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<font size=3>At 03:40 PM 6/30/2011, R. Micha wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">From: Micha Berger
<micha@aishdas.org><br>
To: avodah@lists.aishdas.org<br>
Subject: Re: [Avodah] R. Hirsch as a Modern Orthodox Leader<br>
Message-ID: <20110630102136.GA21847@aishdas.org><br>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii<br><br>
On Thu, Jun 30, 2011 at 05:24:48AM +0300, Ben Waxman wrote:<br>
: From: Saul.Z.Newman@kp.org <br>
:> 1--R Hirsch would clearly not be comfortable in
a DL/RZ setting <br><br>
: Yes, Rav Hirsch opposed a movement back to Zion, but that does not<br>
: mean that he would feel the same after the Shoah, and when the
medina<br>
: is a reality.<br><br>
This is empty speculation, but then so is opining about tzadiq vera
lo...</blockquote><br>
I do not think that it is a stretch of the imagination to think that
RSRH's views on Zionism and the State of Israel after the Holocaust would
be similar to those of Rav Dr. Joseph Breuer and Rav Shimon Schwab.
<br><br>
Below are some thoughts regarding the founding of the Jewish State from A
Unique Perspective: The Essays of Rav Dr. Joseph Breuer.<br><br>
Page 358<br><br>
Anyone who is imbued with the eternal truth and validity of<br>
God’s Torah will have to be aware that a state on God’s holy soil<br>
will only be able to endure if the conditions that God has set down<br>
for a Jewish state on His holy soil are met. These conditions apply<br>
to the Jewish entity and to the life of every individual who
declares<br>
himself a member of God’s People.<br><br>
Every word in our Torah is ironclad testimony to these facts.<br><br>
Page 359<br><br>
We have expressed it repeatedly in all clarity and intensity: This<br>
state will have a future only if, and as long as, it is organized as
a<br>
Jewish state, i.e., a state of God, rising on sacred soil. It will be
a<br>
state of God if it proclaims the Torah as the fundamental law of its<br>
constitution and propagates its practical realization in the life of
our<br>
people.<br><br>
Page 365<br><br>
There must live in us this unshakeable conviction: This State<br>
will last only if it will rise as God’s State on God-holy soil. This<br>
alone will prevent it from suffering the fate of the previous Jewish<br>
States. Will this State live up to this condition? It is still a
question,<br>
a source of terrible worry. We wished it were no longer a question!<br>
As certain as it is that this State, the mere fact of its formation,<br>
does not mean that the Ge’ulah has arrived, just as potent is its<br>
ability as perhaps never before in our Galus-historyto hasten<br>
the coming of the Ge’ulah. What a tragedy if this State, either by<br>
delusion or folly, were to prolong the Galus and provoke new and<br>
terrible catastrophes! May Hashem prevent this from happening. <br><br>
Furthermore, below are some selections from Rav Dr. Joseph Breuer's
essay Israel A Challenge</font><font size=4> </font><font size=3>that
appeared in the Mitteilungen, Vol. 24, December 1962/January 1963 and is
reproduced in A Unique Perspective: The Essays of Rav Breuer, 1914
-1973.<br><br>
A trip to Israel has become routine in our time. The amazing<br>
technological progress in the speed of air travel has helped in the<br>
enormous rise of volume of travelers bound for Israel. The Holy<br>
Land has become a focal attraction for the Diaspora. We would<br>
rather not analyze whether it is longing for the ancestral land
which<br>
motivates the travelers’ plan a longing which all but consumed<br>
the heart of a Yehudah Halevi. Undoubtedly, the existence of a<br>
Jewish state in the Holy Land, recognized by a majority of the<br>
world’s nations, draws many thousands into its orbit, who then<br>
return home warmed by the glow of the numerous achievements<br>
which the State has accomplished in the brief period of its
existence.<br><br>
As for us Torah-true Jews, we must be permeated by the following<br>
thoughts:<br><br>
From the beginning the Jewish people was assured possession<br>
of Eretz Yisrael only as God’s nation. Every page of the Torah<br>
proclaims this irrevocable truth. To deny it would mean a denial of<br>
God’s Torah itself. Only he who no longer recognizes the truth of<br>
the Divine creative pronouncement of “I shall take you as My<br>
people” with which God called our people into existencewill<br>
fail to grasp the absolute interdependence between the “I shall<br>
bring you to the Land” (Shemos 6:8) and the emergence of the<br>
Jewish people as God’s nation. The disruption of the sole tie that<br>
bound this nation to its land inevitably sealed the fate of nation
and<br>
land. <br><br>
Similarly, the future of this land is intimately and forever tied to<br>
the future of this nation. Redemption of the Jewish people also<br>
means redemption of the Jewish land. Thus, a true ingathering of<br>
our people into its land is not possible without our return to God<br>
and His life-shaping proximity. For the Land, too, longs for the<br>
return of God’s Shechinah.<br><br>
<snip><br><br>
For God guided His people, which His creative Will awakened<br>
to life and which can exist only through Him, and implanted it “in<br>
the Mountain of His heritage, in the site of His presence on earth,<br>
in the Sanctuary founded by God’s hands” (Shemos 15:17). Through<br>
God’s nation the Divinely sanctified soil was to be transformed into<br>
one singular Mount of Sanctity, looming high above a humanity<br>
estranged from God, as a symbol of the Divine claim of inheritance<br>
to His realm of earth and mankind. Who can then measure the<br>
gloom of the Prophet’s mourning (Yirmeyahu 2:7): “. . . but you<br>
came and desecrated My land and turned My heritage into
abomination”!<br><br>
Have we who tread upon the soil of our homeland still an ear<br>
for this stirring plaint? Do we feel shame for our brethren who<br>
respond with derisive laughter to this heart-rending pain; who feel<br>
no compunction to demonstrate to a world, which is familiar with<br>
the Book of the Prophets, how the very descendants of this people<br>
ridicule their own leaders?<br><br>
<snip><br><br>
Let us face it: The Jewish State in its present form is far from<br>
being a State of God. This realization is the basis for the
desperate<br>
struggle of Torah Jewry in Israel for the salvation of Torah in
Israel.<br>
Are not the establishment of the State and the resurrection of the<br>
land from the decay of millennia Divine challenges to our people?<br>
Are you ready for your ultimate redemption? That is why every<br>
truly Jewish man or woman must tremble for the future of the State,<br>
for the future of our land.<br><br>
Yet we need not tremble for the future of God’s Torah. Our<br>
anxiety is directed to our people and its God-willed destiny.
Despite<br>
the fateful significance of the tasks confronting Torah-true<br>
Jewry in the Holy Land, it would be of even greater fateful
consequence<br>
were we to underestimate the importance of strengthening<br>
Torah-true Jewry in the Golah.<br><br>
We applaud him who chooses to make his permanent domicile<br>
in Israel, in order to support and strengthen the cause of Torah in<br>
the Holy Land. However, in view of the regrettable state of affairs,<br>
a visitor to Israel will be burdened by the experiences which may<br>
be expected in the Golah but which are unbearable in the Holy<br>
Land.<br><br>
See Rav Shimon Schwab's article <b>Zion or Zionism </b>that appears
in <b>Selected Writings </b>for his views on Zionism and the State of
Israel. It may be read at <br><br>
<a href="http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/zion_or_zionism.pdf" eudora="autourl">
http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/zion_or_zionism.pdf<br><br>
<br>
</a><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
Yitzchok Levine</font></body>
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