That’s all we have to say. We don’t have to explain anything else. We don’t have to talk about safe borders, and security guarantees. All the talk about two states for two peoples is nonsense. Israel belongs to the Jews. Period. That’s all that our leaders have to say.

A few thousand years ago, our Sages foresaw that the day would come when the nations of the world would accuse the Jews of illegally conquering the Land of Israel. The great Torah commentator, Rashi, cites this in his very first remark on the Torah portion of Bereshit. Why, he asks, citing Rabbi Yitzhak, does the Torah begin with the account of Creation, and not with the first mitzvah given to the Jewish People, since the Torah is, by and large, a book of laws and proper behavior. The reason is to establish our eternal right to the Land of Israel: “So that if the nations of the world should come to claim ‘you are robbers who conquered the territory of the seven nations,’ the Jews can say to them, ‘All of the world belongs to the Holy One Blessed Be He. He created it and apportioned it to whomever He saw fit. It was His will to give it to them, and it was His will to take it away from them and give it to us.’”       

Our Sages foresaw the day that America, and the UN, the European Jew haters, and the Arabs would all claim that the People of Israel were the illegal occupiers of Eretz Yisrael. In their wisdom, our Sages gave us the very best answer and defense. “If you don’t like it, go argue with G-d. He owns the world and He gave Israel to us.” This is the foolproof answer. No one can deny it. It says so again and again in the Bible. The Bible is our deed to the Land. The Christians believe in the Bible. The Muslims base their faith on the Bible. It states in the Bible, again and again, that G-d gave the Land of Israel to the Jews. What could be clearer than that?

All our leaders have to say is that G-d gave Israel to the Jews. It’s our Land. Period.

So what’s the problem? Why do we get bogged down in feeble and losing political and military explanations that lack the weight to withstand the accusations of the world? Because our present leaders don’t have the great faith of King David who said the he would speak unabashedly before kings about the commandments of G-d and not be ashamed. It isn’t enough for an Israeli Prime Minister to quote a verse here and there from the Bible, just to make his UN speech sound a little Jewish. He has to hold up a Bible in his hand and state loudly and clearly that G-d gave the Land of Israel to the Jews.

We hope the prophesized t’shuva of our Nation will come swiftly, when we will have a true Torah leader like King David, impassioned with great religious faith and emunah, but even if it occurs naturally, via the jumbo birthrate amongst the religious Jews in Israel, as opposed to the diminishing birthrate of the secular, bringing us a religious majority in just another decade, control of the Knesset and a religious Prime Minister or king, the time will surely come. Of course, if the million plus religious Jews of the Diaspora were to heed the Torah commandment to come to Israel, a commandment equal in weight to all of the precepts of the Torah, the situation would change overnight. Woe that the great religious communities of Europe and Russia failed to heed the call of aliyah prior to the Word Wars of the past century, and the terrible persecutions and slaughter that accompanied them. Had they came en mass to Israel then, the Israeli Cabinet would be filled with beards today. As the saying goes, one who prepares for Shabbat will be able to enjoy its blessings. The religious communities of the Diaspora shouldn’t complain about the situation in Israel now, when they had the power to change it by getting their garter socks dirty by helping to clear out the malaria-infested swamps with the brave Zionist pioneers.

It isn’t too late. Brothers and sisters, come now! And may the day soon come when the Prime Minister of Israel will proclaim to the world, “G-d gave Israel to the Jews!”   

Just before the Sukkot holiday, I met a new oleh in a stationary store. He was having some difficulty expressing himself in Hebrew, so I helped him tell the clerk what he needed. Having recently retired, he was learning Hebrew in an ulpan with his wife. They had one child still in college in the US, and their eldest son was involved in “kiruv” in New York, bring Jews closer to Judaism. In fact, the father said, his son had originated an increasing popular website, geared for hip, Jewish young singles, which highlighted the benefits of an Orthodox lifestyle.

When I returned home, I took a look at the site. For the sake of anonymity, let’s call it “Judaism In The Wilderness.com”. It was filled with all kinds of articles on how Judaism can be fun and cool, while offering spirituality and meaning to today’s overly material lifestyle. But there was not one article about Eretz Yisrael. There wasn’t even a word. The creator of the website had taken Eretz Yisrael out of the Torah.

