Readers who don't like blogs dealing with sexual transgression can skip this letter sent to our jewishsexuality.com website. Others who realize the scope and seriousness of the problem, will find certainly appreciate its candor and insights:

Dear Site Adminstrator:  

I thought I would share some of my own thoughts and experiences with
this forum. I think it might be valuable to some of you. My intended
audience are people who are basically believing Jews - who know that G-d
rewards and punishes and all of that, yet who cannot always overcome
their temptations.

I'm imagining that many of you are basically ordinary people, say who
are young and single. Your urges are pretty strong at this stage of life
-- we all went through that once upon a time -- and they often get the
better of you. Yet eventually you would like to outgrow this stage,
settle down and get married. You'd certainly rather enjoy a kosher and
healthy married life -- with a real-life partner -- rather than the
lewdness and emptiness of closeted pornography.

Now, for most of us, thinking about the rages of Hell -- although we all
believe in it with full hearts -- really does not help us all that much.
It's far too remote and distant, and the Internet delivers addictive
gratification much sooner. Although we all know we'll pay up one day in
full currency, it's too hard to really conjure up such thoughts and
modify our behavior on account of it.

I would therefore like to suggest a different and more immediate
scenario -- because it's exactly what happened to me.

Rather than imagining after 120 years, imagine say 5-10 years down the
line. You hope to be married to a beautiful woman and enjoy a loving,
romantic, and completely kosher relationship with your life partner.
Nothing wrong with that; it's 100% permitted. Every young man wishes for
such. Now I could go on that the relationship will not really be as
special as it should if you have much-more-enticing pornographic images
floating around in your head, but that kind of stuff is too intangible
to bother us much either. Yes, it won't really be the same -- and you
may even still be lured to peeping at more attractive bodies on the
side. (Your wife will *not* appreciate it if you spend a lot of time
ogling at her like a physical object.) And also -- as I'm sure you've also heard -- the
chances of building a strong and lasting relationship with a single
spouse is that much less likely since you'll long for cheaper, dirtier
thrills. But let's suppose you'll manage to outgrow your immaturity and
build a lasting and meaningful relationship with a woman you love. Will
your troubles be behind you?

One possible answer -- and it's one that happened to me -- is no. There
is another issue, entirely in the good L-rd's control: children. Whether
or not we merit having children -- and the health and quality of them --
is entirely in G-d's hands. Imagine that six months, twelve months,
eighteen months go by, and your wife does not become pregnant. Topping
it off, all of her friends are. You start going to doctors -- that in
itself a mortifying experience. And they don't find anything concrete or
easy to fix the matter (which is quite often the case in the field of
fertility). Just for some strange reason, conception is not occurring.
You try treatment, lighter treatment, heavier treatment, invasive
treatment --  with tortuous waits for the results, and nothing is
working. And the doctors really do not know why or what to do about it.
Fertility treatment is a very iffy field. So to speak, the doctors can
only lead the horse to water, but they cannot *really* make a woman
pregnant.

All the while your wife is becoming more and more and more miserable.
She wants to have children of her own. She doesn't want to be different
from virtually all of her friends. She wants to live the married life
*she* was dreaming of all her years. And instead of enjoying a romantic,
exciting sexual relationship with your wife, you'll spend your evenings
with a crying, miserable woman, attempting yourself to console her and
give her strength -- even though you are so unhappy yourself. And what
should have been the warmest, most loving -- and happiest -- part of
your life will become the most miserable.

And the worst aspect of it is that you will know deep down that you
yourself are the cause of your beloved's suffering -- because of that
stupid pornography you could not resist years back. When you're older
you'll find out that the worst form of suffering is vicarious suffering
--  when you see your loved ones suffer -- especially when you know you
are the cause of it. And you will not even be able to tell your wife and
tearfully apologize to her, for how could you ever tell her of your own
past lowliness and weakness and the damage you caused?

