Zarog family; Photo credit: Avraham Shapira
Monday, September 23, 2019, 12:16 A letter signed by Rabbi Dov Lior, the Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Arba, who is associated with the religious-Zionist population, and Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsberg, of Chabad, in support of the Zarog family was publicized on Monday, September 23. In late August, Neriya Zarog, a 21-year old married Yitzhar resident and father of two children, was granted a hearing concerning an administrative order intended to distance him from the Shomron for three months. Since then Zarog has written a letter to the GOC of the Central Command, Major-General Nadav Padan, requesting that he not sign on the order and also on September 4 dozens of women and children from Yitzhar demonstrated opposite the Shomron Brigade Base, demanding that the GOC refrain from signing on the administrative order.
The Rabbis’ letter begins: “We support Neriya Zarog and his family, who are striving devotedly to inherit and settle our Holy Land on the hilltops of Yitzhar,” and they continue explaining the importance of the commandments to settle and protect the entire Land of Israel.
Among their arguments, the rabbis presented the security aspect: “The Torah of truth and life teaches that concessions to and weakness towards the enemy constitute a life-threatening danger. This is the reasoning of the Torah concerning ‘Torah in the Land of Israel’.” Also: “Out of gratitude, to not be ungrateful to G-d for ‘a gift from the King’, the good and spacious Land that was given into our hands by open miracles, like a father giving a gift to his beloved son.”
An additional reason presented in the letter is the sanctity of the Land: “Out of recognition of the sanctity of the Land of Israel and the necessity for its entirety (as with a Torah scroll, which is invalidated if one letter is missing).”
The rabbis concluded their letter: “Thank G-d that we have among us cherished Jewish youth who devote their hearts and souls to the three types of completeness – the completeness of the Torah, the completeness of the nation and the completeness of the Land – and are filled with a pure and holy spirit, strength and fortitude. Neriya is a candle of G-d [the literal meaning of his name], a light from G-d which repels the darkness and G-d willing will bring the complete redemption with the arrival of Mashiah soon in our days.”
Zarog himself is of the opinion that the reason for the order is “my endeavors to build up the hilltops surrounding Yitzhar.”
More than 150 women, all of them Yitzhar residents and friends of Miriam Zarog, wrote a letter to Major General Nadav Padan, demanding that he refrain from signing on a severe administrative order against her husband, Neriya. The women have explained that the order harms not only Neriya, but also Miriam and their very young children, and all without a trial or proof of any crime committed.