This isn’t something new. Lots of books on Judaism are published in America without even a mention of Eretz Yisrael. You’ll find discussions about the beauties of the Sabbath, and the perpetual honeymoon of family purity, and the joy of Jewish holidays, etc. etc, but very often, tragically, Eretz Yisrael is missing.

So I took the liberty of writing to the site creator, telling him that I had met his father in Jerusalem, and “yasher koach” on his website – but that I hadn’t found a single thing written about Eretz Yisrael, which seemed strange because the whole goal of Torah Judaism is to build a holy Jewish society in the Land of Israel.

He answered that yes, I was right, there was nothing on his site about the Land of Israel – not because he didn’t love Eretz Yisrael, he certainly did – but his goal was to bring Jews closer to Judaism and discussions about Eretz Yisrael always turned political about conquering the Palestinians and oppressing a downtrodden nation and that turned people off from Judaism, so it was better not to connect the two, at least at the beginning of a newcomer’s introduction to Torah.

Of course, that’s pretty much the answer of the Spies in the wilderness. They also “loved” Eretz Yisrael, but they didn’t want to oppress the Canaanites and dirty their hands in conquering someone else’s land. Why bother getting involved with politics when they could observe the Torah in the wilderness without all the hassle and danger of building their own land in contested territory?

I answered him politely that bringing people closer to Judaism without instilling in them a love and awareness of the importance of Eretz Yisrael could help improve their personal behavior and character traits, but it certainly wasn’t true Torah Judaism. It might have some of the outer trappings of Judaism, but it wasn’t what G-d wanted for the Jewish People, as we say, “Next year in Jerusalem!” Not in New York. The goal of Judaism is to put on tefillin in Eretz Yisrael, not in Los Angeles or Boca Raton. Teaching someone about Judaism and leaving out Eretz Yisrael is like teaching someone to play baseball by hitting the ball, without teaching him that he has to run the bases as well.

He answered that while I might be right, his approach is to first get them involved with Yiddishkeit, and save Eretz Yisrael for a further stage, after they are involved.

Off course, once someone gets involved with wilderness Judaism, with all of its comforts and lack of struggles and challenges, it’s almost impossible to open his eyes to the true picture of Judaism – the building of the holy Jewish Nation in Eretz Yisrael.

Just to have some fun, I wrote a few comments to some of his articles, but he immediately removed them, saying they were too harsh and would turn off his readers, even though I merely pointed out the fact that we say “Next Year in Jerusalem,” and that you won’t see a sukkah in all of New York, and that my grandmother would say, “a curse on Columbus,” when Columbus Day arrived for having opened the gates of wholesale assimilation in addition to bargain priced sales.

Sensing he wasn’t open to the message, I told him that I wouldn’t send comments to his website anymore.

This year, may Hashem remove out hearts of stone and give us a new heart of flesh to serve Him in truth  - in the Land which He promised to our Forefathers.            

The Diaspora Lovers have found a new excuse for not coming to live in Israel – the Government of Israel is freeing 1000 terrorists in order to free a single Jew.

First, let me make my feelings clear. To me, the swap is sickening, ignominious, dangerous, immoral, and loathsome. Like many of us in Israel, I feel ashamed, embarrassed, angered, and betrayed.

But I’m not leaving the country. And if I lived in America, this disgusting act of national surrender wouldn’t prevent me from coming to live in Israel, which needs every clear-thinking Jew to settle here and raise a family, in order to get its act together and become the true moral beacon to the world – which means killing terrorists on the spot, period, without court cases and prison terms and prisoner exchanges.

Let me remind you that G-d commanded Avraham to make aliyah when the Land was filled with savages, idol worshipers, and rulers even more corrupt and faithless than our politicians today.

And G-d commanded Moshe and Yehoshua to bring the Jews to Israel, even though the Land was ruled by seven barbaric and idol worshipping nations, who sacrificed children to pagan gods and were no less bestial than the terrorists roaming around Israel today. And while Bibi, Barak, Peres, and Supremeless Court Judge Beinish are far cries from what true Jewish leaders should be, they are no worse than the leaders of the Canaanites of yore, when G-d insisted that the Jews must nonetheless come to dwell in the Land.

