הלימוד בדפים הקדושים האלו מצילים את העולם מכל הגזירות קשות ורעות
תלחץ בכל דף ותגיע לשערי ארץ ישראל
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כאן תמצא בעז"ה כל הספרים וענינים על גודל החיוב מצות ישוב
ארץ ישראל בזמן הזה, ועניני קדושת ארץ ישראל בזמן הזה
אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא למשה: הארץ חביבה עלי, וישראל חביבים עלי,
אכניס את ישראל שהם חביבים עלי, לארץ שחביבה עלי (במדבר רבה כג)
דף 12 PAGE
IT IS BY THE HAND OF HASHEM THAT WE HAVE RETURNED TO ERETZ ISRAEL, EVEN THOUGH IT MAY SEEM THE DECISION OF MEN.
AND WHOEVER BELIEVES WE HAVE RETURNED TO THE LAND ONLY BECAUSE OF MEN HAS NO FAITH
THAT PERSON NEEDS TO STUDY TANACH
WE READ THE BOOK OF EZRA AND NECHEMIAH.
SEE THE FIRST FEW LINES OF EZRA (1: 1-5):
1 And in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of Hashem by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, Hashem stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he issued a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying: 2 Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, Hashem G-d of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Who is there among you of all his people? His G-d be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of Hashem G-d of Israel, he is the G-d, which is in Jerusalem.
4 And whoever remains in any place where he sojourns, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of G-d which is in Jerusalem. 5 Then rose up the chiefs of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all those whose spirit G-d had stirred to go up to build the house of Hashem which is in Jerusalem.CYRUS ISSUED THE PROCLAMATION BUT ONLY BECAUSE "HIS SPIRIT WAS STIRRED BY HASHEM", NOT BY COINCIDENCE, NOT BY POLITICS, BUT BECAUSE HASHEM WILLED IT
As a further proof, read how the prophet Yeshayahu (45:1) calls Cyrus:
1 Thus says Hashem to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him doors and gates; and the gates shall not be closed;
HASHEM CALLED CYRUS HIS ANOINTED (MESHICHO). NOW CYRUS WAS NOT ORTHODOX, HE WAS NOT SATMER, VISHNITZ, LUBAVITCH, LITVACK, HE WAS A GOY, AND YET HASHEM USED HIM IN ORDER TO BRING THE JEWS BACK TO ERETZ ISRAEL.
SO BECAUSE HASHEM USED HERZL AND OTHERS (WHO WERE NOT RELIGIOUS BECAUSE ALREADY THEIR PARENTS WERE NOT) WHO YOU MAY NOT APPROVE OF, TO ESTABLISH THE JEWS ON THE LAND, DOES THAT MEAN THAT YOU ARE EXEMPT FROM LIVING IN ERETZ ISRAEL?
REALIZE THAT IF YOU REJECT THE LAND AND YOU STAY IN GALUT, IT IS ONLY YOUR FAULT, AND NOT THE FAULT OF THE ZIONISTS, THE GOVERNMENT, AND OTHER EXCUSES THE PEOPLE WITH TENDENCIES TO BEHAVE LIKE THE SPIES CLAIM, IN ORDER NOT TO GO LIVE IN ERETZ ISRAEL
Do you think at the Time of Ezra those who made Aliyah had no sins? Do you think what you see today is a new phenomenon? Read in Ezra (9:1-3)
1 And when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not set themselves apart from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. 2 For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons; so that the holy seed have mixed themselves with the people of those lands; and the hand of the princes and rulers has been foremost in this trespass. 3 And when I heard this matter, I tore my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down appalled.
NOW IF THOSE WHO WENT UP FROM BABEL HAD THOSE SINS TO ACCOUNT FOR, THEN WHAT DO YOU EXPECT TODAY, AFTER 2,000 YEARS OF EXILE, OF THOSE WHO WENT UP TO ERETZ ISRAEL?
