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Claim: The Three Oaths are aggadah, not halacha. The poskim don’t bring them down as halacha.  Facts: The Gemara begins with the story of Rabbi Zeira and Rav Yehuda. Rabbi Zeira did not want Rav Yehudah to know he was moving to Eretz Yisroel, because Rav Yehuda held, based on the Three Oaths, that it…

The Yefei Kol is a commentary on the Midrash Shir Hashirim, by Rabbi Shmuel Yaffe Ashkenazi of Constantinople (1525-1595).  Commenting on the Three Oaths (chapter 2, verse 7), he writes: Rashi explains that “going up as a wall” means “together, with a strong hand.” The problem is that if this means a military invasion, there…

Sefer Hashimush (“The Useful Book”) is a guide to replying to the arguments of the Sabbatean heretics of Rabbi Yaakov Emden’s time. Some of his points apply just as well to Zionism. Whether Hashem redeems us now, or whether He keeps us in exile for thousands of years more, G-d forbid, we will not give…

Rabbi Yonasan Eybeshutz (1690-1764), in his commentary on the Haftaros, wrote several passages that touch on the meaning of the Oaths. On the Haftarah of Parshas Vaeschanan, he says that even if all the nations agree that the Jewish people should return to their land, they will cry out with an oath and refuse to…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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).…