Yossi Gurvitz Told Us What Happens When Israel Gains Power
An Israeli Jewish journalist explains the reality of Jewish law and why Christians will not be spared, even as they support Israel
Jan 10, 2026
I made this video when I found out that Yossi Gurvitz had died. I felt the need to explain who he was and why his voice mattered. Yossi was an Israeli journalist, writer, and former ultra-Orthodox Jew who spent years publicly challenging some of the most dangerous ideas inside Israeli society.
His death genuinely saddened me, and at the time it felt suspicious, especially considering the kind of work he did and the people he spent years openly confronting.
Yossi had been involved from a very young age in opposing Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is now a powerful figure in Israeli politics and represents the most extreme end of religious nationalism. Ben-Gvir openly promotes Jewish supremacy and supports policies that normalize collective punishment and the removal of non-Jews. Yossi stood against that current long before it became fashionable or safe to do so. He also stood almost alone among Israeli Jews in openly exposing what rabbinic Judaism actually teaches in its own authoritative texts, without disguising it or translating it into something more palatable for outsiders.
Judaism Exposed – Thank You Yossi ( click here to watch)
When you listen to Yossi speak, it is important to understand who you are listening to. He was not an outsider. He was not hostile to Jews. He was an Israeli Jew who grew up inside a Hasidic yeshiva and was educated within the rabbinic system itself. He knew the texts because he studied them. He knew the logic because he was trained in it. His criticism came from familiarity and from disillusionment, not from ignorance. What he describes is not an exaggeration meant to shock. It is how the system looked to someone who lived inside it and later stepped away.
Here is the video from the YouTube channel of my favorite investigative journalist, David Sheen. I encourage you to listen to it carefully before reading my summary of Yossi’s speech.
Yossi Gurvitz – When Israel is Mighty ( click to watch)
Yossi begins by challenging the central story rabbinic Judaism tells about itself. This is the well known claim that Moses received the Torah, passed it to the elders, the elders to the prophets, and that this chain continued without interruption until today.
This story is used to create the impression that nothing essential has ever changed and that modern rabbinic rulings are simply ancient wisdom unfolding naturally. Yossi does not accept this. He argues that this story is not history but mythology, designed to protect authority from scrutiny. In his view, rabbinic Judaism did not gradually mature or correct itself. It solidified roughly eighteen hundred years ago and then stopped moving.
What followed was not moral development but refinement of ideas that were already embedded in the Mishnah and the Talmud.He then turns to something many Israelis are never clearly taught.
Judaism today is not primarily a religion of the Hebrew Bible. It is a religion of the Talmud.
The rabbis who compiled the Talmud were also the ones who decided which books would count as scripture and which would not. Texts that did not align with their worldview were excluded. Books like Maccabees, Judith, and Tobit were not preserved by Judaism at all. They survived only because Christian communities preserved them, often in Greek. Judaism itself did not keep them.
Because of this process, Yossi argues that pre-rabbinic Judaism was largely erased. We know there were different Jewish groups, such as the Sadducees and the Pharisees, and likely the Essenes as well, but we know very little about them in any clear way. The reason, he says, is simple.
The Pharisees won.
They became rabbinic Judaism, and they wrote the story. They even created holidays to mark their victories while removing the voices of their rivals. What we are left with today are fragments, while rabbinic tradition presents a smooth and continuous history that never really existed.
From there, Yossi moves to what he sees as the moral structure of rabbinic law. He argues that rabbinic Judaism creates a hierarchy of human value. At the top are observant Jewish men. They alone are treated as fully human in the legal sense. Jewish women have fewer rights. Jewish slaves [had] even fewer.
Non-Jews exist outside the moral community altogether. They are not treated as equals. Their treatment depends on circumstance and power.
Yossi explains how this works in real terms. Rabbinic law technically forbids killing non-Jews, but it does not meaningfully punish it. Killing a Jew carries real consequences. That can mean fines, imprisonment, or even death. This applies even if the victim is a Jewish woman or a Jewish slave. Killing a non-Jew, by contrast, is treated as a sin without earthly punishment. The person is told that God will judge it. Yossi’s point is simple. When something is called a crime but carries no penalty, it is not treated as a real crime.
As rabbinic law develops, even this weak restraint begins to disappear.
Later legal texts describe situations in which killing non-Jews is permitted outright. Because these rulings were written during times when Jews lacked political power, they are often written in coded language, referring to idol worshipers or pagans. Yossi points out that by that time there were no pagan idol worshipers in Europe or the Muslim world. The audience knew exactly who was being discussed.
He singles out Maimonides as especially disturbing.