Listen well to this Midrash: R. Yosi bar Chanina said: "There are four categories with respect to names: There are those whose names are becoming and whose deeds are becoming. There are those whose names are ugly and whose deeds are ugly. There are those whose names are ugly and whose deeds are becoming. And, there are those whose names are becoming and whose deeds are ugly... 'Those whose names are ugly and whose deeds are becoming' refers to the people [who returned from the Babylonian] exile: The children of Bakbuk, the children of Chakufa, the children of Charchur (Ezra 2:51, Nechemyah 7:53). They were worthy to ascend and build the Beit HaMikdash." (Bereshit Rabba 71:3)
Their deeds are becoming because they were worthy of ascending to Eretz Israel and building the Bet ha Mikdash. What will you say when instead of going up to Eretz Israel and helping rebuild the Land you are in the exile in lands of impurity?
IT IS NOT NEW THE FACT THAT ARABS DISTURB US WHEN WE WANT TO REBUILD THE LAND
The following is a quote from Nechemiah regarding the time when the Jews came back from Babel and planned on rebuilding the Bet ha Mikdash:
19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arab, heard of it, they laughed at us with scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king? 20 Then I answered them, and said to them: The G-d of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise and build; but you have no portion, no right, no memorial, in Jerusalem. (Nechemiah 2:19)
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF: THE JEWS BUILD AND THE ARABS AND THEIR ALLIES MAKE FUN OF US AND RAGE AND WANT TO DESTROY WHAT THE JEWS HAVE DONE WITH THE HELP OF HASHEM
33 And it came to pass, that when Sanballat heard that we built the wall, he was angry, and greatly enraged, and he mocked the Jews. 34 And he spoke before his brothers and the army of Samaria, and said, What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore things? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish which are burned? 35 And Tobiah the Ammonite, who was next to him, said, Even a fox climbing up on what they build, shall break down their stone wall! 36 Hear, O our G-d; for we are despised; and turn their taunt upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity; 37 And do not cover their iniquity, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before you; for they have provoked you to anger before the builders. 38 So we built the wall; and all the wall was joined together to half its height; for the people had a mind to work. 1 And it came to pass, that when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabs, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that the walls of Jerusalem were being repaired, and that the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry. 2 And they all conspired together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to cause confusion in it. 3 And we prayed to our G-d, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them. (Nechemiah 3:33-4:3)
Listen well, Nechemiah set up a watch, an army to protect themselves from the enemies. Sure he prayed to Hashem first, but He also established an army to defend themselves.
THE EXILE IS A CHILLUL HASHEM
The exile and everything bound up with it - Israel's abject state, their defeats and persecutions, the gathering of crumbs from the table of others, and the incalculable bloodshed suffered by our fellow Jews - constitute a Chilul Hashem, a blasphemous mockery of Hashem, the G-d of Israel, for His "weakness and inability" to aid His people. Therefore, the Jewish state - the result of the return to Zion and the ingathering of the exiles, which affords the Jew a home, a majority in his land, sovereignty, an army, retribution to Israel's enemies, and the exalting of His glory on the battlefield - constitutes the exact opposite, Kiddush Hashem! This is the proof, the renewed confirmation of G-d's existence and of His dominion, of Divine Providence over the universe and over all His creations: "For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all the countries, and bring you into your own land" (Ezek. 36:24). "Where is their G-d?" Here He is, in all His splendor and majesty! In the return of a wandering people from the four corners of the earth to their land, in the revival of Israel's military might, so shocking to all the nations of the world, in their valor and in their explosive, shining victories - here is their G-d! Here is Kiddush Hashem!
....The Prophet Ezekiel, in one of the deepest and most impressive visions in Scripture, prophesied to his Jewish contemporaries, and to those to come, about a day in which the exile would end and the Jew would retum home (Ezek. 36:19-24):
"I scattered them among the nations and they were dispersed through the countries. According to their ways and their deeds I judged them. And when they came unto the nations, where they came, they profaned My holy name in that men said of them: "These are the people of Hashem, and are gone forth out of His land." But I had pity for My holy name which the house of Israel profaned among the nations, where they came. Therefore, say unto the house of Israel: Thus says Hashem G-d: I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations, where you came. And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in the midst of them, and the nations shall know that I am Hashem - says Hashem G-d - when I am sanctified through you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and bring you into your own land"
In Summary, every defeat, every fall, every degradation which befalls a Jew at a non-Jew's hands is a Chilul Hashem, because it makes G-d a target of mockery and derision among the blasphemous non-Jews.
