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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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

The Maharam Chagiz (Rabbi Moshe Chagiz, 1671-1750) in his work Eileh Masei, page 18, tells a story that he heard from the “experts on Ottoman history.” In the year 637 CE, when Caliph Omar Al-Khitab[1] conquered Jerusalem, he built his palace there. He noticed that a large heap of rubbish lay near his palace. Every…

The first of the Three Oaths is that the Jewish people must not go up to Eretz Yisroel “as a wall.” In Vayoel Moshe, Maamar Shalosh Shevuos Siman 10, the Satmar Rebbe lists 3 possibilities for what this might mean:  1) The immigration of a large group, all together 2) The immigration of the majority…