Q&A: Robbing a Non-Jew
Robbing a Non-Jew
Question
Hello Rabbi, although it has been ruled that robbing a non-Jew is forbidden, there are certain cases in which it is halakhically permitted to rob a non-Jew. In such a case, do you think there is a moral problem with robbing?
I am inclined to think that the reason the Torah forbade stealing is a moral one (with the Torah’s command adding a religious value as well…). And if the Torah did not forbid stealing from non-Jews in certain cases, that means it is okay to steal from them. In short, that moral standards are determined by Jewish law. And even though in other cases there are moral values that the Torah did not address, and we are obligated to uphold them on our own, nevertheless with regard to theft the Torah did address it, so it is reasonable to assume that here the Torah defined for us the moral standards of theft.
Answer
Why on earth? There is no logic to that at all. The Torah only instructs us that here there is no additional religious value beyond the moral value. That’s all. And according to Rabbi Shimon Shkop, this also falls under the laws of civil justice, which is already more than morality—it is actual Jewish law.
Discussion on Answer
No, the Chazon Ish did not write that, and certainly not Rabbi Kook. I assume you mean the beginning of Faith and Trust about the schoolteachers. Read it again and you’ll see that it doesn’t say that there.
This is of course only a note for the sake of increasing Torah, because I am not bound by what those Jewish figures write, important as they may be.
To Moti, in my opinion there is logic to it. The straightforward reading is preferable. And that is what Rabbi Kook held. The Chazon Ish wrote similar things—that there is no such thing as morality, only Jewish law, and the difference is slight. Except that perhaps it should be forbidden based on the well-known words of Meiri (by the way, here too Rabbi Kook ruled in accordance with his words..)