Israel’s chief rabbinate recently attempted to remove Shlomo Riskin—a highly regarded Modern Orthodox rabbi—from his post as chief rabbi of the town of Efrat by refusing to grant a routine waiver of the mandatory retirement age. Shlomo Brody writes that this “attempt to deploy this law capriciously, for ideological reasons . . . is an outrage,” but takes the opportunity to discuss the halakhic basis for mandatory retirement:

The Talmud [asserts that] “the older Torah scholars become, the more wisdom increases within them.” Yet the same passage also cites numerous examples of the physical and emotional toll which old age can take on elderly scholars. . . .

A second text addresses [the question of] whether old age impairs the judgment of senior jurists. The sages ruled that ideally, one should not become a judge until he has sufficiently aged. Yet they also declared that one who has become “very elderly” may no longer hear cases regarding capital crimes, fear[ing] that an elderly judge might have lost his merciful “fatherly” touch because he had forgotten the difficulty of raising children, or that, alternatively, his old age may make him impatient and mean-spirited.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.