we all will pray in Jerusalem, the capital of our independent Palestinian state."
Arafat and Assad, previously at odds, met twice during the summit, the first attended by Egypt since its membership was suspended for signing a peace treaty with Israel 10 yiears ago.   ■ ■
"The summit welcomes, in its opening session the delegation of the Arab Republic of Egypt," the final summit statement said.
But tensions between Syria arid Iraq forced the postponement of the final session for two days running, as King Hassan sought a face-saving compromise on Lebanon.
Syria flatly rejected a proposal by King Hussein of Jordan to withdraw its 15,000 troops from West Beirut.
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The Jerusalem Post
reports:
Syria, Egypt and the PLO all proved to be winners at last week's Arab League summit in Casablanca, and the resolutions agreed to there will alter the balance of power in the Middle East for some time to come.
"This was a very, very important summit, perhaps one of the most important," said Avner Yaniv, a poitical science professor at
Haifa University. "Egypt returned from the cold, but
so did Syria. Damascus had been completely isolated in the Arab world because of its policies.
"The Arab balance of power will be affected in major ways because of the 'sulha' in Casablanca," he observed, referring to the high-profile reconciliation meetings that were held between Syrian President Hafez Assad, the PLC and Egypt.
While bickering over Lebanon threatened to wreck-.the summit altogether, in the end Egypt and the PLO both received what they were looking for in the way of a boost for Arafat's moderate peace strategy.
And iSyria finally forced moderates — and rival Iraq — to back down on demands for Damascus's withdrawal from Lebanon.
Gulf states apparently saw Syria as an important counterweight to Iraq's awesome military might, particularly now since the Gulf war has ended.
Egypt, Iraq's staunchest. ally during the war, ultimately put a greater premium on drawing Assad into the peace process than on standing up to him over Lebanon. The PLO, likewise, has long sought a reconciliation with Assad and thus couldn't risk antagonizing him.
Syria, meanwhile, has paid for itis victory on the Lebanon issue in the currency of concessions to the PLO.
: As a result, the PLO's version of a text backing the Palestinian cause and "recognizing" the self-declared Palestinian state was approved at the summit virtually intact.
In that text, for the first tinje ever, Arab states called for the convening of an international conference "with the aim of reaching a final resolution of the conflict based on Resolu-Uons 242 and 338."
The text will be less palatable to the Americans than.Arafat's own declarations of December 1988, because it adds that a peace conference also should be based on "all other UN resolutions pertaining to the Palestinian Arab-Israeli conflict.
MADRID (JTA) -
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir wound up a 5-day Eiin^ean trip here last week, professing to be satisfied with the responses he got to Israel's peace plan from the leaders of Britain and Spain.
Although neither Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, with whom Shamir conferred hi Lon-. don, nor his Spanish host. Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez Marquez, endorsed the plan, each promised to give it "serious consideration,'' Shamir said.
Gonzalez told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency after a state dinner in Shamir's honor that "Spain will explore all the avenues of the Israeli peace initiative;"
But he repeated his warning that the plan is doomed unless the Palestine Liberation Organization is given a role in the peace process.
Gonzalez said he had accepted Shamir's invitation to visit Israel, but no date was set.
The Israeli plan calls for
Palestinian elections in th« West Bank and Gaza Strip to choose representatives with whom Israel would negotiate a 5-year interim period of Palestinian self-rule in the territories.
Shamir acknowledged that both Thatcher and Gonzalez had pressed him for details, particularly on voting rights for East Jerusalem Arabs and international supervision of the elections.
He said it was far too early to answer such questions.
Sources close to the Prime Minister said he was "deeply unpressed" by Gonzalez, and that in light of Madrid's excellent ties with Arab states, the use of Madrid as an intermediary should not be ruled out.
He adamantly ruled out "now and forever" the idea of an international peace conference to bring about an end to the Middle East conflict. He claimed such a conference would inevitably lead to a Palestinian state.
Rome synagogue attacker is sentenced in absentia
ROME (JTA) -
A Palestinian terrorist who carried out an attack seven years ago on Rome's, main synagogue was sentenced in absentia last week to life imprisonment.
Osama Abdel al-Zomar, 28, was convicted by a Rome court of organizing the Oct. 9,1982, attack, in which a 3-year-old Jewish boy was killed and 37 others wounded.
Last year, Greece refused Italy's request to extradite Zomar, who was serving a jail term in Greece on charges of smuggling weapons into the country. Zomar was quietly deported from Greece to Libya in De^ cember by the Greek justice minister at the time, Vassilis Rotis, who called him a "freedom
fighter.^'
The Italian government was furious and summoned the Greek ambassador hefe to ask for an explanation. Rotis was subsequently removed from the justice position, for reasons that remain unclear.
The Italians then asked Libya to extradite Zomar. After determining that Libya would not deport him, Italy proceeded with a trial in absentia.
Most of the evidence in the trial came from Zomar's former Italian girlfriend, whom he reportedly told he was going to organize the synagogue attack.
Two men who were thought to have acted with him have never been identified. The mastermind of the attack is believed to have been the shadowy Palestinian terrorist/Abu Nidal.
JERUSALEM (JPFS) -
The "Women of the Wall" are to get full police protection during their public prayers at the Western Wall, but they will have to wait for seven months for theBigh Court of Justice to deal with their demand to read from the Torah and wear prayer shawls at that sacred site.
The women had petitioned the High Court nam-
ing as respondents the police, the religious affairs ministry, Israel's two chief rabbis and Yehuda Getz, the rabbi at the Western
Wall.
The court also gave the stateattomey until Dec. 31 to show cause why the women should not be allowed to read the Torah at the Wall or wear prayer shawls there.
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