Thursday, May 05, 2011

Gerry Ziering's Monthly Zionist Letter

We have now finished the holiday of Pesach in which we recall the miraculous events of leaving Mitzrayim on our way from slavery to freedom. Incredibly we have kept the command of the Torah to celebrate the chag each year and to eat Matzoh and tell the story to our children year after year. We Jews are scrupulous in our observance of these mitzvoth and many others such as kashrut and tefillin, but others we relegate to a lesser status. When HaShem gave us the 613 mitzoth, he did not say that some were strong and some were weak, he did not say that some we should do all the time and some we have an option to pick when and if we want to do them. Yet when we are all sitting around the Pesach table talking about how we left Egypt and and how Hashem split the sea in order for us to reach Har Sinai and subsequently how we journeyed in the wilderness for 40 years until we reached Eretz Yisrael, we do not feel that we need to be in Eretz Yisrael.

What has happened to the relevance of Eretz Yisrael? Why does it seem like it’s a nice vacation spot, a nice place to tour or visit relatives but not a place for us to live. Why is it that when we spend time in Israel we feel so comfortable amongst our brothers and sisters, that we can wear our kippot without being self-conscious, we can stop to daven mincha on a street corner, that we can discuss a dvar Torah with our cab driver and say Shabbat Shalom to everyone we meet? Yet, we are ready to get back on the plane, return home to our higher paying jobs, and large homes and leave the real essence of life behind. Have we become so comfortable in our ivory towers, that meaning has become marginalized?

Let me remind you of the relevant posukim:

"I have descended to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land, to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivvites, and the Jebusites.

And I said, 'I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt, to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivvites, and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.' (Shemot 3:8, 17)

"I will bring you to the land, concerning which I raised My hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and I will give it to you as a heritage; I am the Lord.'" (Shemot 6:8)

The Ramban says that it is a mitzvah to conquer and settle Eretz Yisrael, and it applies in all generations. The Sefer HaCharedim, similarly, counts it as a mitzvah d’oraisa that applies at all times. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, who ruled that it is a mitzvah today, but only a voluntary one. (One does not have to wear a four cornered garment, but if one chooses to, he needs tzitzis.) If we would look at a person who doesn’t wear tzitzit because it is only a voluntary mitzvah, we would probably conclude he is not a yirei shamayim. He is not a person looking to do mitzvoth. How much time and money is spent on acquiring a kosher mezuzah, adhering to all the laws of kashruth, buying the best tefillin, inspecting and purchasing a mehudar etrog. In every normal mitzvah we take care to be as medakdek as possible to be yotzei all the shitot. Yet we don’t find the same attitude when it comes to yishuv ha’aretz.

There is no doubt that living in Eretz Yisrael is something that involves a tremendous amount of expense and hardship. Accordingly, there are three factors that may exempt one from the mitzvah of yishuv ha’aretz: finances, safety, and one’s level of spirituality. Will you be able to survive in Eretz Yisrael financially? Would your safety be seriously jeopardized by coming here? Would your religious standards suffer by moving here. If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then perhaps you have a heter from moving here. For everyone else, if there is a will there is a way. The economy of Israel is quite strong and improving all the time. If the importance of living as a Jew in the Jewish homeland and being able to do all the mitzvoth dependent on the land is of more importance to you than having a bigger house or a fancier car, than it is time to make aliya. What is the standard of living that the Shulchan Aruch has in mind that would exempt a person from a mitzvah in which he is otherwise obligated? How proper is it to maintain a life style that prevents you from keeping mitzvoth? The same Ribono shel Olam that privides a parnasah for you chutz l’aretz, can provide you one in Eretz Yisrael. If your parnasah is not so good chutz l’aretz, all the more reason to come to Israel.

So, we have just finished our sederim in which we thanked Hashem for bringing us out of Mitzrayim and yet some of us are still sitting in “Mitzrayim” 3500 years later. We should be praying fervently for our redemption, for G-d to bring us to the “land of milk and honey”. It is an upside down world when the punishment of exile has become a blessing. This does not apply to those who are truly yearning for and trying to move to Eretz Yisrael, but rather to those of us who have become enslaved with the “golden handcuffs” and are rebelling against the “King” by refusing to do the mitzvah of yishuv ha’aretz. May Hashem grant us all the zchut and the strength to be able to live in our land and fulfill the mitzvoth. When our children and grandchildren ask us years from now; how were we so fortunate to be able live in Israel? We will be able to smile and think back to that momentous decision we made to move there. Let us hope that we do not have to answer to our future generations when they ask us why is it that despite our love for Israel and the commandment to settle the land, we are still not living there?

Gerry Ziering

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