Abraham had two wishes of G-d as he entered the Land. He wished to no longer be barren. He wanted children: "What will You give me if I remain childless.... You have given me no children." (Genesis 15:2-3) His second wish was that he should be given a sign that he was going to inherit the Land: "O L-rd, G-d, How can I really know that I will inherit it?" (15:8)
In response to the first wish, "G-d took Abram outside and said, 'Look at the sky and count the stars. See if you can count them. That is how numerous your descendants will be.' Abram believed in G-d and G-d counted it as righteousness." (15:5-6)
By contrast, regarding Abraham's doubt about how and if indeed he would inherit the Land, G-d responds, "Know for sure that your descendants will be foreigners in a land not theirs for 400 years. They will be enslaved and oppressed." (15:13) In other words, G-d did not consider Abraham's acceptance of His words as righteousness. Quite the contrary, Abraham was punished for his doubts.
Moreover, when Abraham forged a covenant with Avimelech in which he temporarily conceded portions of Eretz Yisrael to a foreign people without G-d's having commanded him to do so, G-d said, "I swear that I shall postpone your descendants' joy by seven generations." (Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, Mesilat Yesharim, "Baderech Keniyat Zehirut")
Why was it easy for Abraham to accept the promise regarding children, but with the promise about his inheriting the Land he was skeptical? Indeed, so improperly did he behave in his agreement with Avimelech that he was severely punished.
Regarding his seed, he placed his trust in omnipotent G-d, like Channah, who prayed and trusted in G-d. By contrast, regarding the Land, he tried to engage in realpolitik. He weighed the situation, observed the forces operating in the field - his own being few and the nations' being many - he weighed the massive opposition that the nations would display to his conquering the Land, and he operated in accordance with realistic calculations of the here and now. Therefore, he was punished.
He should have transcended such thinking and trusted in G-d, doing his will out of faith and trust in G-d, free of calculations. Once Abraham understood his mistake in his accord with Avimelech, he repented by going to the other extreme, fulfilling G-d's command to bring Isaac as an offering. Here he made no calculations based either on emotions or realism. He only performed G-d's will lovingly.
Today, Ariel Sharon and his advisors claim that their disengagement plan is the fruit of real political analysis. We are facing a campaign of terror that is weakening the people. We are experiencing growing world pressure, especially that of Europe and the US. They are operating in accordance with the "Road Map", whose purpose is to make Israel smaller and weaker and to establish a hostile state in the very heart of the Land of Israel (it will never be).
Yet, Sharon and his advisors have forgotten that there are other considerations that transcend the changing, fleeting calculations of realpolitik. There are eternal, unchanging values, the values of Torah and morality, for which a Jew is commanded to sacrifice his life. No law on earth can require a Jew to violate a Torah command or to oppose ethical values. From time immemorial our ancestors sanctified G-d's name, literally sacrificing their lives for this.
Settling the Land is a mitzvah from the Torah (see Ramban, Note 4 on Sefer HaMitzvot). It is forbidden and impossible to hand it over to a foreign power, let alone to uproot Jews from their land. As Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook said:
"The terrible sin of handing over our lands to non-Jews is only the result of weak faith and knowledge, and nothing more. It brings no benefit to Israel, but can only harm them, leading to their endangerment and persecution, their shame and disgrace. There is no permissible side to the Torah prohibition against handing over our lands to the nations, and the prohibition applies for all times. Therefore, the duty rests on every Jew, on every great Torah luminary, on every Jewish soldier, to prevent this with his utmost courage and strength, and he will be assisted from Heaven." ("LeHilchot Tzibur", 21, from Rabbi Kook's Lo Taguru manifesto of Elul 5729)
We also have the unequivocal ruling of the illustrious Rabbi Shlomo Goren, z.t.l., Chief Army Chaplain and Chief Rabbi of Israel, that "an order to evacuate settlements is a patently illegal order." He made this ruling based on the opinion of all the important halachic authorities, amongst them the Chazon Ish and Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook, that the laws of the state are valid. That is, we must obey the laws of the state on condition that those laws do not oppose the laws of the Torah.
Rabbi Goren added, "Certainly the mitzvah of settling the Land is considered one of seven mitzvot that are of equal weight in comparison to the entire Torah. When a soldier is ordered to violate the Torah, he is obligated not to fulfill that order." (from an interview with Rabbi Goren in a Tel Aviv-area lawjournal)
Sharon's disengagement program not only opposes our holy Torah, not only opposes the view of the Likud voters who sent him into power, not only opposes the view of most Knesset members, but it is dangerous and bad for Israel, because it causes a rift in Israeli society. It knocks the wind out of the sails of the Israeli ship of state by seeking to banish Jews from their land. Moreover, it nullifies, so to speak, the justification for the Zionist settlement movement, not just in our own day, but totally. From a political perspective, it provides strength and legitimacy to terrorists to continue attacking us. They, after all, view the disengagement as a victory for their murderous approach. It also invites further pressure from Europe and other nations, and it brings degradation upon the State of Israel and the Jewish People. In fact, it arouses anti-Semitism in the world.
