When I received a request to sign the Orthodox rabbinic letter on Gaza initiated by Rabbi Yosef Blau, I read it and found it too deficient to sign. I have since learned that others, who did sign it, also found it deficient, but they signed “because a statement had to be made.”

In dealing with matters of life and death, it is not enough to “make a statement.” Any statement must be carefully calibrated. It must reflect the full range of the facts on the ground, not just some; and it must grapple with the full range of the moral questions the war raises, not just some. It must take into account the agonizing quandaries imposed on, not chosen by, Israel and the Jewish people since Oct. 7, 2023.

Nothing in the interim has changed my mind. If anything, I could have then, and could now, expat

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