According to Yossi’s reading, Maimonides rules that sexual relations with a girl as young as three years and one day are legally recognized. Even worse, if a Jewish man has sexual relations with a non-Jewish girl of that age, the punishment falls on the child, not on the man.
The girl is to be executed because she is said to have caused him to sin. She is compared to an animal that causes a stumbling block.
Yossi stresses that these rulings are not obscure. They appear in authoritative texts. He also notes that rabbinic tradition itself seems to understand how catastrophic these laws would be if applied openly, which is why they are usually hidden behind theory.
This leads to what Yossi sees as one of the most important mechanisms in rabbinic ethics. There are two legal realities. One operates under the principle of acting for the sake of peace. Under this principle, many laws are not enforced because enforcing them would lead to violence or retaliation. The other reality applies when Israel’s hand is strong.
That means when Jews have sovereignty and military power.
In that situation, the restraints fall away. The laws are meant to be applied as written. In this system, ethical behavior toward non-Jews is not grounded in universal morality.
It depends on power. Peace is a tactic, not a value.
To show what this looks like when power exists, Yossi turns to history. The Maccabean revolt is often celebrated as a fight for religious freedom. Yossi insists that the aftermath tells a different story.
Once the Hasmoneans gained power, they destroyed non-Jewish temples, conquered surrounding territories, and forcibly converted entire populations at sword point.
The Idumeans were among those forced to convert. These acts resemble later religious atrocities that Jews rightly condemn when committed by others. Yossi’s point is that Jewish power does not soften this system. It activates it.
He argues that the same thing is happening today through religious Zionism.
Religious Zionists look at the modern State of Israel and see Jewish sovereignty and a Jewish army. They interpret this as a divine signal. They believe God wants the messianic process pushed forward now and the Temple rebuilt now. To justify this, they return to medieval authorities like Maimonides and discard the restraints that existed during exile.In this worldview, there is no real difference between the present age and the messianic age except who rules.
If Jews rule, the conditions are already in place. A king does not need prophecy or divine confirmation. If he conquers successfully, he can be declared the Messiah afterward. Victory becomes proof.
From here, Yossi says, the logic moves toward exclusion. Non-Jews cannot have a permanent place in the land. Religious Zionism ultimately demands a Jewish-only territory. While Judaism historically found it easier to coexist with Muslims than with Christians, current conflict overrides that. Once Muslims are defined as enemies, restraints disappear.
Rabbinic works like Torat HaMelech argue that killing non-Jewish children may be permitted if they are seen as future threats. Yossi exposes the cruelty of this logic. If you destroy someone’s family, take their land, and turn them into a refugee, you then justify killing them by claiming they might seek revenge.
He also speaks directly about Christians.
In rabbinic theology, Christianity is often classified as idolatry. That classification makes Christians legitimate targets in theory even when they are not fighting. Yossi describes routine harassment of Christian clergy in Jerusalem, including spitting and vandalism of churches. He does not see these acts as isolated. He sees them as the natural result of beliefs that are quietly tolerated because they fit the theology.
Throughout all of this, Yossi places his critique within modern Israeli politics. He opposed figures like Ben-Gvir long before they became mainstream. In his view, what we are seeing now is not a distortion of Judaism but the political activation of ideas that were always there and held back only by centuries without power.
He ends with a warning, especially to evangelical Christians who support Israel financially and politically.
Many believe they are part of a shared biblical mission. Yossi argues they do not understand how rabbinic Judaism actually views them. They are not seen as partners. They are seen as idolaters at best and enemies at worst. What they are supporting is not simply a nation state, but a religious ideology whose internal logic leads toward exclusion and sanctioned violence.
That is why Yossi’s voice mattered. When you listen to him, you are hearing someone who spoke from inside the system and chose to expose what he believed was hidden, even knowing the cost.
A Note to My Readers :
After watching the video, will you take what Yossi said seriously ? You do not need to watch my video if you don’t want to. Watch the shorter one posted by David Sheen. It goes straight to the point and lets Yossi speak for himself.
Yossi was not speculating. He was not interpreting this from the outside. He was an insider. He grew up inside the system. He knew how rabbinic Jews are taught to think, how Jewish law is framed, how restraint works only when Jewish power is absent, and what changes when Jewish power arrives. He warned about this long before it became visible on the world stage.
He warned you.
So I am asking you now. Will you repeat what he said to Zionist Christians who still believe they are exempt. Will you say it out loud when people insist that support of Israel buys safety or favor or protection. Will you acknowledge that the theology they are funding does not see them as partners and never has.
If this mattered to you, if this clarified something you have been struggling to understand, then please put your voice next to mine. Share this work. Share my Substack. Not because it flatters me, but because silence is how these things continue unchecked.
Yossi did his part. Now the question is whether we will do ours.
Jana
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