YC
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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…
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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…
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Rabbi Dov Lando: It would have been better if the Arabs were in power
On Feb 7, 2025, Rabbi Eliav Miller, from the organization Lev Shomea, visited Rabbi Dov Lando, Rosh Yeshiva of Slabodka, Bnei Brak, and asked some questions about the current situation with yeshiva bochurim facing forced conscription into the IDF. Rabbi Miller: But people say it’s only the founders of the Zionist idea who were bad,…
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Rabbi Dan Segal shlita, the Mashgiach, on the Three Oaths and a practical way to end the state
In reaction to the Merkaz Harav terror attack on March 6, 2008, in which 8 students were killed: The secular leaders of the State of Israel are placing us in danger. Here there is a greater danger than any other place, because things are more serious here due to the holiness of Eretz Yisroel. They…
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Rabbi Wein’s view of the anti-Zionist movement
In honor of Rabbi Berel Wein zt”l, who passed away last month at the age of 91, I’m publishing a letter he wrote to a friend of mine in 2011, with my response at the time. 5/19/2011 Rabbi Wein is in town and I sent him an email about how I have come to identify…
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Comments on Tony Judt’s Article
In an effort to explore the one-state solution and what various scholars have written about it in the past, today we’ll comment on an essay by the late Tony Judt of NYU, published in the New York Review of Books on October 23, 2003. The essay has been credited with bringing the one-state solution into…
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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…
I Will Await Him 