A friend of mine, who is also a scholar with some knowledge of this troubled region, once said that people who have been in Israel and Palestine for one week, go home and write a book about it. Those who have spent a month there go home and write an article. Those who have been there for a year keep their mouths shut.
Excerpted from Aaron Benjamin Zacharias.
מתוך פורום קדושת ציון:
כעת ע”י הצטרפות לרבבות עם ישראל ללימוד דף היומי שבת ס”ז, אני נפגש כעת עם הפסוק
ישעיהו פרק סה פסוק יא
וְאַתֶּם עֹזְבֵי יְקֹוָק הַשְּׁכֵחִים אֶת הַר קָדְשִׁי הַעֹרְכִים לַגַּד שֻׁלְחָן וְהַמְמַלְאִים לַמְנִי מִמְסָךְ:
מלשון הפסוק משמע שיש שלשה סוגי עוזבי ה’, אחד, ששוכחים את הר הבית , שנית, עורכים לגד שולחן, זה סוג של ע”ז כמבואר
תלמוד בבלי מסכת שבת דף סז עמוד ב
רבי יהודה אומר: גד אינו אלא לשון עבודה זרה, שנאמר הערכים לגד שלחן
שלישית, ממלאים למני ממסך, סוג של ניסוך לכוכב מסוים. ונשמע שאף שמי שלא עובד ע”ז אלא שוכח את הר הבית , זה כבר בבחינת עוזבי ה’, ונמנה עם מי שבאמת עובד ע”ז, ואילו כל הטענה היתה רק משום שעובדים ע”ז, למה לנביא לדבר על ששוכחים את הר הבית, אלא משמע ששכחת הר הבית לבד טענה חזקה.
When the Jews in Russia were suffering from persecutions, the Chofetz Chaim convened a meeting of rabbis to enact a public fast due to the situation. All the rabbis signed and the Chofetz Chaim asked Rav Chaim Brisker to add his signature too. However, Rav Chaim would not sign, and the Chofetz Chaim sent a messenger to find out why. Rav Chaim explained that the main purpose of a fast is to open up the heart to repentance, as it says (Taanis 16a), “Neither sackcloth nor fast is effective, but only repentance and good deeds”, and as the prophet has already stated expressly (Yeshaya 58:6), “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the fetters of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?” Furthermore, the Rambam says (H. Ta’anis 1:17) that when the Beis Din enact a public fast they must sit together and examine the deeds of the town’s inhabitants, and warn them and remove any obstacles from the generation. Only then does the fast serve a purpose. Hence, Rav Chaim concluded, the rabbis must first meet in order to discuss what needs to be amended based on the situation of the generation, and only subsequently enact a fast.
(Excerpted from Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch’s public letter on Corona of 23 Adar 5780)
I received the following letter before the present upheaval (lightly edited):
I have a friend who learns in Yeshiva in Yerushalayim but intends to live in London after he marries.
He believes with all his heart and soul that we are still in גלות and that it’s some kind of מצווה to remain in Chutz La’aretz until the coming of Mashiach.
He claims to base his beliefs on the teaching of Rav Hirsch: he was against Rav Kalischer and the whole the חובבי ציון movement.
I asked him what משיח coming even means, he said even the Rambam didn’t know.
He’s not against Jews living here and building communities, but he really believes that HASHEM wants him to live in London until ביאת הגואל.
His other reasons include: “my Yekkishe Kehillah is in London and I daven best there”, “Medinat Yisrael is anti-frum”, “Israeli society is too intense for me”, “I can’t become a lawyer in Israel and that’s my career path”, “יראת שמים and working here is difficult”.
What do you believe is the source of such a mindset?
Well, dear readers, what do you say?