Zionism is Idolatry
Full Reading:
https://torahjews.org/2023/11/29/parsha-pearls-rosh-hashanah
https://torahjews.org/2023/11/29/parshas-pearls-shabbos-shuvah
https://torahjews.org/2023/11/26/parsha-pearls-parshas-haazinu
G-d Favors the Underdog
Those Who Seek to Avoid Exile
Christianity, Mendelssohn and Herzl
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Rabbi Aryeh Leib Kagan, son of the Chofetz Chaim, related that once someone read to the Chofetz Chaim a line from the Haskalah newspaper Hameilitz: “We hope that some day we will be like Bulgaria, which rose up from its lowly status as a Turkish province and is today [1908] an independent nation like all other nations.” The Chofetz Chaim cried and said, “Is it for this that our blood was spilled for 1800 years – in order to reach the level of Bulgaria? The Torah says, ‘And Hashem your G-d will bring you to the land that your ancestors inherited, and you will inherit it, and He will be good to you and make you more numerous than your ancestors’ (Devarim 30:5). And it states further: ‘For Hashem will once again rejoice over you for good, as He rejoiced over your ancestors’ (ibid. v. 9). And in the words of the prophets it is written, ‘And kings will be your babysitters, and their noblewomen your nurses; they will bow to the ground to you, and lick the dirt of your feet, and you will know that I am Hashem, and those who hope to Me will not be ashamed’ (Yishaya 49:23).
“Furthermore, we are promised that the Jewish people will repent, as it states, ‘And you will repent and hearken to the voice of Hashem and do all of His commandments’ (Devarim 30:8). And the prophet Yechezkel (36:24-27) explains this more: ‘And I will take you from the nations, and gather you from the lands, and bring you to your land. And I will splash upon you pure waters and you will become pure, from all your defilements and all your idols I will purify you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will place into you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh. And My spirit I will place in your midst, and make you walk in My laws, and My ordinances you will keep and do.’ Similar prophecies are found in Yirmiyah (30:18) and Zecharya (8:7).” The Chofetz Chaim went on about this for a long time. (Kol Kisvei Chofetz Chaim, p. 78)
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Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman explained that the reason affliction allows the Jewish people to survive is because of the principle stated in the book of Koheles (3:15), “G-d looks after the pursued.”
“At a time when anti-Semites raise their voices against the Jewish people,” Rabbi Wasserman wrote in the 1930’s, “and advocate our total destruction, G-d forbid, then we begin to be persecuted and chased, and this triggers the principle that ‘G-d looks after the pursued’ – which applies no matter what, even when the pursuer is righteous and the pursued is wicked. G-d’s attribute of justice, whatever claims it may have against the Jewish people, cannot argue with this principle, it is silenced, and thus the Jews are saved from total destruction.
“We see from this that our whole strength and survival depends on us being in the role of the persecuted. G-d forbid for us to try to become persecutors! One of the three oaths that G-d made the Jewish people swear is “do not rebel against the nations” (Kesubos 111a). “Some come with chariots and some with horses, but we call in the name of Hashem our G-d.” (Tehillim 20:8) (Article entitled “The Calm Words of the Wise are Heard,” printed in Yalkut Maamarim Umichtavim, pp. 101-102)
The words of Rashi together with Rabbi Wasserman’s explanation seem to be a prophetic description of our era. After seeing the 98 curses – the terrible destruction experienced by European Jewry – many Jews said, “Who can survive these? We can no longer tolerate this exile. Let us found a state in order to prevent another Holocaust.” The Torah tells them, no! It is precisely the exile that allows you to survive. G-d takes care of the persecuted. If you turn the tables and become persecutors of other peoples, who knows if G-d will protect you?”
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It is interesting to note that the Zionist movement gained momentum in the late 1800s among “repentant” Maskilim who saw that their movement was not helping to save them from exile. The Russian pogroms of the 1870s and 1880s, in which the attackers made no distinction between enlightened Jews and religious ones, forced them to rethink their position. But their solution was not to return to Torah, but rather to find another way to escape exile: by founding their own country and learning to fight.
Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik once described the transition from Haskalah to Nationalism in a letter: “Not only my grandfather [the Netziv] supported the founding of settlements in Eretz Yisroel, but I myself liked the idea for a long time; however, the actions of the students from Charkov caused me to withhold my support. I always remember that great day [Jan. 21, 1882] when the students of several universities gathered in the great synagogue of Kiev. They fasted all day and confessed their sins, that they had become estranged from Judaism. And they came out with the slogan, “House of Jacob, let us go!” If only there had been someone who had said at that high moment, “Let us return to Hashem! Come, brothers, let us begin to be careful about keeping Shabbos and kashrus.” Nothing of the sort. All of them remained the same irreligious people they had always been. They came to Eretz Yisroel and did not improve their ways even a bit. But they crowned Ben Yehuda as their teacher, and they spread in our holy land heresy and lawlessness. Certainly we must oppose Zionism.” (Printed in the periodical Digleinu, 5720, and in the book Mara D’ara Yisroel, v. 2 p. 18.)
Herzl too conceived of Zionism after observing anti-Semitism in France during the Dreyfus trial. Prior to that he had proposed other “solutions” to the problem of exile, such as assimilation and conversion to Christianity. But after the Dreyfus trial he understood that, as the Ksav Sofer says, assimilation will not solve the problem of anti-Semitism. Instead, he proposed another way of running away from exile, not realizing that his new plan was just as doomed to failure as his old plans.
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In the end of days, the Torah foretells in Parshas Nitzavim, the “last generation” of Jews, as well as “the gentile who comes from a faraway land,” will see the desolate condition of Eretz Yisroel and ask, “Why did Hashem do this to this land? Why was this great anger aroused?” And the answer will be that they worshipped idols (29:23-25). The Brisker Rav commented: The worst part of the tragedy described here is that the Jews will be just as ignorant as the gentiles as to what caused the Jewish people’s problems. But note that only the gentiles from faraway lands will be ignorant; the gentiles from Eretz Yisroel will know well what the problem is.
What should the few remaining loyal Jews do under such conditions? Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman addresses this question:…
Full Reading:
https://torahjews.org/2023/11/26/parsha-pearls-nitzavim-vayeilech
Tags: Ksav Sofer – Torah Jews
Full Reading:
https://torahjews.org/2023/11/26/parsha-pearls-nitzavim-vayeilech
Tags: Torah Jews
The kohein gadol performed five immersions and ten hand-washings on Yom Kippur. (Yuma Chapter 3, Mishnah 3) In 1922, the Munkaczer Rebbe...