And above all else you'll be wishing in your head: "Why couldn't I have
controlled myself back then? Why did I have to ruin my own life and that
of my beloved whom I care for so dearly? Had I only known how much pain
and suffering my sinfulness would have caused, I would have never gone
that way. I could have saved myself then and felt *good* about myself
today. And today I'd be eternally reaping the benefits of my willpower
-- in both this world and the next."

Let me take a moment to describe my own experiences. At 44 today, I
thankfully came of age long before the World Wide Web with all its
ugliness existed. Yet my home was not without temptations. Although I
was a serious, upstanding yeshiva student, I succumbed to my own
passions occasionally. For a while I resisted, but then my resolve
weakened. There was a period of about three years in which I didn't have
control of myself -- where I slipped and constantly regretted it, hating
myself all the while. They were tough battles. I didn't go down without
a fight. And thank G-d, I won many of them too.

And then my married life thank G-d came along. After not too long we
merited two children --  well below the norm for the Orthodox
neighborhood(s) in which we lived, and far fewer than my wife, herself
one of seven, wanted. But more children did not come. Years and years
went by. And we endured such misery and crying night after night, that
none of you would ever want to experience what we did during those
years. (And we received much less sympathy than we would have wanted as
many couldn't understand what was so terrible about having two children.
We're not *childless*!) And we went through treatment after treatment to
no avail. Finally, after over seven years -- double my own weak period
-- we were blessed with another daughter. And -- corresponding to the
time I regained control -- we have since merited several more children
-- one without treatment at all.

That's about my story. In the end we survived it all, and apart from a
curious gap in our children's ages, I'd like to feel we merited to live
happily ever after. But the pattern between my weak periods and our
childlessness are unmistakable. The Midrash, quoting an earlier ethical
work, states: "If you forsake Me one day, I will forsake you for two."
G-d paid me double for my slips. And I thank G-d every moment for the
times that I did regain control.

One quick related postscript. Many Jewish sources, both Kabbalistic and
non-Kabbalistic (see for example Maimonides, Laws of De'os 5:4-5), write
that the quality of your children will depend on the modesty and
selflessness you exhibit during sexual relations. Your fantasies may
make you think in terms of very loose and dirty married behavior -- the
sort most wives would hardly appreciate, being treated like a filthy sex
object rather than an equal partner. But the more you're in it for your
own pleasure, the smaller, weaker, less healthy, and certainly less
spiritually-inclined your children will be. Marriage can and should be
beautiful, but as the innocent and heartfelt coming together of two
loving spouses. If, however, sex with your wife will be an act of
selfish taking -- the sort of stuff you're living for today, you can
expect --  even if you do merit children -- to be granted the sort of
children you deserve.

Anyway, I hope this was helpful to a few of you.

Motzei Shabbat, I went to the Kotel to say Tehillim with Rabbi Leon Levi and students.

The Kotel

Afterward, around midnight, in order to get an additional spiritual lift before Rosh Chodesh, we drove up north to the holy city of Tiberias. We recited Tikun Hatzot at the tomb of Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess, the great Mishnaic sage renowned for his miracles, where I prayed for Hashem to do the greatest miracle of all – bring the Jews home from the lands of the gentiles.

Tomb of Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess

Next, we stopped to recite Tehillim at the tomb of the Rambam, five minutes away.

Tomb of the Rambam

We reached the holy city of Tzfat at around three in the morning, where we immersed in the pure, invigorating, mountain-cave mikvah of the Arizal.

Mikvah of the Arizal

Grave of the Arizal

After praying at his gravesite, we journeyed on to Meron, where we davened Vatiken, the sunrise service, at the Tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, author of the Zohar.

Tomb of Rabbi Shimon

We drove back to Jerusalem along the breathtaking Jordan Valley highway.

"And the L-rd said to Abraham, Go to Monsey NY

Just like a typical Saturday night in Brooklyn, or Monsey, or Toronto, or Australia, or Las Vegas.

Chodesh Tov.   

Rabbi Meir Kahane was a very gifted writer. He could have stayed in America and written talkbacks and letters to the editor all day long. But he chose to make aliyah and personally participate in the rebuilding of the nation in Israel, rather than just writing about it from the sidelines.

