העורך Editor

Aliyah in the Face of Tyranny and Stockholm Syndrome – What To Tell a Diaspora Jew

Question

Shavua Tov,

I am referring this issue particularly to you two – Hyehudi editor and R’ Chananya – as people who are pro yishuv Eretz Yisroel and anti government-organized crime (i.e. vaccination, especially when compulsory for all intents and purposes).

I had a long conversation with someone the other day about the possibilities of living in Eretz Yisroel today. He is currently in the U.S. and does feel connected to Eretz Yisroel, but takes big issue with the government, and with the brainwashing campaign that seems to be quite successful – this is his impression from the information he’s exposed to, such as the enormous percentage of people who have been vaccinated here etc. He says that even where he lives, in California, a die-hard Democrat state, the percentage of vaccinations is only about 40%. He is very uncomfortable with the Israeli government’s encroaching on all basic rights, privacy, etc., and for this reason, he doesn’t see himself making the move to Eretz Yisroel (assuming he would be de facto under their jurisdiction), at least as long as this kind of government (and, for the most part, accompanying brainwashed populace) is in place here in Eretz Yisroel.
What’s your take on this? Is this a legitimate/appropriate reason to forgo yishuv Eretz Yisroel for now? Please back this up with sources and/or sevaros.
Thank you!
(I don’t know how Rabbi Chananya Weissman responded.)
Here is my response:
Dear R’ _____,
I don’t reject his basic perspective. I’m not against multiple-citizenship, for instance. I also agree with your own view, to wit, one shouldn’t pressure people into this decision before they’re ready (I don’t always resist temptation, myself, though online I hold “אין קריאה אלא לדעת”). Halachically speaking? No comment.
But is Ploni computing the downsides of staying put?
Also, when you Socratically “peel” an anti-tyranny Jew, asking what’s so bad about the loss of rights, and, in turn, what’s so bad about being less of a “person”, etc., the answer is ultimately the hindrance to Judaism. Well, one cannot be a good Jew outside Israel, anyway, so the argument is often self-defeating.
Historically, Jews stayed here under worse regimes and worse problems (“Government should be a Kapparah!”).
(Diaspora Jews usually make good points, by the way, but vaccines are a poor example since the stats don’t factor in the massive differences between different communities and pillarised populations. Also, the vaccines got here sooner, were free, and aren’t (yet) coerced.)
Bottom line, perhaps he broaden his horizons by visiting Hyehudi.org, eh (or reading Martin Luther)?
And it’s not all or nothing, nor now or never: Does he visit the land, at least? Does he pray for regime change? (I don’t know how one can conceive of abandoning even Jerusalem after halachically ascending the Temple Mount!) Donate (עניי ארץ ישראל…)? If a man of means, would he consider buying a home here? Where is his (extended) family? Children study here? Does he discuss the weekly Parsha (!) or its mitzvos at the Shabbos table? And so on.
P.S., If he needs to speak to someone, maybe Rabbi Pruzansky fits the bill.
Please pass this on.

ספר ‘צדקת הצדיק’ המפורסם: מדינת ישראל – מלכותא בלא תגא

ספר צדקת הצדיק סי’ מ”ו:

ולרשע אמר אלהים מה לך לספר חוקי (תהילים, נ), ועל דבר זה ידוו כל הדווים (דף פא:), כי העובר על דברי סופרים נקרא רשע, כמו שאמרו (דף כ.).

אבל על זה אמרו הקדמונים מאמר חז”ל בפסחים (דף פו:) כל מה שיאמר לך בעל הבית עשה חוץ מצא. ולא לחנם כתבה תורה ענין המעפילים בפרשת שלח, אשר כבר האמינו בדברי משה, ולמה לא שמעו לו בזה שאמר להם אל תעלו וגו’. אלא שהם חשבו שזה בכלל ‘חוץ מצא’.

ועיין בזהר ‏‏(ח”ג קס, א) המליץ כל ענין מרגלים על התורה, והיה העונש שלא ישיגוה. ועל זה העפילו לעלות אף נגד רצון השי”ת, כמו שאמרו ז”ל (דף קה.) חוצפתא מלכותא בלא תגא. [ולמדוה מבלעם שאח”כ הסכים הש”י; כי בלעם נסתכל עד עקבתא דמשיחא ולכך ידע סוד זה.] פירוש כידוע ‘מלכות’ הוא כנסת ישראל, ו’כתר’ הוא שורש רצון הש”י, ורוצה לומר ממשלה מעצמו בלי רצון הרוצים, והתקרבות כנסת ישראל מעצמה.

והם לא הצליחו בזה מפני שאכלוה פגה, כמו שאמרו ז”ל (דף מט:) בעקבתא דמשיחא חוצפא יסגא, שאז הוא העת לזה [ולעתיד נקבה תסובב גבר ואין כאן מקומו]. ולכך אמר להם משה “והיא לא תצלח”, נראה שעצה היא אלא שלא תצלח. ודייק “והיא” שבכל מקום דרשו רז”ל היא ולא אחרת, שיש זמן אחר שמצליח והוא זמננו זה שהוא עקבי משיחא.

Why Smart People Can Be So Stupid

Quoting Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (published posthumously, on Ki Teitse):

If we think less of a person because of the colour of their skin, we are repeating the sin of Aaron and Miriam – “Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman” (Num. 12:1). There are midrashic interpretations that read this passage differently, but the plain sense is that they looked down on Moses’ wife because, like Cushite women generally, she had dark skin, making this one of the first recorded instances of colour prejudice. For this sin Miriam was struck with leprosy.

Instead we should remember the lovely line from Song of Songs: “I am black but beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon. Do not stare at me because I am dark, because the sun has looked upon me” (Song of Songs 1:5).

End quote.

רבי שמעון בן יוחי אומר אין אומר בקרו גמל בקרו חזיר אלא בקרו טלה