[Avodah] Minchas Eliezer

[Eli Turkel]

[Reposted an Areivim discussion of the Satmar Rav's position. -micha]

> The righteous may go there to pray, but whatever is built there is
> destroyed, like the walls of Jericho of yore.

Interesting how RYBS and others make the diametrically opposite argument.
The land that was desolate for centuries has come back to life with the
movement of Jews back to the land. Many bring the example of Gush Katif
which was rescued from the desert by the Israeli settlers and returned to
desert when they left.

AS to the spiritual level I have my doubts about the spirit level of Jews
in the first Temple era. In the second Temple we had Saducees etc and both
Temples lasted over 400 years. Wew have numerous takkanot to increase the
settlement in EY including violating rabbinic shabbat laws. I am not aware
of any restriction that this applies only if the Jewish buyer is on a
sufficiently high spiritual level. Chazal were also concerned about the
average farmer who I assume were not major talmidei chachamim