The Israel Police reported Wednesday that it arrested a 36-year-old Jerusalem resident after discovering a letter near his home threatening to kill Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.
The letter, addressed to the former chief rabbi, Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, requested a “din rodef” (pursuer’s law) ruling against the attorney general. “The mixed multitude (a group of non-Israelites who left Egypt with the Israelites during the Exodus) defiles God’s name through actions against the Torah world; I’m willing to kill the attorney general if I get approval from three elders. Without it, I won’t act,” the letter said.
The suspect, located at his home in southern Jerusalem, was taken for questioning, with police planning to request an extension of his detention at a court hearing on Thursday to continue the investigation.
The letter prompted swift action. Religious Services Ministry Director-General Yehudah Avidan wrote to Police Commissioner Danny Levy, relaying an urgent alert from Rabbi Yosef’s office. “The rabbi’s office warned of a credible threat endangering the attorney general’s life. Upon receiving this intent, Rabbi Yosef instructed me to urgently forward it to you for action, per Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s directive,” Avidan said.
“Upon receiving the report, we launched an immediate investigation to locate the suspect who left this letter. We treat any attempt to threaten or harm public figures with utmost seriousness and will act decisively to hold accountable those using threats or violence against officials or anyone else,” the police later added.
The “din rodef” concept, a Jewish legal allowance to harm or kill someone posing an immediate threat, requires action only to save the pursued, with limits set by the Talmud and Maimonides. If the threat can be neutralized by injuring a limb rather than killing, lethal force is forbidden and considered murder.
It also applies to a “burglar entering at night,” where killing is permitted due to potential danger if resisted and extends to unintentional life threats, like a fetus endangering a mother’s life during pregnancy, where some halachic opinions allow termination.
The arrest echoes the 1995 assassination of then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, where Yigal Amir sought halachic justification, claiming rabbis deemed it a mitzvah (commandment) to kill him.
Amir cited vague rabbinical responses, like one parting with “the wise will understand,” and misinterpreted a rabbi’s view that no Jewish threat to Rabin existed as tacit approval, despite the rabbi’s intent.
Amir later told friend Dror Adani, convicted of conspiracy in the murder, that his halachic research confirmed the act’s legitimacy, though Amir's former girlfriend Margalit Har-Shefi clarified a rabbi’s stance against reporting him was not an endorsement.