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Gandhi’s Error: Why Non-Violence Alone is a Betrayal of Life

by Ram ben Ze'ev


Gandhi’s Error: Why Non-Violence Alone is a Betrayal of Life
Gandhi’s Error: Why Non-Violence Alone is a Betrayal of Life

Mahatma Gandhi is often remembered as the prophet of peace, the great teacher of non-violence. Yet a closer look reveals that his philosophy, applied absolutely, was not only naïve but destructive. Gandhi advised Jews facing Nazi annihilation to offer themselves up willingly, even to the extent of being “thrown into the sea” without resistance. He called Hitler “my friend” in his letters, hoping to appeal to some dormant conscience. This was not moral clarity; it was moral blindness.



The Torah recognises what Gandhi denied: evil thrives when permitted to do whatever it pleases. Pharaoh was not swayed by kind words. Amalek was not shamed into retreat by passive submission. The enemies of Israel throughout history were not softened by non-resistance. Evil is stopped only when it is confronted — spiritually, morally, and, when necessary, physically.


The Torah commands וחי בהם (vechai bahem – and you shall live by them). The mitzvot are given for life, not for needless death. Judaism does not sanctify walking quietly into slaughter.


Only in the rarest circumstances — idolatry, murder, and forbidden relationships — is one commanded to accept martyrdom. In all other cases, the preservation of life, pikuach nefesh (פיקוח נפש), overrides even the strictest of commandments.


By elevating non-violence above all else, Gandhi erased the sanctity of life itself. He imagined the world would be “shocked into peace” by rivers of innocent blood. History proved him wrong. The world did not weep for the millions of Jews murdered in silence; it watched, it delayed, it rationalised. Evil was emboldened, not shamed.


The Holy Zohar teaches that chesed (חסד – kindness) without gevurah (גבורה – strength) is incomplete. Mercy without discipline is not holiness, but chaos. Tanya explains that the animal soul must be subdued by the G-dly soul through strength, not indulgence. Torah demands balance. To remove the sword of justice from the world is to side with the oppressor.



Eighty years after the Shoah, history itself testifies against Gandhi’s doctrine. Despite the chants of “Never Again,” despite memorials, slogans, and so-called “education,” antisemitism today is more prevalent than it was when Hitler was murdering Jews indiscriminately. Evil does not submit to education. Evil does not worry whether the world knows. Evil thrives because it feeds upon the Yetzer Hara (יצר הרע – evil inclination) in every person, and when it is left unchecked, it overpowers good. The lesson is unmistakable: awareness alone is not defence. Only resistance rooted in Torah strength preserves life.


Gandhi’s doctrine was not universal truth; it was his truth, born of his context. For Israel, for Torah, for the world facing real Amalekim in every generation, it is no truth at all. To resist evil is not to betray peace; it is to protect the possibility of peace. To fight for life is not to abandon holiness; it is to fulfil vechai bahem.


A world that tolerates Gandhi’s romantic view of surrender risks betraying the victims of evil everywhere. A world that embraces the Torah’s demand to preserve life, and to confront evil with both kindness and strength, stands a chance of true redemption.


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