MORESHET SHAUL: I WILL BRING YOU BACK UP – PART I

This past Elul was the 700^th anniversary of our master, the Ramban's (Nachmanides) arrival at Jerusalem’s gateways to cherish her soil, cry over her desolation, and reawaken the effort to rebuild her, as the Ramban said:

“I came to the destroyed city; it is desolate, without its children, and I appropriately mourned: ‘Zion became a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation’ (Yeshayahu 64:9). When I was near the city, opposite its gateway, I ripped my clothes over her. And when I came opposite the great and holy House, we called out with great wailing: ‘Our father, the merciful father, Israel is neither an orphan nor a widower, for Your mercy is upon them in every place and at every moment.’”

Subsequently, he established the first shul in Jerusalem in which both Sephardim and Ashkenazim prayed, and boldly urged to return and claim the Land we inherited from our forefathers.

He left his home and his family in Spain and moved to Eretz Yisrael not only due to his churning heart and emotional yearnings. It is also due to a binding halachic obligation, which he established as an unmovable “stake in the ground.” He expresses this idea in his comments on the Rambam’s Book of Mitzvot (omitted positive mitzva #4):

“… we were commanded to possess the Land that Hashem gave our fathers, Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, and not leave it in the hands of any nation but us or to desolation … It is a positive commandment for all generations, obligating everyone, even in the time of exile.”

With these words he built the halachic foundation, and his actions provided a personal example. From that point, the Jewish settlement of Eretz Yisrael progressively grew and broadened from generation to generation and era to era. The longings for Zion “took on flesh and skin,” and there has been a real push to fulfill this mitzva with one’s fullest dedication of self and resources. Driven by his direct strength and its enduring ripple effects, pious and dynamic idealists were drawn to Eretz Yisrael. Permanent Jewish population centers were established and maintained in four areas of the Holy Land – Yerushalayim, Tzfat, Teveria, and Chevron. They inspired the pre-Herzl religious Zionist movement, which led to the developments of the hundred years leading to the establishment of the State of Israel and the wondrous phenomenon of standing by the gates and expanded boundaries of the Six Day War.

Now that we have merited to join together in this place, with representatives of batei knesset and religious activists from all the corners of the globe, we can express our feelings with these words: “Our feet were standing in your gateways, Jerusalem” (Tehillim 122:2). It is the House of Hashem, the gateway to Heaven, Mt. Moriah, from which Torah and wisdom emerge; it is the “mountain that Hashem desired to inhabit” (see Tehillim 68:17) and built there the House of His resting.

Let us raise the memory of the father of the Jewish settlement of Eretz Yisrael, our master and teacher, the Ramban zt”l and firmly accept to follow his path.

This obligation to possess the Land, which the Ramban posited devolves on each person, as a positive commandment for all generations, takes on special significance in relation to communal leaders, including lay leadership of synagogues and study halls throughout the world.

Let us analyze the section from the parasha we just read. Hashem said to our patriarch Yaakov: “Do not fear going down to Egypt … I will go with you to Egypt and will bring you up, and Yosef will place his hands over your eyes” (Bereishit 46:3-4). Israel did not enter exile alone, as the Divine Presence accompanied them into each place of exile (Megilla 29a). The gemara continues with the question of where one can find the Divine Presence outside Eretz Yisrael. It mentions two specific batei knesset in Bavel. Rashi (ad loc.) explains that Yechanya built them with the earth and stones he brought into the exile, based on the pasuk, “For His servants wanted her stones and desired her earth” (Tehillim 102:15).

We continue next time.

P'ninat Mishpat:  Regulation of Land Rights in a Settlement Extension – part IV

Read more

Top of page

Print this page

Send to friend