TORAH JEWS Unbroken Chain

 The Unbroken Chain:

From the First Zionist Congress in 1897 to the present — the chronology of Torah leaders who rejected the project, in their own time, from within their own tradition.

1897

The First Zionist Congress, Basel

Orthodox rabbis across Europe — Galicia, Hungary, Lithuania — publicly reject the political program from its first day.

1917

The Balfour Declaration

Britain promises a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine — but not a Jewish state.

1924

The Eidah Chareidis is founded

Established to unite the Orthodox Jews of the Holy Land against the Zionists and their Chief Rabbinate.

1937

The Peel Commission proposes a Jewish state

At the Agudath Israel convention, Rabbi Aaron Kotler and Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman declare that any such state would be a denial of the Jewish belief in the messiah.

Agudath Israel convention

1946

The Anglo-American Committee reports

Recommending that Palestine be neither a Jewish nor an Arab state, Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl urges Zionists to accept the compromise.

R’ Michael Ber Weissmandl

1947

The UN votes for partition

As the conflict escalates, the Brisker Rav works to prevent the declaration of a state.

R’ Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik, the Brisker Rav

1948

Zionists declare independence

The declaration triggers a war in which thousands of Jews and Arabs lose their lives.

1959

Vayoel Moshe is published

The Satmar Rebbe’s three-treatise work becomes the classic text on the Torah approach to Zionism.

R’ Yoel Teitelbaum, the Satmar Rebbe

1967

After the Six-Day War

The Satmar Rebbe answers claims of divine redemption with his book Al HaGeulah V’Al HaTemurah.

R’ Yoel Teitelbaum, the Satmar Rebbe

1977

The state offers its support

Under Menachem Begin, the Israeli government begins offering tempting funding to religious schools — even non-Zionist ones that teach only Torah.

1979

Keren Hatzoloh is founded

Anti-Zionist communities establish a rescue fund to sustain the schools that refuse government money.

2003

Torah Jews is established

The Satmar community asks Rabbi Moshe Dovid Katz to carry the Rebbe’s voice into the age of mass media.

Natruna · Torah Jews

We said this before the state existed. We are saying it today: Not in our name — not now, not ever.

Prayer: The Jewish People’s Greatest Strength

March 21, 2024

The Megillah of Esther is the only book of the Tanach in which G-d’s name is not mentioned. One explanation is that the Megillah is teaching us that even when G-d is not openly revealed in the world, and no supernatural miracles occur, still He is behind the scenes, manipulating political events to protect His people in exile.

Nevertheless, there are unmistakable references to G-d in various parts of the story. For example, Esther told the Mordechai to gather the Jews and have them fast for three days. Clearly, this was a prayer gathering, as all Jewish fasts are. The message is that only mass prayer ensured that Esther’s plea to the king, and the subsequent self-defense by the Jews, was successful.

In fact, Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman writes,

We find two festivals (Purim and Chanukah) which were established for all generations as a remembrance of our escape from the evil decrees of Haman and Antiochus. But there is a difference between these two festivals. Purim was established as a day of feasting and rejoicing, whereas the eight days of Chanukah are not intended primarily for this purpose (there is no mitzvah to eat a feast on Chanukah). The reason for this is explained by the Levush (a famous work of Halacha).  The decree of Haman was to destroy us bodily, to kill and annihilate us. It is not mentioned at all that our forefathers could have saved themselves by abandoning their faith. But the decree of Antiochus was only on the soul. (Jews who abandoned the Torah were in no danger.)

Now let us see what our ancestors did then. What measures did they take to save themselves from the two decrees? We find that in response to the decree of of Haman, they gathered and fasted. Also, “Esther fell before the king’s feet and she cried and entreated him” – but it did not occur to any of the Jews to use physical means against Haman…

It is quite clear that in Haman’s time, fighting physically was not the way, and the appropriate response to the situation was to follow the example of their forefathers and cry out to G-d. But with Antiochus’ decree, while the Jews also fasted and prayed to G-d, this alone was not sufficient, and it was necessary to risk their lives in war…

If the decree is a physical one, as in Haman’s time, it is the work of G-d, and its purpose is to improve us. “The removal of the king’s signet ring (giving Haman the right to kill the Jews) was a more powerful catalyst for repentance than all the prophets.” It was a situation where there was no plan for waging war, and war would not have succeeded. (Only after the decree was annulled and the king’s army backed the Jews, were the Jews able to kill the anti-Semitic followers of Haman in self-defense.)

But if the decree is on the soul and its purpose is to make us give up our faith, and not to make us improve our ways, it is not the work of G-d, but the work of the Satan (whom G-d created to test us), and therefore in order to weaken the strength of the Satan, it is necessary for Jews to be prepared to sacrifice their lives, even through battle.

As the Torah says, “The voice is the voice of Jacob and the hands are the hands of Esau” (Bereishis 27:22), and the Midrash comments, “Jacob’s power is only through his voice, and Esau’s power is only through his hands.”

When the Jewish people were passing by the land of Edom (Esau) centuries later, they told Edom the story of how they had prayed to G-d and He had taken them out of slavery in Egypt (Bamidbar 20:16). Edom responded with a threat, “You are boasting about the blessing our father gave you: your voice. We will come out with the blessing our father gave us: you shall live by the sword.” (Rashi on v. 18)

The Jewish people’s ideal was to live by their prayer and study, not to live by the sword like Esau.

Today as well, Purim, the day when the Jewish people triumphed through prayer, is an opportune time for prayer. Let’s take this opportunity to pray to G-d for safety and peace everywhere.

 

Parsha Pearls: Parshas Netzavim-Vayelech

Not Like the Redemption Under Cyrus

G-d Favors the Underdog

Those Who Seek to Avoid Exile

Christianity, Mendelssohn and Herzl

…

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)

….

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?”

…

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.

…

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