Sefer ‘Kibbutz Galuyos’ by Rabbi Chananya Weissman

Today at 4PM Israel time, and every Wednesday at this time, is my weekly Torah class. The new Zoom link to join the live class is below. If you previously registered for the classes, you must use this new link.

https://us05web.zoom.us/j/82043721443?pwd=Ido6V2cqkBNIkvXoxdoq51TBhVbWVK.1

Despite Eretz Yisrael’s central place in the Torah and Jewish life, the issue of living there before Moshiach comes has become a matter of great controversy within Torah-minded circles. There are typically two stereotypes when it comes to this question:

1) The aliya cheerleader

2) The three oaths fundamentalist / Israel basher

The aliya cheerleader relentlessly promotes aliya for one and all, touts both the spiritual and material benefits of life in Israel, reassures his audience that the difficulties of moving to Israel and living there are manageable and often overblown, and warns that the diaspora is bound to become increasingly inhospitable, to put it mildly.

With few exceptions, the aliya cheerleader also tends to be a pom-pom-waving Zionist, who celebrates Israel’s every achievement, no matter how secular (Olympic medals, Nobel Prizes, Eurovision Awards, hi-tech startups, and even being abomination friendly), reveres the IDF with every fibre of his being, staunchly defends Israel and the IDF against all criticism, falls head over heels for any gentile who expresses “support” for Israel (even so little as Israel’s “right to exist” and “right to defend itself”), collaborates with Christian missionary “friends” seeking a stronger foothold in our land, and loathes no one on earth more than Jewish brothers in black hats who have antipathy toward the state and are unwilling to “serve” in its Torah-trampling army. (Genocidal terrorists are a distant second.)

When the state commits atrocities against its own people, such as violently throwing them out of their homes and giving away their land, persecuting citizens and soldiers who defend themselves from attacks, kidnapping and imprisoning Jews without due process, torturing confessions out of innocent people when they need a “Jewish terrorist” (Amiram ben Uliel), the Ringworm affair, the Yemenite Children affair, giving land and weapons to our external enemies, sending soldiers to battle under suicidal rules of engagement, refusing to decisively win a war even when victory is there for the taking, and so much more — the aliya cheerleader shakes his head in dismay, blames it all on leftists, the deep state, and American pressure, and then goes on waving his pom-poms the same as before.

Nothing will change his relationship with the state. No matter how much he is betrayed and abused, the aliya cheerleader will go on waving his pom-poms and the double-pyramid flag with unwavering devotion, while generally covering up or blithely explaining away the dark truths about the state. He has no choice, since otherwise he cannot effectively promote aliya.

The aliya cheerleader is intellectually dishonest.

The three oaths fundamentalist may or may not believe that a single cherry-picked Torah source taken wildly out of context and blown way out of proportion justifies an entire ideology that prohibits Jews from returning to Eretz Yisrael in large numbers and living under their own governance before Moshiach comes.

The vast majority of people who cite these oaths as a reason for remaining in galus — if not THE reason — have absolutely no interest in the Torah’s actual position on the subject, because they want to stay in galus no matter what, and conveniently latch on to whatever supports their choice after the fact. Like so many others who play this game, they are not actually searching for guidance from the Torah and subjugating themselves to Hashem’s will, but hijacking the Torah to suit themselves, while giving off the appearance of religious devotion.

The three oaths fundamentalist is also intellectually dishonest.

This is why he will further justify his position by bashing not just the un-Jewish state, but everything about life in Eretz Yisrael. He delights in this with the same passion as the worst Jew-haters, seizing every opportunity to defame not just the ruling class, but good sincere Jews who resettle the land and make the best of it. The three oaths fundamentalist also shares the Jew-haters’ total lack of nuance and intellectual honesty, penchant for hypocrisy and double standards, lack of critical thinking skills, odious disposition, and even vulgarity.

Then there are those who break stereotypes, who are intellectually honest, and care far more about what the Torah actually teaches than the social approval of a community of clones and drones who are supposed to think alike, or pretend to.

I strongly believe that, barring exceptional circumstances, all Jews should move to Eretz Yisrael or at least seriously aspire to at the earliest feasible time.

I also strongly believe that the founders of the un-Jewish State of Israel were, for the most part, extremely wicked people, and those who continue to rule the land are Erev Rav, who are waging physical and spiritual war against the Jewish people from within, while using their perceived status as representatives of the Jewish people to incite hatred against actual Jews, especially Torah-observant Jews, around the world (as if our enemies need any encouragement).

I strongly believe both of these statements because both of them are true and well-grounded in the Torah. They do not contradict each other.