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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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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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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…
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The Khazar Correspondence and its implications for Jewish statehood
(Based on the English edition of I Will Await Him, p. 466, and the Hebrew Achakeh Lo p. 341.) Q: In the eighth century, the king of the Khazar nation and much of its aristocracy converted to Judaism. Judaism remained the official religion of the nation until it was conquered by the Kievan Rus in…
I Will Await Him 