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Kaftor Vaferach: Conquering Eretz Yisroel is forbidden
Ishtori Haparchi (1280-1366) in his sefer Kaftor Vaferach, written in 1322, details the geography of Eretz Yisroel and discusses the great mitzvah to live there: “It was taught in the name of Rabbi Meir: Whoever establishes his residence in Eretz Yisroel, speaks the Holy Tongue, eats only ritually clean food and recites Shema morning and…
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Rabbi Yechiel Michel Halevi Epstein, the Aruch Hashulchan (1829-1908)
We are also obligated to make sure that there not be found among the Jews, Heaven forbid, any thought, even in the heart, of rebellion against our master the Czar and his ministers. Chazal have already stated that the Holy One, blessed is He, made Israel swear not to rebel against the governments (Kesubos 111a).…
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Rabbi Don Yitzchak Abarbanel: Avraham Avinu feared that the Jews might leave exile early
Avraham foresaw the length of this exile and the great misfortunes it brought, and he feared that his descendants would rise up to leave the exile before the time set by Hashem, just as the children of Ephraim left the Egyptian exile before the time, whereupon Hashem became angry at them and killed thousands of…
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To Be a Jew Today, by Noah Feldman
I was pleased to see I Will Await Him cited by Harvard professor Noah Feldman in his recent book To Be a Jew Today (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2024). In the chapter entitled “Israel Without Zionism”, Feldman discusses how it came to be that so many Traditionalist Jews, who opposed or at least did not…
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Rabbi Shmuel Mohilever of the Chovevei Zion: Military conquest not allowed in our time
Rabbi Shmuel Mohilever (1824-1898) was a leader of the Chovevei Zion movement. In an article printed in the book Shivas Tzion, he exhorts his fellow Jews to buy farmland in Palestine and till the soil. After quoting the Ramban in Sefer Hamitzvos, who says that settling in the land is a positive commandment that applies…
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Rabbi Dovid Soloveitchik: Zionism results in the Jewish casualties, as punishment for violating the oaths
The Zionists claimed that they would save the Jews from government persecution [in Russia], and already then Rabbi Chaim Brisker, of blessed memory, said that their entire purpose in founding a state was in order to have a way to uproot the Torah from the Jewish people and to transform them into a nation like…
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Okay, but what do we do about it now?
The purpose of my book was to raise awareness of a problem. How to solve it is another story. In fact, many people have questioned the purpose in studying a subject when we have no workable solution. Therefore, I’ve dedicated this section of the site, “The Future” to talking about the solutions that have been…
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Zionist Argument: The nations of the world already violated their oath
Claim: Two of the three oaths are for the Jews, and one is for the nations of the world. Since the nations of the world violated their oath and persecuted the Jews too much (i.e. the Holocaust), the Jews are allowed to violate theirs. This claim is based on the Midrash and the Zera Shimshon…
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Zionist Argument: Permission of the Nations
Claim: The oaths do not apply to the State of Israel, since it was founded with the UN’s permission. Facts: 1) One of the oaths is that the Jewish people must not go up to Eretz Yisroel as a wall. There is a disagreement among the commentators as to whether this oath applies to any…
I Will Await Him 