Since thousands of Jews will be visiting Hevron this Shabbat for the Torah portion of “Chaya Sarah,” we thought it fitting to conclude the Rabbi Meir Kahane Legacy Memorial Week with a story from his inspiring biography about his involvement in the resettlement of the city of Hevron.

Thanks Rav Meir!

THE RIGHT TO RETURN TO HEVRON

(Excerpted from the biography, “Rabbi Meir Kahane - His Life and Thought” Vol.1, written by his wife, Libby Kahane.)

At the same time, Meir embarked on a campaign for the right of Jews to return to Hebron, which was historically Jewish. Over 3,000 years ago it was King David’s capital. Only recently, in 1929, Jews abandoned Hebron’s old Jewish quarter after a bloody riot in which Arabs massacred sixty-seven Jews and wounded many others. Arabs now occupied the homes of the eight hundred Jews who had lived there. After the 1967 Six Day War, when Israel recaptured Hebron, a group of Jews went to settle there. They were housed in the Israeli military compound until 1971, when a new Jewish town bordering on Hebron, Kiryat Arba, was built. But Jews were not permitted to live in Hebron itself. Meir believed Jews should have the elementary right to return to the Jewish homes in Hebron and live there.

His first step was to send a telegram to the mayor of Hebron, Sheikh Mohammed Ali Ja’abari. He informed Ja’abari that he and his followers would arrive in Hebron on Sunday morning, August 27, to begin arrangements for the return of Jews to their homes and for the return of their property. Of course, he also sent copies of the telegram to the media.

Mayor Ja’abari, who claimed to support co-existence between Arabs and Jews, appealed to the Israeli government to prevent Meir’s arrival, declaring that he would not be able to prevent violent demonstrations by the Arabs of Hebron. To avoid Arab unrest, minister of defense Moshe Dayan issued an order keeping Meir and his followers out of Hebron. However, they succeeded in circumventing the army’s roadblocks. Some went by car early in the morning, when the main roadblock on the southern outskirts of Bethlehem was manned by only one soldier. Others went by Arab buses and taxis, and some spent Shabbat in Hebron. Meir drove through the roadblock by pretending to be an American tourist. He donned sunglasses and a baseball hat, and when he was stopped, he asked in English,

“Is this the way to Beersheba?” The soldier waved him through.

David Fisch recalled:

“Meir had three of us, including me, dress as American tourists – floppy rainbow hats, dangling cameras, Bermuda shorts, really ridiculous stuff – and take a ride to Hebron on an Arab bus line. We did. We got into the city, really close to Ja’abari’s house (i.e., just short of the front door), and handed a letter to the guy guarding the door. I don’t know what was in the envelope, but it got the guy really frenzied. There were a million soldiers, and they seized us and put us on a bus out of Hebron.”

The letter that was presented to Ja’abari was in English. It said:

To the Honorable Sheikh Ja’abari, Mayor of Hebron, City of the Patriarchs: We are here to discuss repatriation of the former Jewish residents to the Jewish city of Hebron, whose Jewishness dates back to Abraham our father. We are also interested in receiving your reply to the ugly rumors concerning your participation in the Hebron riots of 1929, in which scores of Jews were massacred, as well as the part you played in the slaughter at Gush Etzion [the Etzion Bloc] in 1948. [signed] Yitzhak Ben Avrahamת Hebron Chapter Chairman.

About 60 Liga [Jewish Defense League] members assembled in the plaza outside the Cave of the Patriarchs. A photo in Yedioth Ahronoth shows Meir with Yosef Schneider and other supporters, singing and clapping hands. In a Ma’ariv photo, Meir stands with several supporters at the top of a hill, the houses of Hebron spread out below them.

Reporters who came to cover the story asked Meir if Liga members could live together with the Arabs of Hebron. Meir promptly replied, “What a question! The Arabs couldn’t wish for better neighbors!”