THOSE WHO REFUSE TO COME TO ERETZ ISRAEL FROM AMERICA
How I reject those who rationalize their refusal to come live in Israel because of its spiritual failings! How hypocritical are those who bemoan the lack of G-d in Israel as their reason for remaining in the spiritually impoverished America. How I know that their piety cloaks a refusal to sacrifice their material pleasures, their fear of having their children serve their country, their willingness to tear out a mitzvah of Judaism known as "mitzvat yishuv ha'aretz," the commandment of settling in the land. How I know that the state they so blithely condemn could have been a Jewish state had they and people such as they come here in the beginning.
The mitzvah of living in the Land of Israel is one that has been blotted out by the fleshpots of the Exile, the luxurious way of life. The cynical and nauseating attempt to rationalize this selfish, greedy trampling of this pillar of Judaism through halacha only adds to the gravity of the sin.
The descent into the joys of materialism must inevitably destroy the Jew, turn him from a religious one into a mere Orthodox one. The mitzvah trees that he plants become more and more barren of fruit and meaning as his entire sense of values becomes distorted and perverted.
"And Yeshurun grew fat and rebelled." (Devarim 32). "And I multiplied unto her silver and gold, which they used for Baal." (Hosea 2).
RABBI YAAKOV EMDEN REBUKES THE JEWS IN EXILE
These words were written by R. Ya'akov Emden in Germany several hundred years ago. Who listened? Who took his words to heart? R. Emden continues, answering those hypocrites who raise empty claims regarding risks and hardships involved in settling in Eretz Yisrael:
"Risks posed by desert and sea crossings surely do not suffice to exempt one from such a great mitzvah... Consider your path through valley and glen. Upon every mountain and hill, rich and poor run swift as steeds to acquire possessions... What great danger we put ourselves in each day!... For a crust of bread you take long strides that dim the luster of your eyesight and shorten your life, yet when it comes to the glory of your Maker and the immortality of your soul, you say, "A lion blocks my way!" (Prov. 26:13). How long, sluggard, will you lie on the bed of laziness?... Until the foundations of the earth are laid bare! Why not acquire means of fleeing for your life while you still have the power to do it?"
Rabbi Meir K
Were it not for David who sat and occupied himself with Torah, Yoav ben Tzeruyah would not have been victorious in war. And, were it not for Yoav who fought the battles, David would not have been able to sit and occupy himself with Torah. (Sanhedrin 49a)
Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook ZTK'L
"My father, ZTK'L noted that the beginning of the Zionist awakening was replete with uncertainty, but that today, there aren't any doubts, and we see eye to eye the acts of Hashem revealed in the rebuilding of the Land. It becomes increasingly clear that those who supported the return to Zion were right.”
The Gemara, Sanhedrin, tells that a certain Christian asked Rabbi Abahu: "When will the Mashiach come?" The Rabbi answered him: “When the shame of these people will be uncovered”. (Sanhedrin 99ª) The people he refers to are the followers of the Nazarethite. When the flag of the State of Israel was raised, all of the Vatican's doctrines of the outcast, miserable Jew collapsed. We returned to our Land, and it became clear that the Eternal One of Israel will not lie. "( Samuel, Part One, 15:29)
"Because of our long exile amidst the impurity of the gentile nations, we have become accustomed to think that our place in Galut is normal, and we forget that Eretz Israel is our natural, healthy, Divinely-intended place," Rav Tzvi Yehuda said.
