I Will Await Him

  • Rabbi Yechezkel Landau, the Noda Biyehuda

    Lest a wicked person think that the obligation to honor a king was said only regarding a Jewish king, during the period when we had kings, I will prove from our seforim that this is a mistake. There is no difference in this regard between a Jewish or a non-Jewish king. We are obligated by…

    YC

  • Rabbi Avraham Weinfeld (1930-1987): The innocent bystander approach

    Shailos Utshuvos Lev Avraham, Siman 129: It is now more than eight years since the Zionist leaders declared a Jewish state in a part of Eretz Yisroel. Since that time, opinions in the Jewish world have been divided. Some say it was good; they see it as the beginning of redemption, that Hashem has visited…

    YC

  • The Megillas Esther: No mitzvah to live in Eretz Yisroel nowadays

    Rabbi Yitzchak Leon ben Eliezer ibn Tzur, in his commentary Megillas Esther (published 1592), attempts to explain why the Rambam does not count living in Eretz Yisroel as one of the 613 mitzvos. It seems to me that the reason why the Rambam did not count it is because the commandment to take over the…

    YC

  • The Maharsha: does he permit an independent state?

    Maharsha on Kesubos 111a, commenting on the three oaths: Certainly every Jew is permitted to go up to Eretz Yisroel, but they must not go up with a strong hand and to build for themselves the walls of Jerusalem. When Nechemiah said, “Let us build the walls of the city and no longer be a…

    YC

  • The Avnei Nezer’s Permission Argument

    Rabbi Avraham Bornsztain of Sochatchov (1838-1910) wrote that the oath only prohibits conquest, not mass immigration with permission from the ruling power: According to what we have explained that the verse “I adjure you” applies to all lands and all exiles, we can give a satisfactory reason for why all the great people [throughout our…

    YC

  • 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…

    YC

  • 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).…

    YC

  • 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…

    YC

  • 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…

    YC

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