Hashem doesn't give us tests that we cannot pass, nor does He give us commandments that are forever impossible to fulfill.
As Hashem punishes us mida kneded mida, measure for measure, we need only to look back at our pathetic history, examine the punishments that were meted out to us to discern which of Hashem's commandments we chose, and choose, to ignore. For thousands of years we were the despised wandering Jew expelled from country to country. As this is what was done to us, it must be a punishment for not fulfilling the commandment of evicting non-Jews from the Holy Land. This commandment was never fulfilled, not by Joshua, not by David.
There was a group call Chug Chareidi that published a pamphlet that delineated this mitzvah, and I quote their psak:
?There is a commandment regarding which many passages of the Torah detail its fulfillment and its parameters. Yet the nation of Israel has never been privileged to fulfill this commandment!
?The commandment is explained in the words of Hashem to Moshe (Bamidbar 33:50-56)
??And Hashem spoke unto Moshe in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, at Jericho, saying: ?Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them: ?When you cross the Jordan to the land of Canaan you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you, and you shall destroy all their symbols, and all their cast images shall you destroy, and all their sacrificial mounds shall you demolish. And you shall cleanse the land and take it into possession and then settle in it, for unto you have I given the land to take it into possession. And you shall divide up the land to yourself by lot, according to your families; to the numerous shall you increase his inheritance and to the less numerous shall you diminish his inheritance, thither to where the lot has come out, to him shall it be his; according to the tribes of your fathers shall you divide up the possession.????
The holy Ohr HaChaim explains, ?Here the Torah is talking about other nations found there besides the seven indigenous Nations. It therefore was careful to say, ?all the Land's inhabitants,? i.e., even those not of the seven.?
?But if you will not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, then those that you leave over of them will become as pins in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they will oppress you in the land on which you dwell,? the Torah warns.
The holy Ohr HaChaim again explains, ?Not only will they hold on to the part of the land that you have not taken, but the part you have taken and settled as well. They shall cause you trouble regarding the part you live in, saying, ?Get up and leave it.??
And the Torah adds (Shemos 34:12), ?Be most careful not to make a treaty with the people who live in the land to which you are coming, since they can be a fatal trap to you.?
The Abarbanel explains, ?With Israel having taken their land, there is no doubt that they will constantly seek Israel's downfall. This is why it states, ?(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 to you.? When war strikes you, they will join your enemies and fight you.?
This mitzvah to inherit the land by displacing non-Jews is an absolute obligation. In the words of the Rambam in Hilchos Akum (10:6), ?We are prohibited from allowing idolatrous non-Jews to live among us, even in current times. Even temporary residents, migrant workers or traveling salesmen moving from place to place with their wares should not pass through our land unless they accept the seven Noachide laws, as it states ?They shall not dwell in your land? even temporarily. If one accepts the seven Noachide laws, then he is a Ger Toshav. A Ger Toshav is not accepted, though, unless Yovel exists; but during those periods that Yovel does not exist, only a Ger Tzedek (a convert to Judaism) is accepted.? The Rambam (Hilchos Melachim 8:11) explains further that it is only when the Ger Toshav adopted the seven Noachide laws because Hashem commanded them in the Torah that was made known to us though Moshe Rabeinu that he is a Ger Toshav.
The Gaon Rabbi Chaim Kanievski, Shlita, in Derech Emunah, Hilchos Terumos (1:10) explains that the commandment ?and they shall not dwell in your land? applies even today and is a commandment upon every Jew to remove them from our land. It is also clarified there that the prohibition of ?They shall not dwell in your land? and the prohibition of ?You shall not fraternize? does not specifically apply to the seven indigenous nations, but applies to every gentile (see there for elaboration).
It is axiomatic that the purpose of creation is to bring the revelation of the Kingdom of Hashem into the entire world. We say in the High Holy Day prayers ?And all those created will know that you created them, and all life forms will realize that you formed them, and all that breathe will declare that Hashem, the Hashem of the Jews is King and his kingdom rules over all.? Rashi elucidates (Tehillim 10:16) that this will not be fulfilled until all non-Jews are evacuated from our land. In the merit of materializing the injunctions of Torah: ?And I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down and none shall disturb your quiet; I will cause wild beasts to disappear from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land.? (Vayikra 26:6)
Peace comes not by a Peace Treaty, a Plan nor a Roadmap, but by encouraging non-Jews to evacuate Biblical Israel. Assisting gentiles to emigrate from the boundaries of biblical Israel is a binding obligation upon every single Jew, whether residing in Israel or elsewhere, in every generation.
You have the historic opportunity to fulfill this commandment by helping Palestinian families emigrate, by filling out their emigration forms, helping them find jobs overseas, and/or buying their houses and land. Better yet, by finding farms and businesses in the United States and Canada and swapping, you obtain not only a part of the Holy Land, but a share in the World to Come. Join the many volunteers that mentor individual families in actively assisting their departure.
The Yiruslami in Shevuos relates a story of a family from the seven nations that chose to emigrate rather than fight the Jewish Nation about to enter. They were blessed in the extreme and were extremely wealthy. Those non-Jews that voluntarily move understanding that it is G-d?s will, will be similarly blessed.
Help them out.
--------------------------------------------------------
Shmuel Neumann, Ph.D., is actively involved in creating communities for English-speaking olim, and in an emigration program for Palestinians. He currently resides in the Shomron.