Why? Because G-d wants the Jewish People to live in Israel. Period. This is where the Jewish People are to live, and where the mitzvot are to be performed, whether there are idol worshippers, and terrorists, and corrupt politicians in the Land or not. The commandment to live in the Land is not dependent on the living conditions here, or whether it’s convenient to the Jews or not, or whether it’s easy or hard. G-d wants the Jews to live in Israel – period. That’s the truth of the Torah. That’s the way it was in the days of Avraham and Moshe, and that’s the way it is today.

We will persevere. Israel will win out in the end. No matter how foolishly we behave and how many mistakes we make, G-d will never abandon us, nor break His promise to give us the Land, in order that his great Name be sanctified amongst the nations of the world, when they see that the Eternal One of Israel will not lie, and that He has chosen us from all of the peoples of the world when He takes vengeance on His enemies.

May the day soon come to pass when all of the murderers of our people be penned up in Gaza and the city be bombed into a heap of dust and ashes, in honor of the victims, that their murders be avenged and true justice be established over all of the earth, and on that day, Hashem will be One and His Name will be One.     

What a holiday joy! Wherever you look in Jerusalem, you see sukkah booths. They are lined up, one next to another, on the sidewalks, in driveways, on terraces and roofs. I remember, in New York City, you could walk from Battery Park to the Bronx without seeing a single sukkah! And this is the city that New Yorkers think is Jewish! I can’t understand how anyone who takes his Judaism seriously could live in New York when in just a few hours, he or she could be in the Land of Israel. What are they still doing there?

Anyway, I don’t want to think about it, lest I dampen my holiday joy. So, in honor of Rebbe Nachman’s yahrtzeit today, let’s have a look at another one of his teachings about Eretz Yisrael. Rebbe Nachman teaches that the mitzvah of sukkah is a segulah for coming to the Land of Israel. Let me illustrate with a story:

When I was first becoming religious in the great American land of the gentiles, and the holiday of Sukkot came around, I built myself something that sort of resembled a sukkah on the roof of my apartment building in Manhattan. I took four poles and stretched a blanket between them to make a canopy, and that was my sukkah. No walls. No schach. Just the four poles and a blanket for a roof, like something an American Indian might put up on a mountaintop as part of some buffalo hunting rite. Of course it was completely non-kosher, but since I hadn’t yet begun to study the laws of sukkah building, I didn’t know the difference. I slept on the roof of my Manhattan apartment building, and I think that Hashem was pleased with my efforts to get close to Him, even though I did it in such an unorthodox fashion.

There are people who say that when it comes to serving G-d, the most important thing is what is in a person’s heart.  That may be true of other religions, but when it comes to Judaism, it is only partially true. G-d wants us to put our hearts completely into His service, and also to do things in the proper manner, as He set forth for us in the Torah. In the proper manner and in the proper place – Eretz Yisrael - as the Torah states over and over again.

The following year, after I had begun learning more about Judaism, I was invited for the holiday of Sukkot to the home of an Israeli family who was in New York on shlichood to help bring families on aliyah. When it started to rain at the start of the Kiddush, my friend said that we would have to continue with the meal in the house, since one doesn’t have to stay in the sukkah if it is a hardship, like the downpour that was on the way. I refused to budge, saying the Rebbe Nachman of Breslov taught that the mitzvah of Sukkah was a “segula” for coming to Eretz Yisrael, because of its special inner connection with the Land of Israel. For one thing, the mitzvah of sukkah is done with one’s entire body, by dwelling in the sukkah, just as with the mitzvah of living in Israel. Also the Four Species are characteristic of the Land, growing naturally in Israel’s climate. As the rain came down harder, my rabbi-friend said that I wasn’t allowed to continue in the sukkah, because there was a danger to health, since it was a rainy, chilly night in Queens. But I was stubborn and ate my meal in the rain and slept in the wet sukkah, believing it would help get me out of America and home to Eretz Yisrael.

Sure enough, a few minutes after the Yom Tov ended, the phone rang. It was Meir Indor calling from Israel. Today, Meir is head of the Almagor Victims of Terror Organization, but back then he as one of the founders of the Sarel-Volunteers for Israel program.

“Where is Fishman?” he asked my host.

“In the sukkah,” the Israeli replied.