This situation, Rav Kook emphasized, was a disgrace and tragic mistake. The matter is illustrated clearly in the Kuzari of Rav Yehuda HaLevi. In Chapter Two of this classic treatise on the nation of Israel and Torah, the Rabbi extols the virtues of Eretz Israel. After he finishes his lengthy praise of the Land, the King of the Kuzars chastises him for not acting in line with his words, for the Rabbi does not live in Israel. The Rabbi confesses:
"You have uncovered my great disgrace, O King of the Kuzars! It is this sin which prevented the Divine promise from being fulfilled in the time of the Second Temple - Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion. (Zecharia, 2:14) For Divine Providence was ready to restore everything as it had been at first, if all of them had answered the call and returned to Eretz Israel in gladness. But only a small portion responded, whilst the majority, and the Gedolim among them, remained in Babylon, preferring exile and slavery under the gentiles, rather than giving up their houses and their affairs...If we had been willing to approach the G-d of our fathers with a pure heart, He would have granted us the same salvation which He granted to our forefathers in Egypt. Now, since this isn't so, our prayers to Worship at His holy mountain; Worship at His footstool; and He who restores His glory to Zion, and other prayers like these, are like the speech of the parrot and the chattering of the starling. We say these words, and others, without true belief in our hearts, as you rightly observe, O Prince of the Kuzars. (Kuzari, 2:24)
"In Judaism, it is accepted that, among the Rishonim, second in importance to the Rambam (Maimonides) is his near contemporary, the Ramban (Nachmanides,) one of the most outstanding sages and Kabbalists, two things which go hand in hand. The Ramban concluded that the commandment to settle the Land of Israel is a positive mitzvah of the 613 commandments in the Torah (Bamidbar 33:53). He based his decision on the language of the verse, And you shall dispossess the inhabitants of the Land and dwell in it, which is stated in the language of a command. We are enjoined with two tasks: first, to possess the Land through conquest; and, secondly, to dwell in the Land." (Le Netivot Israel II, 158)
"Our Sages have clearly explained the value of Eretz Israel to the Torah and the mitzvot, stating that the precept of living in Israel is equal in scale to all of the commandments in the Torah. This is an awesome pronouncement. Obviously, this emphasis does not come to render all other precepts superfluous. Every precept is an integral part of the overall 613 commandments. However, the mitzvah of living in Israel is not just an ordinary commandment. It is an all-encompassing precept - the fundamental prerequisite for Am Israel to be able to function as a nation. For the genuine keeping of the Torah is only in Eretz Israel. In every other place, the commandments are imposed as a way of reminder, so that when we return to Israel, we will know how to keep them. ,, (Sifre, Ekev, 11:18. And, Rashi, Deut. 11:18. Also, Ramban, there)
Rav Tzvi Yehuda based this on a Sifre, which Rashi quotes in his commentary on the Torah: Even though I am exiling you from Israel to outside the Land, distinguish yourself with the commandments, so that when you return, they will not seem new in your eyes. Rashi comments: "This is like a king who became angry at his wife, and sent her back to her father's house. He said to her, 'Wear your jewelry so it won't seem new to you when you return to the palace.' Thus HaKadosh Baruch Hu says to Israel: 'My sons, distinguish yourselves with precepts so that when you return, they won't be new to you.' This is what Jeremiah said, Set up way marks for yourself, make yourself signposts. (Jeremiah, 31:20) These are the mitzvot which Israel is commanded. (Sifre, Ekev, 11:18. And, Rashi, Deut. 11:18. Also, Ramban, there)
"We mustn't forget that the gentile nations do us a favor by allowing us to stay in their lands - until they expel us. One must realize that we are on foreign soil there. It is not our society, nor government. Nothing is ours. Only in Israel, are we at home, with family, living according to our customs, and our uniquely Jewish year; living in the place designed for our Kedusha, for our psychological health, and even for our physical wellbeing. We must return to health, and turn away from unhealthy, polluted places, from environments which are sometimes so polluted and disorienting that one forgets who he really is, and thinks that it is normal to live among the gentiles. This is a tragic mistake."
How different things were before the establishment of the State of Israel, when we were outside the Land, and the gentiles were in it, and the possibility for a Jew to enter Eretz Israel rested in foreign hands. This was a time of Galut. We've progressed a bit since then and are returning to a normal condition: Eretz Israel is now in our hands! Jerusalem is now in our hands! And we are now independent! This process unfolds in stages. Just as Hashem can bring the redemption through miracles, He can do it without miracles, in a simpler way, through a natural process, via the conquest and settlement of Eretz Israel."
