The Attitude towards the Land of Israel

by Rabbi Dov Berl Wein

The attitude of Jews towards the Land of Israel has always been a litmus-paper type of test of Jewish commitment and even faith throughout the ages. As we see in this week’s parsha, from the beginning of our national existence there have always been Jews – leading Jews, well-intentioned Jews, even outwardly pious Jews – who have preferred living somewhere else in the world to living in the Land of Israel. Even when Hitler came to power European Jews in many cases refused to consider immigration to the Land of Israel as an option. It is not my place to judge others for their behavior in a very dreadful time, especially since I am blessed with the perfect hindsight that they tragically lacked. But it is a strange fact that throughout Jewish history the naysayers regarding the Land of Israel in Jewish society have always abounded. Jews in the generation of Moses claimed their preference for the land of Egypt over the Land of Israel. An entire generation of special and gifted Jews was destroyed in the desert of Sinai because of their unwillingness to consider living in the Land of Israel as a viable option for them and their descendants. The challenge of living in the Land of Israel was apparently too great a problem, physically, psychologically and spiritually for them to overcome. To me this attitude remains one of the supreme mysteries of all of Jewish history. But mystery or not, it certainly is a fact that has governed Jewish life over the ages.

When Moses’ own relative refused the offer to go to the Land of Israel, Rashi explains that the two reasons for his behavior had to do with family and making a living. These are very strong reasons that exist today that prevent many Jews from considering immigrating to the Land of Israel. Again, I neither judge nor begrudge anyone in this or any other life changing matter. However, I feel that the issue of the Land of Israel, independent of any other causes and motives, strikes at a very deep place within our personal and national soul. The fact that the most ultra-assimilated and the most outwardly ultra-pious amongst us both are included in our generation as the most vociferous of the anti-Land of Israel groupings within the Jewish people shows how deep and sensitive the problem of the Land of Israel is. The extremes in Jewish society cannot deal with the Land of Israel as a reality and earnestly hope that the issue will somehow disappear completely. There are millions of Jews who prefer living in exile to living in the Land of Israel. The Jewish people as a whole has not absorbed the lessons of the exile, its alienation, assimilation and ultimate corruption of Torah values. Today, even many Jews who physically live in the Land of Israel still psychologically and spiritually live in the exile, in their fantasy imagination of the long-destroyed shtetel of Eastern Europe. As foretold to us by our prophets the ultimate fate of the Jewish people will be determined for us by our attitude to the Land of Israel. Living in the Land of Israel or at least visiting it regularly is currently the centerpiece of Jewish life, its faith and its future.