[Avodah] [Areivim] Is it ..Galus

[Michael Makovi]

On Jan 4, 2008 9:52 PM, Rich, Joel <JRich at sibson.com> wrote:
>
> I'm glad he used the phrase "divrei navi", because it made me think of
> an interesting question that I don't know if I ever heard before.
>
> This thread had included comments and quotes of poskim regarding whether
> or not Aliyah is a chiyuv, mitzvah or reshus, d'Oraisa or d'rabanan. But
> now I'm curious: What was its status in Ezra's time?
>
> Of course, for millenia Chazal have taught us to mourn the fact that so
> few Jews heeded Ezra's call to return to Eretz Yisrael. But my curiosity
> is now piqued: Exactly what were they guilty of? Was it a chiyuv
> d'Oraisa that they ignored? A mitzvah d'rabanan? Or maybe they simply
> opted out of following one of the great Religious Zionists of all time?
>
> Akiva Miller
> _____________________________________________________________
> Or maybe (sometimes I'm tempted to say worst of all -with me as the
> direct object) they were guilty of not doing what iirc R' Asher Weiss
> often refers to as the "ratzon hatorah"
>
> KT
> Joel Rich

Indeed. It cannot be a mere d'rabanan, nor can it merely be refusing
to follow Ezra. It must be "ratzon haTorah", i.e. an overarching
demand of the Torah that underlies the entire Torah.

For if we say that we are led to the Land to do the mitzvot davka
there, and if we say that we are to be a holy nation and kingdom of
priests davka in the land, then it is almost meaningless to ask which
mitzvah we violated. Either we violated a meta-mitzvah (i.e. "to be
holy" encompasses the whole Torah, and so too yishuv erertz Yisrael;
neither can be enumerated as part of the 613 according to Rambam,
because they are too important to be individual mitzvot), or we
violated a very specific mitzvah (Ramban to Sefer haMitzvot), but not
just any mitzvah, but one that is indispensable to the rest (eg., the
prohibition of idolatry is technically no more a mitzvah than to keep
kosher or wave a lulav, but abandoning idolatry is clearly a very
different issue; Chazal never said kashrut or lulav is equal to all
the mitzvot of the Torah, whereas Chazal said davka this in regards to
idolatry and yishuv eretz yisrael. More, Chazal said that one who
lives in chutz is like one who worships idols! Clearly, to abandon
Hashem and to abandon haAretz are akin; apparently, because all of the
mitzvot depend equally on belief in Hashem and in living in Eretz
Yisrael.)

Mikha'el Makovi