At a recent conference of the Rabbinical Union for the People
of Israel and the Land of Israel and the Wholeness of the
Torah and the Land, over 200 national- religious rabbonim
protested Sharon's plan to evacuate the settlements from the
Gaza Strip. Former Chief Rabbi Avraham Shapira said, "The
reality has proven to all of us that chas veshalom he
who touches Eretz Yisrael, he who harms it, he who thinks
such thoughts loses his throne and loses his power . . . We
come in the name of the Torah to strengthen and draw
strength, and the entire tzibbur, rabbanan
vetalmideihon, will cry out and act. Even if we have to
show the public by going into the Gaza Strip, into Gush
Katif, we will do this be'ezrat Hashem, with strength
and might and magnitude, doubling and tripling [our] presence
there, and we will not allow the evacuation and uprooting of
[any] settlement. Not only does this contradict Torah law and
mussar, but it is also not being deliberated in the
Israeli government."
His former colleague in the post of Chief Rabbi, HaRav
Mordechai Eliyahu, told the conference gatherers that nobody
has the right to hand over parts of Eretz Yisroel. He
called on the participants of the emergency conference at a
Jerusalem hotel to act like Esther Hamalkoh. "Our present
obligation is lech kenos et kol haYehudim. If we do
our part, HaKadosh Baruch Hu will do His."
Other national-religious rabbonim also spoke out harshly
against the plan. Rav Shlomo Aviner of Beit El, for example,
called the plan, "a type of autism in leadership by a man
severed from Am Yisrael's entire way of life." One of
the speakers even had the audacity to draw a comparison with
Nazi deeds, just like fanatic protesters shouting at police.
Said Rav David Chai HaKohen of Bat Yam, "Dismantling
settlements is a crime against the Jewish people over the
generations and it cannot be forgiven or pardoned. An
agreement in this spirit is in the spirit of the Munich
Agreement." (Later he tried to rectify this remark, saying he
only meant to compare Arab terrorism to Nazi
antisemitism.)
"Am Yisrael's right and obligation to Eretz Yisrael is the
nation's eternal right to the entire Land for all time," read
a position paper the rabbonim distributed at the end of the
conference. "The plan to uproot flourishing settlements from
their land contradicts the Torah's purpose and it is
forbidden to be a partner in this plan in any way. According
to halochoh nobody-- from hewers of wood to haulers of
water, including government ministers, the Prime Minister and
any other public figure--has the authority to promote this
destructive plan."
The end of the statement reads, "We call upon all of the
parties, ministers and Knesset members true to Elokei
Yisrael and His Land, to act to thwart the plan through
deliberation and rejection in the government. If,
chalilah, the government makes this horrible decision,
and even worse if the Prime Minister travels abroad to submit
this plan without a decision in the government, those loyal
to the Torah and the Land must not allow this and must resign
from [the government] immediately."
These remarks give expression to one of the national-
religionists' greatest distortions: establishing Eretz
Yisroel as a yeihoreg ve'al ya'avor mitzvah that
supersedes every other mitzvah. These circles that take
extreme measures and cry out "not a single inch" treat other
acts of religious desecration and uprooting of the Torah with
relative tranquility, coolness and indifference. Only on this
matter did their rabbonim rule they must resign from the
government, whereas the government's hounding of the Torah
was not considered justification to do so.
This lack of clarity came about because the matter is
presented using halachic and Torah-based terminology, though
in truth their nationalistic fervor derives from the Zionist
idea and not halochoh.
Rabbenu Hagodol HaRav Shach zt"l once wrote, "Other
ideas are what were collected from other sources. I see how
great the gedolei Torah from the previous generation
were, for they foresaw to what extent the Zionist idea
influenced and penetrated the hearts of many believing Jews
who did not appear to say anything that contradicted daas
Torah, and even cloaked their statements in the guise of
halochoh. And certainly all of these gedolim
knew about the mitzvah of settling Eretz Yisroel and
the holiness of the mitzvah, yet this should not be made into
an overriding principle, for we do not have such principles
other than what was passed down to us."
In another letter he wrote, "In my opinion all the members of
the various movements and the other people who speak about,
and at every available opportunity night and day lead people
to believe, that we cannot cede any territory in Eretz
Yisroel, did not take these ideas from a holy source but
from what they absorbed from exterior learning [i.e. not
Torah-based] in this worldview. [This presupposes] that we
are a nation like all the other nations and that we too have
the right to a sovereign nation and we will cling to it and
will not relinquish it.
"But this is not the case. We cannot be compared to any other
people or tongue. We are a lone nation--am levodod
yishkon--and the whole world is against us, including our
allies. Maasei Ovos simon levonim. Therefore when
Avrohom Ovinu said, `ger vesoshov onochi,' although he
was an inhabitant [toshov] nevertheless he knew and
said he was a ger . . .
"And it will always be so until the arrival of Moshiach
Tzidkeinu, for it is a law from HaKodosh Boruch Hu in
the command, `Vo'avdil eschem min ho'amim lehiyos li'
and in this we are guaranteed of the continued existence of
Am Yisroel. And the opposite is the self destruction and
persecution of Klal Yisroel, for this is a departure
from what was given to us through our leaders throughout the
generations."
In this same letter, Maran mentions a very noteworthy point:
"And to those who engage in sophistry on the prohibition of
lo sechoneim I ask, `Why did they not think about how
every day hundreds and perhaps thousands of Jews transgress
koreis prohibitions by walking up to the Temple Mount
in a place where the impure are not allowed to go?' If they
are believers does the Torah not say, `Velo soki ho'oretz
eschem betama'achem osoh?'"
This is worthy of mention in these times, for a portion of
the national- religious rabbonim who took part in the protest
conference are the same rabbonim who recently took part in
meetings that encouraged going up to the Temple Mount!
Thus sometimes they transgress explicit prohibitions and
sometimes they sanctify in particular certain mitzvas--all
based on the nationalist sentiments guiding them.
