Ibn Ezra Shemos 2:22:
ותלד. כי אמר, משה. וזאת צפורה הוא האשה הכושית אשר אמר. ואשר כתוב בדברי הימים דמשה אל תאמן. וכלל אומר לך כל ספר שלא כתבוהו נביאים או חכמים מפי הקבלה אין לסמוך עליו ואף כי יש בו דברים שמכחישים הדעת הנכונה. וככה ספר זרובבל. וגם ספר אלדד הדני ודומה להם.
Rabbi Pinchas Winston was giving a speech, as usual, promoting Aliyah in Texas, USA when an audience member asked him: if we all just move to Israel, where will all the Tzedakah collectors go to collect money, huh?!
Rabbi Winston responded, tell me, do you think Jews who make Aliyah generally do so for materialistic reasons, or to come closer to Hashem?
To serve Hashem.
If so, then tell me, what stops the Master of the World from making Israel a wealthy country? Why are they made to leave the holy land and collect money in Texas?!
You tell me.
Well, Chazal tell us Noah made a hole in the ark to feed Og Melech Habashan, so he could survive the flood (Yalkut Bereishis 7:56). Likewise, Hashem doesn’t allow us to be wealthy for your sakes. As for us, we’re already in the land of Israel. But you! What connection would Texans have to the land if you couldn’t give Tzedakkah to Eretz Yisrael?!
That’s the real reason we keep coming to Texas.
Some writers regard unconverted Arabs being granted “Israeli” citizenship an absurdity.
They complain when the “news” refers to “Israelis” harmed in an accident, without troubling to inform us whether or not they are Jewish.
And they are shocked when state media frame matters about whether or not “Israelis among wounded in California synagogue shooting that killed one”, instead of focusing on the murder of Jews (how many of those killed by the Germans were Zionist?!).
They are shaken and dismayed: Is this a Jewish state, or a cosmopolitan state?!
Nu-nu. So, what else is new?
Contra Meir Kahane, the impossible contradiction in the Israeli declaration of independence is not the words “Jewish” and “democratic“, but “Jewish” and “State“! Statehood is not Jewish, and cannot be made Jewish. So, it’s good the pretense is fading, but bad this is used as a weapon against Jewish identity.
Let’s entirely separate Religion and State, and then oxygen and state.
Humans have ordinal commonalities of varying strengths, to be treated in descending order. Unlike “Tov shachen karov me’ach rachok“, State borders are forcibly chosen and stressed, slashing through voluntary lines of kinship: religious, familial, climate, business, etc.
See the following quote from Rabbi Yitzchak Breuer:
(נסרק מספר “ברוך הגבר” – קובץ זכרון לברוך גולדשטיין)
Reprinted with assumed permission.
(נסרק מספר “ברוך הגבר” – קובץ זכרון לברוך גולדשטיין)
Reprinted with assumed permission.