Parshas Ekev - Babylon and Back

Dear Friends,

I am writing from the waters of babylon. Well, some may call this a high-falutent way of saying I am in Boston, Massachusetts, but I am sick of appoligizing for the way I wish to express myself. When the author of this Psalm used this expression in Psalm 137 he was desribing the feelings of the Jews who had been taken in shackles out of their land and placed in one of the most technologically advanced cities of its time, complete with an intricate system of canals. "How can we sing our father's song in a strange land?" This was a tremendous theological dillema, essentially asking if it is possible to observe the laws of the Torah outside the land of Israel. The Ramban answered this by teaching us that all mitvos practiced outside of Israel are only a kind of safeguarding and preparation for their eventual authentic fulfillment in the borders of the land of Israel. The first thing that comes to mind after hearing this is the centrality of the land of Israel in Jewish life and observance. Clearly it is possible to be a Jew even outside the land of Israel, but the corrolary to the Ramban's ruling is that it is an incomplete existence.

I feel such a rush of excitement thinking about our land. The hills and the springs, the streets of Jerusalem, the Tsaddikim, Beynonim (common men), and even the Rashayim (wicked) if not all holy, are nothing less than the holy of holies (R.S.C.) imbued with a special merit of being in their own land and accepting God's tremendous gift of a home. This is not a case of "Patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel flees," nice-guy nationalism, or airheaded love blind to the anger, hatred, and suffering that mars the contemporary Israeli society. Every individual and the nation as a whole will eventually succeed in throwing away the peel and eating the fruit, as the expression from the Talmud goes. As for me personally, I live my life, raise my children, work, play, study, and pray all with the confidence that I am in my own place and the only place the God has truly granted me or any one of my people here on earth.

God bless you all to stand up to the challenge and try to make your home in Israel. If you are religious, you can then feel satisfied that you are fulfilling one of the 613 commandments. (See Ramban on Numbers, 33:53, and his gloss on Rambam, sefer hamitzvos, #4.) Clearly we rule according to the Ramban on this issue, "for Torah shall go forth from Zion," and if this blogger was not trembling with fear he would question the authority or a Rabbi who never lived in the land of Israel to rule as to whether or not settling the Land is or is not one of the 613 commandments, for it may be construed as a case of "morei heter l'atsmo," or making a legal ruling in order for the lawmaker to justify his own behavior. But we agree that the system of the oral law cannot be undermined by suspicion that its great Rabbis were tainted in their rulings by hidden agendas. I trust in God that lawmakers compromised by personal agendas never make it into the Shulchan Aruch (code of Jewish Law). And we can also assume that the claim that it is a violation of Jewish law to live in the land of Israel under a largely secular government is unacceptable. Owing to the great resurgance of the great Torah academies in Israel and the descent of the great yeshivas in the diaspora, we must again follow the lead of the great Rabbis of the land of Israel over the great exilic sages.

Everyone has their excuse why not to go on the voyage. My job, my friends, my children, my parents, my house. Even, "I was in Israel and I just didn't like way people behave." Well, my friends, come spend a shabbos at our house and maybe we can hook you up with some new chevre. (friends).

I was sitting with the Stretner Rebbe, SHlita, in Jerusalem at his tish one day after davening (He makes a tish just about every day at 7:45 am with a few of his Chassidim and is quite accesable). Chaim David brought a friend of his to meet the Rebbe. This man, a righteous american, proffessed his love for Israel, and how much he really wants to make aliya, but sadly, his 15 year old daughter just doesnt want to move. He then cited studies which showed how children of new religious "Olim" (immigrants to Israel) tend to reject a Torah lifestyle. Furthemore, the Gerer Rebbe and other "gedolim" advised him to stay in the US. Unable to contain myself, I went through the roof. How dare he defile the land with his gedolim. I didn't say this, right now I can't remember what I said, but whatever I did say, the Gabbai, Yoel, told me not to be sarcastic. The Rebbe responded quietly, and my own pain at hearing such slander precluded me from hearing the Rebbe's response. (Maybe he will hold back next time.)

When Ezra called the children of Israel back to rebuild the Temple after the babylonian exile, there were righteous and mighty families that refused to join him. After all, they were pious, of good lineage, and succesful in their new found homes. It was the rabble, the irreligous, and in their eyes mongrel Jews who joined Ezra to return to the land. THe truly frum stayed in babylon. As time is short, I can only say one thing to those who snub the land and its rabble. A pox on your noses. And if for whatever reason, you excuse yourself from the challenge, the mitzvah, of living in our land, the least you can do is not slander the land and its people, however, "un-frum" they may be. I pray to the One and Only to send you an awakening, giving you the confidence to stand up to the challenge.