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30 Nissan 5764 - April 21, 2004 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Shema Yisrael Torah Network

Opinion & Comment
Obscuring Torah with Torah Terminology

by Rabbi N. Grossman

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.


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