I couldn’t speak on the telephone because as a Diaspora Jew, I had to keep two days of Yom Tov, where my Israeli friends only had to keep one.

“Tell Fishman there is a ticket to Israel waiting for him at El Al at Kennedy Airport. We want him to escort a TV news crew who is coming to do a story on the volunteers.”

“You see,” I told my astonished host, “Rebbe Nachman was right. Sukkah is a ‘segula’ for coming to Eretz Yisrael!”

So happy Sukkah holiday to everyone. I hope to see all of you here soon in Eretz Yisrael where the holiday of Sukkah is meant to be performed. In the meantime, you don’t have to sit in your succah in the rain, but if you want to come to Eretz Yisrael, remember, you’ve got to have real faith!

Ever wonder why moving to Israel is called “aliyah”? The Hebrew word aliyah means to go up. In the Torah, the Jews are described as going up from Egypt to the Land of Israel. After the Spies demoralize the Jews in the Wilderness with their false report about Eretz Yisrael, Joshua and Calev urged the Jews to continue on their journey up to the Land. The ascent to the Land of Israel isn’t necessarily a geographic measure of altitude. There are higher places in the world. The measurement is spiritual. In the spiritual sphere, Eretz Yisrael is the most elevated place in the universe. Spiritually, Eretz Yisrael towers over every other country. Its exalted spiritual loftiness isn’t dependent on the level of the religious observance of the people living there. The Holy Land is supremely holy in and of itself.

When a person is called up to the Torah, it is known as an aliyah. Similarly, when a person moves to Israel, he or she experiences a tremendous ascent. It is like being rocketed into outer space. It is like journeying to another planet, because Eretz Yisrael possesses a totally different, holy atmosphere than the rest of the world. In a very real sense, being in Eretz Yisrael is like being on the moon, gazing back down at the tiny Diaspora, far far away. Ask an oleh and he will describe the same feeling. Jewish life in Eretz Yisrael is light years beyond Jewish life anywhere else. Nothing can compare to it. Nowhere else comes close. The towering kedusha of Eretz Yisrael exists in an entirely different dimension than all other points on the globe. While the Land of Israel has trees and mountains like other lands, Eretz Yisrael is a spiritual, metaphysical, mystical concept which transcends time and space. In fact, as our Sages teach, when a person comes to the Land of Israel, he receives a new soul. The soul of Clal Yisrael. He is no longer a small, isolated, individual Jew. Upon entering the Land of Israel, the Hebrew letters in his soul experience an atomic chain reaction, and his soul becomes elevated and expands to merge with the all-encompassing soul of the Clal. He becomes a giant Jew, a builder of the Nation of Israel, connected to the Community of Israel in the Land of Hashem (See the book, Eretz Yisrael, the Teachings of Rabbi Kook, Ch.7).   

The famous Hasidic master, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, teaches that true prayer and faith is only possible in Eretz Yisrael. He states, “To be a true member of the Jewish People is to always move to higher and higher levels, and this is impossible without the holiness of Eretz Yisrael. The same is true of prayer. The ascent of prayer comes about on the Land of Israel” (Advice, Eretz Yisrael).

I feel it all the time. Living here is like being on a different planet than New York or Montreal. When you stand at the summit of the Mount of Olives and gaze out over Jerusalem, you literally experience that you are standing at the very top of the world – the connecting point between Heaven and Earth, where Creation all started, and where its climax is to come to a drama-packed conclusion with coronation of Hashem as supreme master and King of the world.

Rabbi Nachman writes that only when a Jew attains the level of Eretz Yisrael, is he worthy of being called “a man of strength and valor.” Only when he has gone through this battle successfully, rising to the heights of holiness, and triumphing over all the obstacles that are set in his way, can he be called “a hero of war.”

Rabbi Nachman also teaches that the motive for coming on aliyah should be purely spiritual, to draw closer to G-d. “A person who goes there with this aim will surely benefit. Merely by stepping foot on the Land, he will become merged with it and be transformed by its sacred character… Pray to G-d to give you desire and yearning for the Land of Israel, and then you will succeed in reaching it… Genuine enlightenment and wisdom come only in the Land of Israel.”

With G-d’s help, we will continue his theme during the upcoming holiday. Remember, the mitzvah of succah is a segulah for coming to the Land of Israel – so build your succah well!