We believe with certainty that this program, like all the other non-starter programs, will fail to stop the process of Israel's rebirth in their land. And may G-d's promise to us be fulfilled: "The L-rd will not cast off His people, neither will He forsake His inheritance." (Psalms 94:14)
In response to the first wish, "G-d took Abram outside and said, 'Look at the sky and count the stars. See if you can count them. That is how numerous your descendants will be.' Abram believed in G-d and G-d counted it as righteousness." (15:5-6)
By contrast, regarding Abraham's doubt about how and if indeed he would inherit the Land, G-d responds, "Know for sure that your descendants will be foreigners in a land not theirs for 400 years. They will be enslaved and oppressed." (15:13) In other words, G-d did not consider Abraham's acceptance of His words as righteousness. Quite the contrary, Abraham was punished for his doubts.
Moreover, when Abraham forged a covenant with Avimelech in which he temporarily conceded portions of Eretz Yisrael to a foreign people without G-d's having commanded him to do so, G-d said, "I swear that I shall postpone your descendants' joy by seven generations." (Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, Mesilat Yesharim, "Baderech Keniyat Zehirut")
Why was it easy for Abraham to accept the promise regarding children, but with the promise about his inheriting the Land he was skeptical? Indeed, so improperly did he behave in his agreement with Avimelech that he was severely punished.
Regarding his seed, he placed his trust in omnipotent G-d, like Channah, who prayed and trusted in G-d. By contrast, regarding the Land, he tried to engage in realpolitik. He weighed the situation, observed the forces operating in the field - his own being few and the nations' being many - he weighed the massive opposition that the nations would display to his conquering the Land, and he operated in accordance with realistic calculations of the here and now. Therefore, he was punished.
He should have transcended such thinking and trusted in G-d, doing his will out of faith and trust in G-d, free of calculations. Once Abraham understood his mistake in his accord with Avimelech, he repented by going to the other extreme, fulfilling G-d's command to bring Isaac as an offering. Here he made no calculations based either on emotions or realism. He only performed G-d's will lovingly.
Today, Ariel Sharon and his advisors claim that their disengagement plan is the fruit of real political analysis. We are facing a campaign of terror that is weakening the people. We are experiencing growing world pressure, especially that of Europe and the US. They are operating in accordance with the "Road Map", whose purpose is to make Israel smaller and weaker and to establish a hostile state in the very heart of the Land of Israel (it will never be).
Yet, Sharon and his advisors have forgotten that there are other considerations that transcend the changing, fleeting calculations of realpolitik. There are eternal, unchanging values, the values of Torah and morality, for which a Jew is commanded to sacrifice his life. No law on earth can require a Jew to violate a Torah command or to oppose ethical values. From time immemorial our ancestors sanctified G-d's name, literally sacrificing their lives for this.
Settling the Land is a mitzvah from the Torah (see Ramban, Note 4 on Sefer HaMitzvot). It is forbidden and impossible to hand it over to a foreign power, let alone to uproot Jews from their land. As Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook said:
"The terrible sin of handing over our lands to non-Jews is only the result of weak faith and knowledge, and nothing more. It brings no benefit to Israel, but can only harm them, leading to their endangerment and persecution, their shame and disgrace. There is no permissible side to the Torah prohibition against handing over our lands to the nations, and the prohibition applies for all times. Therefore, the duty rests on every Jew, on every great Torah luminary, on every Jewish soldier, to prevent this with his utmost courage and strength, and he will be assisted from Heaven." ("LeHilchot Tzibur", 21, from Rabbi Kook's Lo Taguru manifesto of Elul 5729)
We also have the unequivocal ruling of the illustrious Rabbi Shlomo Goren, z.t.l., Chief Army Chaplain and Chief Rabbi of Israel, that "an order to evacuate settlements is a patently illegal order." He made this ruling based on the opinion of all the important halachic authorities, amongst them the Chazon Ish and Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook, that the laws of the state are valid. That is, we must obey the laws of the state on condition that those laws do not oppose the laws of the Torah.
Rabbi Goren added, "Certainly the mitzvah of settling the Land is considered one of seven mitzvot that are of equal weight in comparison to the entire Torah. When a soldier is ordered to violate the Torah, he is obligated not to fulfill that order." (from an interview with Rabbi Goren in a Tel Aviv-area lawjournal)
Sharon's disengagement program not only opposes our holy Torah, not only opposes the view of the Likud voters who sent him into power, not only opposes the view of most Knesset members, but it is dangerous and bad for Israel, because it causes a rift in Israeli society. It knocks the wind out of the sails of the Israeli ship of state by seeking to banish Jews from their land. Moreover, it nullifies, so to speak, the justification for the Zionist settlement movement, not just in our own day, but totally. From a political perspective, it provides strength and legitimacy to terrorists to continue attacking us. They, after all, view the disengagement as a victory for their murderous approach. It also invites further pressure from Europe and other nations, and it brings degradation upon the State of Israel and the Jewish People. In fact, it arouses anti-Semitism in the world.
We believe with certainty that this program, like all the other non-starter programs, will fail to stop the process of Israel's rebirth in their land. And may G-d's promise to us be fulfilled: "The L-rd will not cast off His people, neither will He forsake His inheritance." (Psalms 94:14)