By Rabbi Yisrael Rutman

Sonia Peres

Last week, Mrs. Sonia Peres, wife of Israel’s President Shimon Peres, passed away at the age of 87. It was reported in the media, of course, as the death of the wife of any important public figure would be. Peres is not just a national but has been an international figure for decades and condolences poured in from around the world.

Sonia Peres was noted as a private person, unusually so for so public a husband. She did not participate in his political activities, in fact shunned the publicity that would ordinarily have been her lot and that so many people crave these days. She had opposed her husband’s candidacy for the presidency of Israel, and after he won appointment by the Knesset, she refused to move with him into the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, preferring to remain in her apartment in Tel Aviv.

The brief reports about her all noted her modesty and praised her for it, along with her work in volunteer organizations. The rest of the coverage concerned her life with Shimon Peres.

But there was an important part of her life which, for some reason, did not appear in media reports, even though it was well known to those who knew Mrs. Peres. That is, that in her later years she returned to traditional Jewish observance, largely with the help of Shofar, an outreach group founded by Rabbi Amnon Yitzchak. She became Shabbat-observant, kept a kosher home, and attended lectures on the weekly Torah portion.

Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, said that she would travel to Jerusalem twice a week to buy groceries at the Machane Yehuda market and then distribute them secretly to the poor. Rabbi Lau noted that it is virtually unheard of that a person in her station in life, whose husband was once prime minister and served as foreign minister in three governments, should care about other people on this level.

Tehi zichrona varuch. May her memory be for a blessing.

Tunisia

The upheaval in Tunisia has sparked street protests in Algeria and Jordan, where governmental corruption, joblessness and high food prices are also rife. At the Arab summit last week, a fund was established to ameliorate the impoverished which prevail throughout the Arab world.

Although the ruling family in Tunisia, which was notorious for living high out of the public treasury while crushing dissent, has fled and there is hope for reform, the final outcome of events remains to be seen.

Initially, the anarchy was frightening, as dozens were killed in rioting and shootings. For now, the army seems to have things under control.

It brings to mind the dictum in Ethics of the Fathers (3:2), “Pray for the peace of the government, for without it a man would swallow up his fellow.”

Surely, no sane person would prefer anarchy to law and order. But when the government is repressive and brutal and the people live in misery, what then? Would the Jewish sages say that one should pray for the government under all circumstances? Is there no such thing as a government so manifestly evil that it would make the risk of anarchy worthwhile in order to replace it with something better? Isn’t anything better than, say, Nazism or Stalinism?

In the case of such totalitarian regimes, in which Jewish persecution—indeed persecution of religion in general—the above-mentioned words of the Sages do not apply. Instead, the rule of yahareg v’al ya’avor, one should die rather than transgress is invoked. Although a full discussion of the topic is beyond the scope of this writing, generally speaking, a Jew is expected to give up his life under certain circumstances, including systematic attempts to destroy Jewish belief and practice.

The question remains, however, when the government, however objectionable otherwise, has no particular designs on the Jewish community. Ordinarily, we live by the principle that “the law of the land is the law.” But that too is not an absolute. If the rulers behave as a law unto themselves, robbing the treasury, arresting and torturing their political opponents, and so on, then it is no longer considered “the law of the land,” and they are not deserving of our prayers. When that line is crossed, and whether Jews might even participate in the toppling of an evil government, is a matter for wise counsel at the highest levels.

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