1 Response to Religious Violence and the Radical Settler Youth’s Quest for Authenticity

1. milx says:

   January 29, 2016 at 1:20 pm

   Much of this I agree with and thank you for sharing. I do have some quibbles though, or complications. Mirsky concludes his article by writing that the hilltop youth are not rebelling against their education but against their educators, that they are radicalizing “these teachings,” and through “their fundamentalist understanding of them” they “create an authentic Jewish existence for these individuals.” However this does not explain areas where their radicalization has drawn them into explicit rejection of these teachings. As far as I can tell there is no interpretation or leniency in the Torah for cutting down an enemy’s olive tree, and in fact, to the contrary there are explicit verses that ban the practice (Deut 20:19). And yet this has still become a part of תג מחיר. Surely it is not ignorance that leads hilltop youth to violate explicit verses of the Torah, but then what is it?

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