An Open Letter to the Esteemed Rabbis of the Agudath Israel of America Organization:
I am writing to you as a Jewish mother, grandmother and educator, born and raised in America, and now living on our beloved soil, Eretz Yisrael.
You recently published a "Statement of Agudath Israel of America on Haredi Principles." When I read your statement, I was shaken to the core. This statement both profoundly saddens me and frightens me.
Your statement saddens me because, as a G-d-fearing Torah Jew, it is my belief that we must conduct ourselves in a way that would bring Nachat Ruach to our Creator. Of course, this means keeping the Mitzvoth of the Torah. Central to these commandments is VeAhavta L'Rayecha Kamocha, love your fellow as you love yourself. As Hillel HaZaken stated, "This is Torah. The rest is commentary."
While the entire world is in the midst of a pandemic, where Jews are being targeted, blamed and hate-crimes abound, we must not forget the plague that hit the talmidim of Rabbi Akiva. Twenty-four thousand Torah scholars were killed by a plague for ignoring this teaching of loving one's fellow as oneself. This is the time to stick together. A public statement such as yours, which distinguishes between haredi Jewry and the rest of Am Yisrael, cannot be unity, even as it claims itself to be.
The statement came out on the week of Torah portion of Lech Lecha, the very parsha whereby Avraham Avinu uprooted his family and left everything he knew in order to come up to Eretz Yisrael. As you well know, he took his nephew Lot with him. Later, Avraham even went to battle for Lot, who had chosen Sodom as his home. This is what unity is all about. They had vastly different opinions and lifestyles, but Avraham stuck to Lot and helped him nonetheless. This is the epitome of VeAhavta L'Rayecha Kamocha. Yet where are we now? Where is our unity today?
The statement you published this week also frightens me. Our People have a long and unfortunate history of rejecting Eretz Yisrael, starting with the Sin of the Spies. Every time we have done this, even when it was only a portion of Am Yisrael, all of our nation suffered the dire consequences. In the 15th century, Spanish Jews claimed that Barcelona was the "New Jerusalem." In the 19th century, Ashkenazi Jews claimed that Berlin was "Little Jerusalem." Later they called Vilna the "Jerusalem of Lithuania".
Each time we Jews have claimed that Torah without Eretz Yisrael is acceptable to us, G-d has punished us severely. Three times a day we pray for the return to Zion, to Eretz Yisrael. It frightens me to think of how Hashem will respond to this clear distancing of the Torah of Israel from the Land of Israel.
G-d wants us to live Torah in the Torah's natural environment. A large percentage of the 613 mitzvoth can only be kept in Eretz Yisrael. And G-d has been sending us strong hints for close to a hundred years that the time has come to prepare for Geulah, for the Redemption.
In the year 1864, the famous author, Mark Twain, visited Eretz Yisrael and published his impressions. He described a land so desolate, he couldn’t imagine anything ever growing there. Today, we see with our own eyes that the land is blossoming. Rabbi Abba in the Gemara in Sanhedrin, as explained by Rashi, clearly tells us the signs of imminent Geula: "The Land will give her fruit generously" is one of them. Another sign is "Ingathering of the Exiles." As you know, the number of Jews making Eretz Yisrael their home has been steadily rising in the past few decades.
Are we, the Torah-observant and G-d-fearing Jews, going to be the ones to ignore these signs from Heaven? Are we going to "miss the boat?" Can we risk becoming like those who did not want to leave the "fleshpots of Egypt?"
The postscript states, "This statement . . . fosters [Jewish unity}, in its reminding to all Jews that, as Rav Saadia Gaon famously declared, 'The Jewish nation is only a nation by virtue of the Torah.'" This paradoxical statement was particularly painful for me to read. I shudder to think what Rav Saadia Gaon would feel about being used as a Heter for the separation of Am Yisrael from Eretz Yisrael. The great 9th century sage, Rav Saadia Gaon, moved in his later years from Egypt to Eretz Yisrael, where he taught and studied in Batei Midrash (study halls) in the holy city of Tiberius. The Jewish nation is indeed a nation by virtue of the Torah, and our Holy Torah unequivocally encompasses within it Eretz Yisrael.
Hashem told Avraham Avinu in this week's Parsha, כי את כל הארץ אשר אתה רואה ,לך אתננה ולזרעך עד עולם, for all the Land that you [Abraham] see, I will give to you and to your descendnts forever. Hashem told Yaacov Avinu, והשיבותיך אל הארץ הזאת, that He will return Yaacov's children to this Land. Who are we to reject our national inheritance? How can we abandon Eretz Yisrael as one of the essential facets of the Torah?
Think about how different the Israeli government and the Israeli culture would have been today if the great European rabbis of a century ago had encouraged their communities to go to Eretz Yisrael? These Jews would have had a positive influence on shaping the State of Israel!!
In conclusion, I ask you to please reconsider your statement. I implore you to also re-examine your views of Eretz Yisrael as an unequivocal part of keeping the Torah. I beg you and those in your communities, to consider these two questions:
- Is this a golden opportunity to do a tikkun on the Sin of the Spies by embracing Eretz Yisrael?
- Is this the chance to bring our Nation a step closer to the Redemption through Jewish unity?
If only the Agudath Israel of America were to bond with Eretz Yisrael, to embrace all the Jewish people like Aharon HaCohen did, wouldn’t that be a wonderful way to bring Nachat Ruach to Hashem, who tells us, מה אני מבקש מכם, אלא שתהיו אוהבים זה את זה, all that I ask of you [my people] is that you be loving towards each other?
I thank you for taking the time to read my heartfelt response to your statement.
With deep respect,
Judith R. Simon, MEd
Judith R. Simon (Judy) made Aliyah from Chicago in 1994. She has been living in Beit El for the past 20 years. She teaches English and Special Education in an Israeli Girls High School, and hosts a radio show on Arutz 7 called "Life Lessons."