The Three Oaths in History: A Timeline

Zionism was the most successful violation of the oaths in our history, but it wasn’t the first. In fact, there were many times when our people tried to invade Eretz Yisroel at the wrong time, end their subjugation to the other nations inside or outside of Eretz Yisroel, or build the Third Temple.

Not all of these cases were actually violations of the oaths. Let’s take a brief look at the timeline, the sources, and how Chazal, Rishonim and Acharonim viewed them.

1342 BCE – Bnei Ephraim. Part of the tribe of Ephraim left Egypt 30 years before the Exodus. Listed in the Shir Hashirim Rabbah 2:7 as a violation of the oaths.

1311 BCE – The Mapilim. After the sin of the spies, some of the Jews tried to invade Eretz Yisroel, but Moshe Rabbeinu warned them (Bamidbar 14:41), “Why do you transgress the command of Hashem? It will not succeed.” According to the Targum Yonasan on Shir Hashirim 2:7 and 3:5, Moshe warned them not to violate the oaths.

352 BCE – The building of the Second Temple and the arrival of Ezra. This was obviously permitted and encouraged by the prophets of the time. Yet some Zionists have drawn comparisons to today and claimed that just as the Jews returned then with the permission of Koresh, so too they may return today under the Balfour Declaration. The difference is that then we had the prophets and now we do not.

166 BCE – The Maccabean revolt. Jews became fully independent for the first time in the Second Temple era. This was not a violation of the oaths for several reasons: 1) During the Second Temple era, the oaths did not apply. The Jews were permitted to return after 70 years of Babylonia exile and establish a semi-independent kingdom, as prophesied by Yirmiyahu. The degree to which this kingdom was independent fluctuated over the 420 years of the Second Temple. In theory, however, they were permitted to have full independence, and so what the Maccabees did was not a transgession of the oaths. 2) The Maccabee revolt itself was foretold by Moshe Rabbeinu (Devarim 33:11 with Rashi) and by Shlomo Hamelech (Shir Hashirim 6:10 with Rashi). 3) The Chofetz Chaim says that there is one kind of war that is permitted even during exile: a war against a decree of shmad, a decree made by a government that forces Jews to give up their Torah observance. The classic case of a war against a decree of shmad was the Maccabean revolt, he says. This war took place during the Temple era; nevertheless the Chofetz Chaim said that such a war would be permitted even today, when the oaths are in force, against an empire that outlaws the Torah, such as Communist Russia. (Recorded by Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman in his article “Omer Ani Maasai Lamelech” section 9.)

70 CE – The Zealots revolted against Rome, sparking a war that culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. The Talmudic Sages did not support the revolt; they advocated for peace with Rome (Gittin 56a). But that was simply their wise counsel; it doesn’t mean that the Zealots were violating the oaths. As mentioned, during the Second Temple era, the oaths did not apply.

117 CE – Emperor Hadrian decrees that the Jews rebuild the Temple (Bereishis Rabbah 64:10). The Jews, led by Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya, prepared to do so, but the Cuthites spoke badly of the Jews to the emperor and the emperor retracted his decree. Doesn’t building the Beis Hamikdash constitute forcing the end of exile? Why were the Jews ready to take this opportunity? The answer lies in the word “decreed.” The Romans were forcing the Jews to build the Temple. Since it would have been done completely under Roman orders, there was nothing inconsistent with exile here, and it would not have violated the oath.

132 CE – The Bar Kochba rebellion. Listed as a violation of the oaths by the Midrash Shir Hashirim 2:7. However, the Yerushalmi Taanis and the Midrash Eichah say that Rabbi Akiva supported Bar Kochba. How could Rabbi Akiva violate the oaths? The answer is that if he was indeed moshiach, there was no violation of the oaths. It was only after it became clear that he was not (either, as the Gemara Sanhedrin 93b says, the Sages tested if he could judge by smell, and he failed the test; or, according to the Yerushalmi and Midrash Eichah, Bar Kochba killed the great Sage Rabbi Elazar Hamodai) that following him became a violation of the oaths.