Referring to the historic Jewish quarter of Hebron, Meir told the reporters: “There’s a Jewish quarter here, but no Jews yet. Ask the leftists who think the Arabs should return to Biram and Ikrit why they aren’t demanding the return of the Jews to Hebron!”

Army officers approached Meir quietly and invited him for a talk in the nearby Settlers’ Restaurant. There he received orders to leave Hebron with his followers. Back in Jerusalem he held a press conference. He maintained that expelling him from Hebron was a violation of his civil rights. He announced that he would apply for a court order that very day to allow his group into the Jewish quarter of Hebron. Attorney Meir Schechter immediately applied to the High Court of Justice for an order nisi calling on the defense minister to show cause why Meir should not be allowed to “tour” the old Jewish quarter of Hebron. Justice Moshe Etzioni’s decision, given the next day, denied Meir’s request. But Meir had succeeded in making the Hebron issue an important news story. His demand for the return of Jews to Hebron and the restoration of their property was carried by all the Israeli media. Ma’ariv carried this insightful commentary by Yizhar Arnon:

“The Hebron massacre took place when I was a child. I have vague memories of postcards with the pictures of the victims, but in later years there were no reminders of the massacre. In grade school and in high school there was no mention of it, and in the course of the years it was forgotten by most of the population.

“When Hebron was liberated in the Six Day War I thought to myself, ‘Now the victims of the massacre will see justice done.’ But after 43 years they were forgotten, and there were even many who were opposed to ‘stealing’ Hebron from the Arabs. Rabbi Meir Kahane has done us a favor by reminding us that Hebron is not only an Arab city, it is first a Jewish city.

“Try as I can, I cannot think of when anyone, in the past 40 years, has raised the subject of the Jews who were massacred in Hebron. It is not enough to write about them in the weekend newspaper, when the reader is drinking a cup of tea and nodding off. Rabbi Kahane is to be praised for putting the massacre at the top of the news.

Meir’s campaign in Hebron made waves. A letter to the editor in Ma’ariv asked, “Why can’t Mayor Ja’abari be interviewed about his past? Why can Mayor Kollek be interviewed but not Mayor Ja’abari?”

Meir continued his campaign for a Jewish Hebron. He called a prayer meeting for 10 A.M. on the eve of Yom Kippur, September 17, in Hebron, calling on the public to join him in prayers for the return of the refugees to Hebron. In mid-September, flyers asked witnesses to come forward to testify at a public trial against Ja’abari to be held September 28 at Beit Agron in Jerusalem. The flyer featured a 1948 photo of the sheikh reviewing a line of soldiers of the Arab Legion. In order to seek out witnesses for the trial, Avraham Hershkowitz and others went to Hebron, where they were detained by soldiers.

On September 22, in an unusual step, the government issued an injunction ordering Meir and 19 other members of the Liga to stay out of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. The purpose of the order was to prevent them from carrying out “any activities liable to disrupt order or endanger security in those areas.” The Ja’abari trial was “postponed,” because the Association of Journalists, whose headquarters was Beit Agron, refused to rent the hall to the Liga, but Meir had made his point. He declared:

“I say that Hebron is not the real issue, but rather the right of Jews to create a Jewish state in THEIR Eretz Yisrael is the real issue. The Arab has NO RIGHT to Haifa and Jews DO have right to Hebron because it is part of Eretz Yisrael.”

May his memory be a blessing and inspiration to all. And may his murder be speedily avenged in our time.

I have a pretty good idea what Rav Kahane would have said to the self-hating Jew, Goldstone, and his anti-Semetic, anti-Israel report on the war in Gaza.

Like on most issues, Rabbi Meir Kahane had a no-nonsense, no beating around the bush, solution on how to deal with terror.  

Here’s another excerpt from the compelling and learning-packed biography of Rabbi Kahane, written by his wife. No home Jewish library is complete if this book isn’t in it.

