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HOLIDAY READING ISRAEL AS A JEWISH STATE

Rabbi Rami Brachyahu

Applying Halacha

in Israel’s Police Force

he Police is the most important wife to hospital and reports a vehicle type of camera allowed on Shabbat?
security organization in Israel, blocking their exit from the parking The Head of the Camera Department
Teven more than the IDF. If the lot. As a local Rabbi, if such a ques- explained to me that the filming itself
entire police force took a week’s vaca- tion came to me, I would give him (or the fact that people know about
tion, the country would collapse, even my vehicle. But it is impossible to run it) often prevents violence – both by
without an external enemy. a country like that. Halacha cannot civilians and by police –- and they also
In the Torah, there is no commandment afford not to answer such a problem. make a crucial contribution to gather
to establish an army. The mitzvah is On one hand, it is clear the police must evidence of disorder and the like.
to appoint םי ִ ר ְ ט ֹׁש ְ ו םי ִ ט ְ פ ֹׁש, judges and work on Shabbat, but on the other, we In general, whenever we can lower
policemen. Not soldiers,or firefighters cannot issue a comprehensive heter the severity of a ban from deOrayta
or even doctors. Why is this? Not only (permit) for all police work on Shabbat, to deRabbanan, we try to do so. We
because internal security is a prereq- irrespective of what that work is. want to make a police career attractive
uisite for a normal society, but also For example, is it a clear operational to observant Jews too and for religious
because of the tendency to underesti- need for an investigative team following people to feel comfortable going to
mate it. Without people responsible for members of a criminal organization, police stations to submit complaints or
public order, bribery, corruption and gathering evidence to convict them,
violence will simply erode the founda- to continue to do so on Shabbat? Yes, calls for help on Shabbat. I am pleased
to say the Police are developing halachi-
tions of society. because daily surveillance is key here, cally-based tools to accommodate the
I am often asked: can an observant Jew and the aim is to curtail crime as soon religious population.
serve in the Police? as possible. Sabbath observance is of course not the
Imagine a religious patrol officer receiv- What about public corruption cases? only issue that raises halachic questions
ing a call on Friday night from someone They often take months, if not years. in the Police. For example, undercover
complaining that a neighbor is playing In such cases there is no great urgency operatives sometimes have to sit in
his music too loudly. How does this that demands work on Shabbat. You can Arab restaurants, where they serve
relate to pikuach nefesh, the only reason stop on Friday and continue on Sunday. non-kosher food. One of them came
one can break Shabbat? In my position as Rabbi of the Israeli to me, expressing his dilemma in such

The officer might talk to his command- Police, I have to be deeply familiar with a situation. I asked him if he could say
he was a vegetarian, but he told me that
ers and ask them to exempt him from the myriad departments and assign- declaring yourself a vegetarian in an
shifts on Shabbat, or to transfer him ments in order to give a halachic answer. Arab restaurant is something that can
to assignments touching upon pikuach I must understand what is clearly and arouse suspicion. So I told him: “Your
nefesh – but this is not a systemic urgently operational and what is not; safety is the highest priority here. If
solution. what is societal pikuach nefesh and what
is not. Halachic sensitivity (in the Police there is the slightest doubt, there is no
It is important to realize that the Police as much as anywhere else too) is needed doubt, and your eating there is part
bear broad responsibility for the well- to understand different roles, different of the mitzvah you are involved in in
being of the country’s citizens. Much situations and different people. protecting the country and its citizens.”
of its mission is to establish law and
order, a new category hardly discussed Ever-evolving technology also sparks
in halachic discourse. a slew of new halachic questions. The
classic example is body cameras. Police-
Suppose one receives a call on Shabbat men and women sometimes have a Rabbi Rami Brachyahu is the Chief Rabbi
from someone who needs to drive his camera attached to their shirts. Is this of the Israel Police.

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