361 CE – Julian the Apostate, the last pagan emperor of Rome, returned Jerusalem to the Jews, restored Jewish law, and advocated the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple. He appointed Alypius of Antioch to oversee its building, while the governors of Syria and Palestine were instructed to assist. Workmen cleared the debris, and work was begun in 363. But construction was halted after Julian died in battle against the Persians. As the project was under Roman direction, it could be the Jews had no choice, and this was like the story of Hadrian mentioned above. It was reported that Divine intervention stopped the work: “It is said that on the day when they were about to lay the first foundation, a great earthquake occurred, and by the violent agitation of the earth, stones were thrown up from the depths, by which those of the Jews who were engaged in the work were wounded, as likewise those who were merely looking on. When G-d caused the earthquake to cease, the workmen who survived again returned to their task, partly because such was the edict of the emperor, and partly because they were themselves interested in the undertaking… But all parties relate that they had scarcely returned to the undertaking, when fire burst suddenly from the foundations of the Temple, and consumed several of the workmen. (Malbim, Commentary on Daniel 12:11-12)

614 CE – When the Persians broke through the Byzantine defenses of Jerusalem, and with the help of the Jews, defeated Heraclius, the Byzantine emperor, Chosroes II, the Persian king, appointed a Jew named Nechemiah ben Chushiel as the governor of the city, and gave them permission to rebuild the Temple. Although it is believed that the sacrifices were resumed, no construction was initiated. About fifteen years later, Heraclius returned to take over the city. The offering of sacrifices does not itself constitute “forcing the end.” The Talmud (Zevachim 62a) says that we may offer sacrifices in the absence of the Temple. In this story, the Temple was not in fact built – perhaps for the very reason that building it would have constituted a violation of the Oaths. (Sefer Zerubavel, and mentioned by the Ibn Ezra on Shir Hashirim 7:6, third explanation)

640 CE – After the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem, Caliph Omar Al-Khitab cleared the rubble from the Temple Mount and encouraged the Jews to rebuild the Temple. But they turned down the opportunity. An old Jew explained, “According to our faith, we are not permitted to build the Temple; we believe that the future Temple will be built by G-d in Heaven, when He so desires.” So instead, Omar and his successors built the Dome of the Rock. See here for more on this story. (Rabbi Moshe Chagiz, Eileh Masei, page 18)

840 CE – The Khazar king and many of his people converted to Judaism. But this didn’t violate the oaths. The Khazars existed as a sovereign state before their conversion to Judaism. Therefore, even after the conversion, their state was not considered as Jews in exile rising up and establishing a state, but rather as a non-Jewish state adopting Judaism. Their statehood was not a facet of their Jewishness; rather their Jewishness was an incidental aspect of their statehood. Furthermore, one could argue that the Three Oaths only prohibit us from having a Jewish state – a state created by and for the Jewish people, with laws discriminating in favor of Jews. But the Khazar kingdom was not a Jewish kingdom. The king may have converted to Judaism and many of his people may have converted along with him, but he did not force Judaism upon anyone. For that matter, we don’t even know if the majority of the people converted. See here for more on this subject.

1172 CE – A false messiah arose in Yemen. The Rambam responded to the Jews of Yemen and wrote, “And these are things the prophets have already foretold, and they have told us about what I have told you, that when the time of the true moshiach draws near, there will be many who lift themselves high and place doubts in people’s minds, but their claims will not be born out, and they will perish and many will perish with them. And when Shlomo, peace be upon him, made known with his holy inspiration, that this nation when it is sunk into exile will try to arouse itself not at its proper time, and they will die because of this and travails will come upon them – he warned against this, and made an oath against this in an allegorical way, and said (Shir Hashirim 2:7), ‘I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem…’ And you, our brethren, our beloved – keep his oath and do not arouse the love before it is desired!”

1536 CE – When the Portuguese Inquisition was launched, Jews became subject to severe persecution, forced baptism and public burnings. The Jews of Portugal saw an opportunity to take over the kingdom, and one old Jewish sage used a Kabbalistic method to ask Hashem if this was the right thing to do. Hashem replied with the words of the Shir Hashirim 2:7, “I adjure you not to arouse or awaken…” – the very verse quoted by the Talmud as the source for the Three Oaths, “one of which is not to rebel against the Holy One, blessed is He.” As a result, the plan to revolt was scrapped. (Rabbi Avraham Galanti in his Sefer Zechus Avos, Avos 1:10)  This would seem to contradict the Chofetz Chaim’s contention that there is one kind of war that is permitted even during exile: a war against a decree of shmad. However, the Chofetz Chaim might reply that on the contrary, in general it would be allowed to fight such a war, and that was the very reason why the Jews of Portugal had to ask the question to Hashem – they didn’t know on their own that it was forbidden. The reply they received was a horaas sha’ah – a one-time-only prohibition.

