I Will Await Him

  • Yaakov Rosenheim, founder and political leader of Agudath Israel

    The agreement of Agudath Israel to the establishment of a state before the coming of moshiach is based on the rulings of the Gedolei Torah. However, those rulings depend on two basic conditions, which are far from reality and possibility: 1) the state must be conducted in accordance with Torah and tradition; 2) there must…

    YC

  • Rabbi Dovid Cohen, Congregation Gvul Yaavetz, Brooklyn

    I have been asked about a very delicate question. Basically it is almost like religion and politics, something you do not discuss. Is it wise to talk about something that divides us? Yes it is. I would like to be heard with light and not heat, as I would like to make this into an…

    YC

  • Rabbi Chaim Chizkiyahu Medini, author of Sdei Chemed

    Hebron, may it be rebuilt, 27 Nissan 5660/1900 To the publishers of the book “Ohr Layesharim” in Kovno, I was honored to receive your book and your letter, in which you ask me to express my opinion about the book and your activism. Although I don’t have free time, since I am busy writing my…

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  • Rabbi Elya Svei speaks on the heresy of “never again”

    Keynote Speech at the Agudah National Convention, Motzaei Shabbos November 24, 1990 (just days after the assassination of Meir Kahane on Nov. 5). The following is a loose translation from a recording made available by the Agudah archives. For all of you here who spent Shabbos here in such an uplifted atmosphere, we don’t have…

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  • The Ben Ish Chai

    Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad (1832-1909) writes: On Shabbos Chol Hamoed Pesach we read the Haftarah about the dry bones resurrected by Yechezkel the prophet (Yechezkel Chapter 37). This story took place in Tishrei, so why do we read it in Nissan? Because our Sages (Sanhedrin 92b) tell us that these were the bones of…

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  • Rabbi Yitzchok Yaakov Reines

    Rabbi Yitzchok Yaakov Reines (1839-1915) was a leader of Chovevei Tzion and the founder of the Mizrachi movement. In 1902 he published a book called Ohr Chadash Al Tzion calling for settlement in Eretz Yisroel, but cautioning (p. 240) that it must not violate the oaths: What is the point of Chanukah? Seemingly, there is…

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  • Hints in the Gemara to our situation today

    The challenges facing the Jewish people today are unique in history, and so one would think that Chazal would have left us some hints or guidelines on how to approach them and survive. And indeed, if one looks carefully, one can find such hints throughout Shas. This page will be dedicated to searching for these…

    YC

  • One State, Two States: Reviewed

    In 2009, Israeli historian Benny Morris published a book called One State, Two States on the history of proposed solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, attitudes toward them on both sides, and possibilities for the future. He paints both solutions as undesirable: the two state because the borders are unnatural and difficult to draw, the water…

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  • In Shiur on the Three Oaths, Rabbi Breitowitz confuses the sources

    Rabbi Yitzchok Breitowitz, popular speaker at Ohr Somayach in Jerusalem, has given a lecture on Yishuv Eretz Yisroel and the Three Oaths, available at https://outorah.org/p/198379. He is to be commended for telling his audience that the Oaths are a very serious argument against the existence of the State of Israel, one that is not easy…

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  • Rav Shach, the Three Oaths and the Folly of Zionism

    From Michtavim u’Ma’amarim, Letter 8, written 1979, translation from the book “Rav Shach Speaks,” p. 12: There is a well-publicized campaign afoot to oppose signing a peace treaty with our neighbors under any condition. To me this is incomprehensible. Every reasonable person understands that [so to speak] a life of austerity is a price that…

    YC