No Security Living Outside the Land


Our Sages in the Talmud 81 taught:  Jews outside the Land are "idol-worshippers in purity." R. Sar-Shalom of Belz commented: "In Hebrew, idol-worship is called 'foreign work' - meaning that Jews outside the Land perform work and do things that will remain foreign to them. Whatever they build and whatever they accomplish on foreign soil may start out as theirs, but will ultimately become foreign to them; all the benefits and abundance they bring to their host countries, will in the end provide them themselves with no benefits." 82


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Whoever confidently views himself as a citizen of a foreign country is living in error, misleading himself and others, and bringing evil upon himself and his descendants. Come and see what the Gaon Yaavetz wrote in his commentary on the Siddur:

"...And do not think of ever settling outside the Land, G-d forbid. For this was the sin of our forefathers 83 that led to a 'weeping for generations' - the sin of rebuffing the Land. It was this sin that caused us such suffering throughout the generations, with nary an opportunity to live in serenity."


The Yaavetz further wrote:

"Even if we had committed only this one sin, that of not appropriately mourning the destruction of Jerusalem, it would have been sufficient to lengthen our Exile. In my opinion, this sin is the strongest and most obvious explanation for all the horrific and terrible persecutions and devastation that befell us wherever we were dispersed throughout the Exile. We were pursued to our necks [with yokes], and were never permitted to dwell serenely amidst the Gentiles even in our misery, lowliness and poverty - all because the mourning from Jerusalem was removed from our hearts as we [tried to] dwell placidly in lands that were not ours. We forgot Jerusalem and it did not enter our hearts, and that is why we were like the dead, forgotten from the heart. Every generation, our sadness and pain only increased..." 


The Sefer Hareidim 84 wrote as well:

"Just as every individual Jew must love the Nation of Israel, he must also love the Land of Israel, and must come to the Land from wherever he may be with great yearning, just like a little boy runs to his mother's bosom, for the initial sin that brought about generations of weeping was when we rebuffed the Land..."


The above idea is expressed in Jeremiah 42,22. 85


Come and see what the saintly Rabbi of the Entire Diaspora, the Gaon Rabbi Meir Simcha HaCohen of Dvinsk, wrote in his Torah commentary Meshech Chokhmah: 86

"The pattern of G-d's Providence in history is that Israel should rest for a century or two, after which a storm arises to destroy and devastate without mercy... They will be dispersed far and wide, they will run to a faraway place, where they will once again reunite, become a nation, their Torah will increase, their wisdom will be marked, to the extent that they will forget that they are foreigners in a foreign land; they will think that this is their birthplace… and then and even stronger storm will come along and remind them, 'You are a Jew!' … In exile, the Jew will altogether forget from whence he came and will believe that he is a full-fledged citizen... He will believe that his Berlin is the [longed-for] Jerusalem ... And then the storm will erupt, uprooting him from his source, reminding him that he is a foreigner, that his language is actually our holy tongue, that the foreign languages are like clothes to be changed, that his source is actually the trunk of Israel, and that his consolation lies in the consolations of the Prophets of G-d who prophesied about the Trunk of Jesse [David] in the End of Days." (See there at length.)



Building Outside the Land is Like Building on Ice


From all of the above, we understand that all those who strive to fortify and strengthen their residence in the foreign lands are in error - for whoever tries to build a house and to sustain his residence outside the Land is like one who builds on a river of frozen ice; when the sun comes out in force, the ice will melt and the buildings upon it will crumble. This is something the wise will understand.


Therefore, everyone must arouse himself and others to come and ascend to Zion, in order that in the merit of the increased number of mitzvot performed here in the Land, its sanctity and purity will intensify, along the lines of the secret meaning of "Give strength to the Lord". 87 And then the Messiah will be revealed, and he will gather together all the outcasts and the hidden, as we wrote above.  And if we would all believe with complete and perfect faith that everything that has befallen us was all miracles and part of G-d's Providential plan, we would then merit even more miracles, as written above in the name of saintly holy Hida, and the entire Land - from the River of Egypt (Nile) to the Great Perat (Euphrates) River - would be in our hands.


This is as was written by the Satmar Rebbe of blessed memory, 88 on the verse, You will draw water in joy from the wells of salvation : 89 "If Hashem performs a miracle, it becomes like a well from which more can be drawn... as is written, 'The sea saw and receded, the Jordan will turn back'. 90 The verse did not say the Jordan turned back, but rather, will turn back, meaning that since the sea saw and receded, the Jordan in the future will turn back, for the splitting of the Red Sea had an effect on the Jordan."


  1. 81.Avodah Zarah 8a

  2. 82.See Al HaTorah, by Rav Mordechai HaCohen, p. 288

  3. 83.The Sin of the Spies (Numbers 13-14), who were sent to scout out the Promised Land and discouraged the People from entering.

  4. 84.First printing, page 60a

  5. 85.The author did not spell out the verse, which reads: "Therefore know certainly that you shall die by the sword, famine and pestilence in the land you desired to go to and live."

  6. 86.Vayikra 26,44

  7. 87.Psalms 68,35

  8. 88.in his work Yitav Lev, Parashat VaEtchanan, page 32

  9. 89.Isaiah 12,3

  10. 90.Psalms 114,3



FOOTNOTES

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