As Hashem punishes us mida kneded mida, measure for measure, we need only to look back at our pathetic history, examine the punishments that were meted out to us to discern which of Hashem's commandments we chose, and choose, to ignore. For thousands of years we were the despised wandering Jew expelled from country to country. As this is what was done to us, it must be a punishment for not fulfilling the commandment of evicting non-Jews from the Holy Land. This commandment was never fulfilled, not by Joshua, not by David.
There was a group call Chug Chareidi that published a pamphlet that delineated this mitzvah, and I quote their psak:
?There is a commandment regarding which many passages of the Torah detail its fulfillment and its parameters. Yet the nation of Israel has never been privileged to fulfill this commandment!
?The commandment is explained in the words of Hashem to Moshe (Bamidbar 33:50-56)
??And Hashem spoke unto Moshe in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, at Jericho, saying: ?Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them: ?When you cross the Jordan to the land of Canaan you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you, and you shall destroy all their symbols, and all their cast images shall you destroy, and all their sacrificial mounds shall you demolish. And you shall cleanse the land and take it into possession and then settle in it, for unto you have I given the land to take it into possession. And you shall divide up the land to yourself by lot, according to your families; to the numerous shall you increase his inheritance and to the less numerous shall you diminish his inheritance, thither to where the lot has come out, to him shall it be his; according to the tribes of your fathers shall you divide up the possession.????
The holy Ohr HaChaim explains, ?Here the Torah is talking about other nations found there besides the seven indigenous Nations. It therefore was careful to say, ?all the Land's inhabitants,? i.e., even those not of the seven.?
?But if you will not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, then those that you leave over of them will become as pins in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they will oppress you in the land on which you dwell,? the Torah warns.
The holy Ohr HaChaim again explains, ?Not only will they hold on to the part of the land that you have not taken, but the part you have taken and settled as well. They shall cause you trouble regarding the part you live in, saying, ?Get up and leave it.??
And the Torah adds (Shemos 34:12), ?Be most careful not to make a treaty with the people who live in the land to which you are coming, since they can be a fatal trap to you.?
The Abarbanel explains, ?With Israel having taken their land, there is no doubt that they will constantly seek Israel's downfall. This is why it states, ?(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 to you.? When war strikes you, they will join your enemies and fight you.?
This mitzvah to inherit the land by displacing non-Jews is an absolute obligation. In the words of the Rambam in Hilchos Akum (10:6), ?We are prohibited from allowing idolatrous non-Jews to live among us, even in current times. Even temporary residents, migrant workers or traveling salesmen moving from place to place with their wares should not pass through our land unless they accept the seven Noachide laws, as it states ?They shall not dwell in your land? even temporarily. If one accepts the seven Noachide laws, then he is a Ger Toshav. A Ger Toshav is not accepted, though, unless Yovel exists; but during those periods that Yovel does not exist, only a Ger Tzedek (a convert to Judaism) is accepted.? The Rambam (Hilchos Melachim 8:11) explains further that it is only when the Ger Toshav adopted the seven Noachide laws because Hashem commanded them in the Torah that was made known to us though Moshe Rabeinu that he is a Ger Toshav.
The Gaon Rabbi Chaim Kanievski, Shlita, in Derech Emunah, Hilchos Terumos (1:10) explains that the commandment ?and they shall not dwell in your land? applies even today and is a commandment upon every Jew to remove them from our land. It is also clarified there that the prohibition of ?They shall not dwell in your land? and the prohibition of ?You shall not fraternize? does not specifically apply to the seven indigenous nations, but applies to every gentile (see there for elaboration).
It is axiomatic that the purpose of creation is to bring the revelation of the Kingdom of Hashem into the entire world. We say in the High Holy Day prayers ?And all those created will know that you created them, and all life forms will realize that you formed them, and all that breathe will declare that Hashem, the Hashem of the Jews is King and his kingdom rules over all.? Rashi elucidates (Tehillim 10:16) that this will not be fulfilled until all non-Jews are evacuated from our land. In the merit of materializing the injunctions of Torah: ?And I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down and none shall disturb your quiet; I will cause wild beasts to disappear from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land.? (Vayikra 26:6)
Peace comes not by a Peace Treaty, a Plan nor a Roadmap, but by encouraging non-Jews to evacuate Biblical Israel. Assisting gentiles to emigrate from the boundaries of biblical Israel is a binding obligation upon every single Jew, whether residing in Israel or elsewhere, in every generation.
You have the historic opportunity to fulfill this commandment by helping Palestinian families emigrate, by filling out their emigration forms, helping them find jobs overseas, and/or buying their houses and land. Better yet, by finding farms and businesses in the United States and Canada and swapping, you obtain not only a part of the Holy Land, but a share in the World to Come. Join the many volunteers that mentor individual families in actively assisting their departure.
The Yiruslami in Shevuos relates a story of a family from the seven nations that chose to emigrate rather than fight the Jewish Nation about to enter. They were blessed in the extreme and were extremely wealthy. Those non-Jews that voluntarily move understanding that it is G-d?s will, will be similarly blessed.
Help them out.
--------------------------------------------------------
Shmuel Neumann, Ph.D., is actively involved in creating communities for English-speaking olim, and in an emigration program for Palestinians. He currently resides in the Shomron.