Rabbi Kahane believed that demonstrations against Arab terror were not enough. Only counter-terror could succeed in stopping terror. In the wake of the massacre of Israeli athletes in Munich, he wrote:

Let us not underestimate the importance of the psychology of combatants in this deadly war of terror. The terrorists’ exploits, despite the fact that they were soaked in innocent blood, are nevertheless psychological victories that raise up from the dust the victory-poor Arabs. They also remind the world, long after it has gotten over the shock of the Munich victims, of the topic “Palestine.”

Together with this, there is the problem of the nations of the world who also suffer because of “those Israelis.” In Paris, the Masons receive a threat after they send a message of condolence to the Israeli branch.... A German weekly retracts an article unfavorable to the terrorists, again after threats. Air travelers throughout the world are forced to undergo lengthy searches that delay flight schedules and infuriate the passengers with the usual result – they direct their anger at the root of the whole mess: the Israelis.

It is imperative to eliminate – immediately and permanently – the terror plague.... It is obvious that the conventional methods of attack, such as a sweeping operation for two days in Lebanon, or air attacks on the terrorist bases do not begin to solve the problem. We must arrive at the decision to use unlimited counter-terror; to strike directly at Arab leaders and to bring terror into the streets of Cairo, Damascus and Tripoli. Only this will bring an end to the criminal Arab attacks.

And as for the argument that the State [of Israel] dare not be dragged into the sensitive matter of terror lest the effect on world public opinion be negative, I suggest a number of replies that Israel might take to her critics:

1) Just as the Arab states openly support terrorists with money, training, false papers, materials, operation bases and sanctuaries – so do we support our own “unofficial” terrorists...

If this is, perhaps, too strong a reply for the “moralists,” I suggest the following one:

2) We, the State of Israel, solemnly and categorically condemn all actions by Jewish counter-terrorists. We understand, however, the root causes of their actions – frustration and bitterness. Therefore, so long as the Arabs continue their terrorist activities we will be unable to put a stop to them.

The time is not too late to set up such a group.  As it says in the Torah, “Thou shall not stand idly by thy brother’s blood.”

Can there be any greater anguish than a father having to slaughter his own child? Why did this horrific mission fall upon Avraham? It was so horrifying, when Sarah heard of it, she dropped dead in fright.

The Torah commentator, the Rashbam, based on the words “After these things,” says that the trial of sacrificing Yitzhak came as direct and immediate punishment for Avraham’s making an unauthorized peace treaty with Avimelech over the Land of Israel, which G-d had promised to the Jews (Bereshit, 22:1).

Clearly, it is absolutely forbidden for the People of Israel to grant or recognize any other nation’s sovereignty over Eretz Yisrael.   

To elucidate this basic, concrete rule, during the Rabbi Meir Kahane Legacy Memorial Week, let’s turn once again to Rabbi Meir, of blessed memory, may Hashem revenge his murder.

The following very condensed selection is taken from Chapter 20 of his masterwork, “The Jewish Idea” Vol. 2. The chapter, entitled “The Non-Jew in Israel,” delves into far greater detail and Torah analysis than our brief excerpt can. In addition to being a fierce fighter for the Jewish People all of his life, Rabbi Kahane was first and foremost a brilliant Torah scholar whose breath and knowledge of the holy texts and their commentaries is absolutely staggering. Readers are encouraged to acquire “The Jewish Idea,” available at Amazon, or by calling in Israel 02-5811981, as well as the recently published biography, which is loaded with never-seen writings, photos, and stories from his life. 

The best Jewish Education there is!

Chapter Twenty: The Non-Jew in Eretz Yisrael

Eretz Yisrael is called that because it is the Land [eretz] of Yisrael, the People of Israel. Whoever is not of the holy, chosen people of Israel has no portion in Eretz Yisrael.

Eretz Yisrael was given by G-d as a vessel to house Israel so they could be separated from the abominations of the nations and from their alien culture, and so they would establish there a holy, pure and complete society and state according to G-d’s mitzvot and under His Heavenly yoke. It is not the Land which defines the nation in it, but the nation which defines the Land. Not every person who lives in the Land is defined as its owner. Rather, the Land is defined by the People of Israel as the Land of Israel, and whoever is not of Israel has no portion in this ownership.

