Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, Chief Rabbi of the Galilee city of Tsfat, made these remarks on Arutz-7 two days after the catastrophic attacks in the United States:
“The perpetrators of these attacks are, amazingly, people who just love death. As the verse says, \"Those who hate Me [G-d] love death.\" We, on the other hand, love life, we constantly pray for life, and especially during these High Holy days we say, Remember us for Life, Inscribe us in the Book of Life, etc. G-d, too, loves life. His Temple is totally dedicated to life, we are not permitted to bring corpses into it, and even one who touched a dead body, or one who touched one who touched a dead body, etc., is not permitted to enter the Holy Temple. Even stones cut by tools that could be used for war are not permitted to be used for the Temple. On the other hand, the Arabs bury their dead in their holiest sites, such as Feisal Husseini recently. These people simply love to see death.
\"We know that Eretz Yisrael is the place towards which, as the Torah says, G-d’s eyes are directed \'from the beginning of the year until the end of the year.\' It is simply the place of Divine Providence, and we have personally experienced so many miracles here over the past year. The Jews in America have helped us greatly over the years, and now it is our turn to help them. We have absorbed so many new immigrants over the past years, and we can do so again with American Jewry. It is time for us to tell our brothers in America, \'You have nothing to do there - come home!\'”
“The perpetrators of these attacks are, amazingly, people who just love death. As the verse says, \"Those who hate Me [G-d] love death.\" We, on the other hand, love life, we constantly pray for life, and especially during these High Holy days we say, Remember us for Life, Inscribe us in the Book of Life, etc. G-d, too, loves life. His Temple is totally dedicated to life, we are not permitted to bring corpses into it, and even one who touched a dead body, or one who touched one who touched a dead body, etc., is not permitted to enter the Holy Temple. Even stones cut by tools that could be used for war are not permitted to be used for the Temple. On the other hand, the Arabs bury their dead in their holiest sites, such as Feisal Husseini recently. These people simply love to see death.
\"We know that Eretz Yisrael is the place towards which, as the Torah says, G-d’s eyes are directed \'from the beginning of the year until the end of the year.\' It is simply the place of Divine Providence, and we have personally experienced so many miracles here over the past year. The Jews in America have helped us greatly over the years, and now it is our turn to help them. We have absorbed so many new immigrants over the past years, and we can do so again with American Jewry. It is time for us to tell our brothers in America, \'You have nothing to do there - come home!\'”