1561 CE – Don Yosef Hanasi was a Jewish politician in the court of Suleiman the Magnificent. In 1561 he was appointed governor of Tiberias, and he rebuilt the cities of Tiberias and Safed. He obtained permission from the sultan to bring Italian Jews and settle them in the Holy Land, but when the Ottomans and the Republic of Venice went to war, the plan was abandoned. Rabbi Yissachar Shlomo Teichtal in Eim Habanim Smeicha p. 118 cites this story as a precedent for Zionism. However, serving in a non-Jewish government that rules Eretz Yisroel is not prohibited under the oaths, nor is small-scale immigration with permission from the ruling power.

1666 CE – The false messianic movement of Shabbetai Tzvi. Rabbi Yaakov Sasportas fought the movement and wrote, “The justice of Hashem is true and right, measure for measure. Because our community did not keep the oath not to arouse or awaken the love, we were punished with anger and powerful hatred that is aroused against us among the gentiles in all places.” Rabbi Yaakov Emden also stated that the Sabbateans violated the oaths.

1826 CE – Journalist Mordecai Noah proposed to found an all-Jewish state or colony on Grand Island near Buffalo, New York, and sent letters to the rabbis of Europe asking them to be leaders in the new state. Here is the answer he got from Abraham de Cologna, Chief Rabbi of Paris: “The venerable Messrs. Herschell and Mendola, Chief Rabbis at London, and myself, thank him, but positively refuse the appointments he has been pleased to confer upon us. We declare that according to our dogmas, G-d alone knows the epoch of the Israelitish restoration, that he alone will make it known to the whole universe by signs entirely unequivocal, and that every attempt on our part to reassemble with any politico-national design is forbidden, as an act of high treason against the Divine Majesty.”

1862 CE – The Chovevei Tzion movement. This was a movement to build agricultural settlements in Eretz Yisroel, not to found a sovereign state. As Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Kalischer wrote, “He (Hashem) only made us swear not to engage in forceful immigration, to go up to the mountain with strength, but to desire its stones and to settle the land is fine, and there is no greater mitzvah than this, as I have explained at length. (Maamar Kadishin p. 35b)

1880 CE – Rabbi Hillel of Kolomaya proposed buying Eretz Yisroel from the Turks. “In the year 1880, the gaon and kadosh Rabbi Hillel of Kolomaya printed a declaration calling for the Jews to buy Eretz Yisroel from the Arabs. It was an opportune time for this because the Sultan was at war and needed money. And he would have been willing to sell Eretz Yisroel, Transjordan and Syria for next to nothing. Reb Hillel saw this as a Divine moment of favor, and he called out loud in the streets and spoke to the Jewish people, urging them to hurry up and redeem our country from the hands of the foreigners and the unclean, to build its ruins and beautify our temple, and to restore the days of old, making Eretz Yisroel a beautiful place desired by the entire world. He was the first one to found the colony of Petach Tikva, as this is all told in the introduction to the book Tosfos ben Yechiel, which is a commentary on the Tanna devei Eliyahu written by his son-in-law, Rabbi Akiva Yosef Schlessinger, author of Lev HaIvri. However, unfortunately, his request fell on deaf ears. His words flew in the air and did not find a place to land in the hearts of our brethren, the children of Israel, because the religious Jews kept to their policy of silence and inaction.” (Eim Habonim Smeichah, page 17) Buying land or founding a small settlement does not pose a problem under the oaths. But a sovereign state with 600,000 Jews (today seven million Jews, almost half the Jews in the world), fighting wars for its establishment and existence, certainly does.

1917 CE – the Balfour Declaration. “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people,” but it did not “contemplate that Palestine as a whole should be converted into a Jewish National Home.” (Winston Churchill, White Paper of 1922). “When the British government issued the well-known Balfour Declaration regarding Eretz Yisroel, the Chofetz Chaim saw it as an arousal from above regarding the redemption… But he said, I am afraid that the irreligious will ruin it, G-d forbid. He would said that many times there have already been times of favor, but those generations ruined it.” (Chofetz Chaim Al Hatorah p. 101) In any case the Chofetz Chaim never said that it was permitted to found a Jewish state. Similar, the Ohr Somayach was quoted as having written a letter in support of immigration under the Mandate, stating that immigration did not violate the oaths. He never said that conquest of the land would not violate them.

1937 CE – Britain’s Peel Commission recommends partition. The Agudah’s Moetzes met and some of its members advocated accepting the Jewish state. But none of them advocated a state founded through war. See here for more details.

1948 CE – Establishment of the state and the conquest of Eretz Yisroel by the Zionists. No gedolim were consulted as to whether it was permitted and none gave permission. Only later did a few rabbis come up with post-facto rationalizations.