 All this being so, would it occur to a sane person that a non-Jew should be given any opportunity to influence the Land and the state?

It is clear that there is an absolute prohibition on giving a non-Jew mastery over Eretz Yisrael, and that a non-Jew, whoever he may be, has an entirely different status from that of Israel, who are the owners of the Land. The non-Jew is nothing but an alien, a stranger, a temporary occupant, and not an owner. Only within well-defined principles and laws is it permissible for him to dwell in Eretz Yisrael, even as an alien and occupant.

Moreover, it was clear to G-d that the nations who were the owners of the Land before Israel arrived to conquer it, and, indeed, any non-Jew who views the Land as belonging to him, pose a danger to the existence of the People of Israel.

The Torah saw a twofold danger in the seven Canaanite nations who dwelled in the Land before Israel arrived to conquer it. On the one hand, like all the nations, the Canaanites constituted a spiritual danger to Israel, who had been commanded to establish a Divine, Torah-oriented state in Eretz Yisrael, isolated and set apart from the abominations of alien cultures. Moreover, the Canaanites posed a unique danger in that they viewed Israel as conquerors who had taken their land. They would hate Israel forever and would forever dream of revenge and seek opportunities for re-conquest. The Torah states:

“Be very careful with regard to what I am instructing you today. I will drive out the Amorites, Canaanites, Hivites, Perizzites, Hittites and Jebusites before you. Be most careful not to make a treaty with the people who live in the land where you are coming, since they can be a fatal trap for you” (Shemot, 34:11-12).

Following is the explanation of the great commentator Abarbanel:

“Verses 11-12 inform us that since G-d is driving out the Amorites and the other nations, it is improper for Israel to forge a covenant with them. If a nobleman helps someone by fighting his battles and banishing his enemies, it is morally inappropriate for that person to make peace with them without that nobleman’s permission. So, too, with G-d driving out Israel’s enemies, it is inappropriate for Israel to forge a covenant with them, for that would profane G-d’s glory.”

This is especially so considering that this friendship and this covenant will not succeed. With Israel having taken their land, there is no doubt that they will constantly seek Israel’s downfall. This is why it said, “[the land] where you are coming.” Since Israel came to that land and took it from its inhabitants, and they feel that it has been stolen from them, how will they make a covenant of friendship with you? Rather the opposite will occur. “They will be a fatal trap for you.” When war strikes you, they will join your enemies and fight you.

How exalted and true are Abarbanel’s words! This is the real reason for the approach taken by Halachah toward the seven nations. G-d understood the mentality of these nations. He knew that they would view Israel as conquerors and thieves and would forever relate to them with resentment and hatred. Therefore, besides the common danger posed by them and all other nations, i.e., the spiritual danger that Israel would learn from their false, alien ways, there was also a unique danger posed by the nations of the Land, the constant danger of war and uprising against Israel.

Here is the plain truth before us, and it will defeat those who warp and distort the Torah. The Torah commanded us not to hesitate about annihilating the nations in the Land, lest they harbor enmity and seek revenge for Israel’s taking the land they viewed as their own. Certainly, Israel did take it from them, but that has no importance, because G-d, Master of all the earth, promised the Jewish People — and them alone — the Land. G-d “uproots some inhabitants and brings in others” (Pesikta DeRav Kahana, page 123). G-d uprooted the Canaanites and brought in Israel, “that they might keep His statutes, and observe His laws. Praise the L-rd!” (Ps. 105:45).

Every non-Jew is certainly prohibited from living in Eretz Yisrael unless he obeys definite restrictions, and this due to the influence his alien culture may have on the supreme, holy nation. Yet, regarding those nations that lived in the Land before Israel conquered it, another danger looms as well: their hatred and appetite for revenge, posing a constant threat to the future of the Jewish state in the Holy Land.

It follows that those same laws that applied to the seven nations apply to all the nations that live in Eretz Yisrael in every age. This includes those of our day, who view Eretz Yisrael as their own land and soil, and who view the Jewish People as a nation of conquerors, robbers and thieves. That same danger looms over the Jewish People and its control over Eretz Yisrael in our times as then.

After all, what difference is there as far as G-d’s warning that “those who remain shall be barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, causing you troubles in the Land” (Num. 33:55), between the seven nations and between any nation that dwells in the Land, views it as its own, and then Israel come and conquer it from them? Surely it will feel that same hatred and that same fierce will for revenge as did the seven nations, as explained by Abarbanel (quoted above).

Any fair and honest person, who has accepted G-d’s yoke upon himself, knows from simple logic that this is the truth, that today’s Ishmaelites — as far as their dwelling in the Land — are considered like the seven nations (and in this regard, lacking any reason to distinguish between the seven nations and others, the same laws apply.

It is patently clear that for that same reason, we cannot tolerate the Ishmaelites’ presence today in Eretz Yisrael. Not only did they not submit before the war began in which they were defeated, but they murdered, burnt and tried to wipe out the Jews who arrived in Eretz Yisrael years and decades beforehand. In this they are no different from the seven nations.

The law of the seven nations is not an arbitrary decree applying solely to them. Rather, the reason G-d decreed that we “must leave no one alive” (Deut. 20:16) in Eretz Yisrael is that they viewed themselves as its owners and masters. Therefore, they would forever await the chance to revolt and drive out or annihilate the Jews.

Certainly, the Ishmaelites, too, think that Israel, who arrived in the Land and wished to establish a Jewish state there, are thieves. They, too, will always harbor resentment against Israel and will never resign themselves to us, but will await the “right” moment to rebel.

Let us never forget that G-d gave the Land of Israel to the People of Israel to separate them from the nations. Having decided to separate them, He at once concluded that they would have to be isolated in their own land. He took His people whom He loved and placed them in His land which He loved, and to both He awarded not just extraordinary love but extraordinary holiness, for Eretz Yisrael, as well, by virtue of Israel, holiest of nations, has holiness no other land has.

Certainly Eretz Yisrael is intrinsically holy, more so than all other lands, regardless of the mitzvot that can be done there. Chatam Sofer makes this point in a responsum regarding whether living in Jerusalem is a greater mitzvah than living elsewhere in the Land (Responsa, Yoreh Deah, 234): “It would seem that the courts can force [the intransigent spouse] to go up to Eretz Yisrael, not because of the mitzvot dependent on Eretz Yisrael and Jerusalem, but because of its intrinsic holiness, and because whoever lives outside the Land is likened to one without a G-d....”

Jerusalem has been the gate of Heaven since the beginning of time, even when the Jebusites lived there and the Canaanites and Perizzites were in the Land. The Divine Presence has never left nor will it ever leave the Western Wall, even in its destruction... In conclusion, all agree that both Eretz Yisrael and Jerusalem are holy forever, from the dawn of time until the end of days. This has never changed, nor will it ever.

It is, thus, clear that there are two reasons for the Torah prohibition against selling houses, or even leasing fields, to any non-Jew, even if he be one of the righteous gentiles. Rambam mentioned both in discussing the prohibition against leasing fields (Hilchot Avodah Zarah 10:4): “It diminishes the tithes, and gives them a foothold on the Land .”

A non-Jew, by buying or renting land in Eretz Yisrael, takes a portion of the Land and has a sort of ownership over it, and it is forbidden to give him this foothold. What, after all, is this “foothold”? Surely it is the feeling in the non-Jew’s heart that he has found a place to live, a place to call his own. The Torah cries out: Separate! Segregate from them and their abominations! The non-Jew who lives in Eretz Yisrael must always feel that he has no foothold, no connection, no sense of belonging, no portion, that this is not his land, that he has no ownership over it, that he is indeed a “resident alien” — a foreign occupant and not a citizen — who is living in the land of another people, the People of Israel.