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Michael Kadish
Throughout the history of the Jewish people, there have been innumerable tragedies that have befallen us. In virtually every country that has housed Jews, the Jews have at least been subject to prejudices or hatred, and at most victims to pogroms, Inquisitions, "retribution," or the Holocaust. Like most religions, Judaism, to keep its followers believing, offers its Wonders to Come to those obey the laws. The promise of Mashiach, Heaven, and the return of all Jews to the Holy Land have been foretold by the Rabbis to the people since the Romans had expelled the Jews.
The idea behind these incentives of a dreamy future were to keep the people in line, and offer them a reward for their religious behavior. The same holds true in almost any religion, at least in their probable belief of a Messiah and/or a Heaven. A problem occurs however, when the people, in any religion, try to go directly after the reward, without doing what they have to do to get it. Short cuts cause problems. Judaism has had its fair share of false Messiahs, people like Shabbatai Tzvi , The Rebbe, Jesus, or Bar Kochbe, who people followed because they just felt that enough was enough and this HAD to be the Mashiach already.
Hell really isn't focused on that much in Judaism, so the goal of Heaven is also somewhat down played. Other religions focus on it a great deal though. Early Christians, until Papal orders forbade it, believed that since they Believed, they had a set place in heaven which was certainly a lot better than the way the Romans treated them, so suicide was the preferred option. The Japanese were willing to kamikaze themselves to Heaven in WWII and Muslims do it today.
Jews however, had always had the resurrection of a Jewish state in Israel to look forward to, and to keep them dedicated to their Judaism. Jews have been saying that the Jews will return One Day. However, in 1898 it reached the point that a Jewish homeland was no longer a promise made by the Rabbis to keep the people in line. The feeling was that if we wanted a Jewish state, and it was certainly needed, we would have to build it ourselves. "If this was our longstanding dream, and it was accessible, and we could surely benefit from it, why shouldn't we go after it?" was the basic feeling of the Hertzlian Zionism.
Of course, the Zionist dream was a reality fifty years after Hertzl came up with the idea. In 1948 The State of Israel came into existence. Fifty years after Israel once again became the Jewish homeland, the Jews of the world are faced with a major question that each has to answer for themselves. Should I make alliya ? It potentially does no longer need to be a dream that we have to wait until our children's children's children to see. But it is still a question.
In 1998, life in Israel is not that much harder than in the States, or any other country. Saving money is a problem in Israel, but the standard of living is quite high, the country is very much a first world country, there is not the threat of terrorism that the media makes it out to be, and the country is very technologically advanced. It's no longer a case where moving to Israel is a complete sacrifice of the modernity and the opportunities of the US. The arguments that are given to people against making the move are much less specific than having to lose any one item from their home country, it is more to the point of asking them what they are really saying by moving there. Likewise, when people tell you to make Alliya, it isn't so that the potential Olleh has the oppurtunity by moving to Israel to work on a kibbutz, or to pray at the Kotel , but is much more generalized.
The arguments are also not only of religious obligations, nor are they strictly of secular points. It is a distinct combination of the two. If a Mafdalnik, a member of Israel's Kippa Sruga party, were to tell an non-observant Jew outside of Israel to make alliya because halacha commands it, the non-observant Jew will in probability not be able to care less. Likewise, if a Chiloni points out to a Haredi, out of Munsee, that Ben Gurion said, "you cannot be a Zionist outside of Israel," the Haredi will in probability not be able to care less. A basic Venn Diagram of Jews could look like this.
I am in the dark cross section of the two circles, known in Israel as Kippa Sruga, and back home as Modern Orthodox. I am understanding of both arguments. I spent last year on a B'nei Akiva program, through the course of which, I heard the arguments many, many times. I will bring forth all that I recall, and am being constantly reminded of.
As a Modern Orthodox Jew, I have often felt that I am being quartered by four horses, but the continuous feeling is that the ropes are not equal in strength, and something will give.
If any of the ties were to prove to be the strongest, then the MOJ in the middle would be dragged by the rope's horse, in the horse's direction. If two horses on any side, had stronger ropes than the ropes tied to the opposite horses, then the MOJ could at least be dragged in some direction. But each horse seems equally strong, and needs to be heeded. Therefore, I have to hear and offer rebuttal to all four. I can't sneer at any of the arguments and say that I don't believe. I do. I am feeling the pull of all four.
First, there are the arguments in the top right, those of the Religious Zionist movement. The inequality signs before the paragraph indicate to where it is leaning. ">" indicates that the paragraph is pro-Alliya . "<" Indicates it is against it.
> This is the key argument that religion tells you to move to Israel. The assumption is that since the Romans, the Jews have been in Galut , or exile. That means that, first of all, the "adopted country" is not the real home, and the Jews should be eager to come back to the land of which they are now able to return.
> It goes on to mean though, that since the exile is over, we MUST, if we are to obey God's laws, return to Israel and live under all of the mitzvot which tell us to live in Israel, or can only be fulfilled if we live in Israel.
< There are three rebuttals. One is that The State of Israel was not given by God, it was taken by man. It is therefore not a commandment to live there. This is accepted by many, but as shown in the Venn diagram, I am not in it's segment. Some of those who take that position, and others who don't, say that we were not in galut as punishment at all. We were in a Diaspora, where the Jews were set to be a light upon the nations, and to improve themselves. I am more quick to point to the other two. It says in the Torah that two and a half tribes did not want to enter Eretz Yisrael. They thought that the land in Jordan was ideal, and they didn't want to live in the promised land. God only agreed after they promised to help support Israel, and stand by there brethren. This is a rather interesting parallel to today. I can live in Greener pastures (not much greener as I stated earlier, but greener nonetheless), i.e. America, give some money to JNF every year, and then all will be well.
< The third point is to remind what happened after the Persian exile. Some of the Jews returned, far from all, and they went on to have the Hashmonai dynasty, some of the most corrupt kings in Jewish history. We were thus rewarded for leaving Galut?
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> That was a quote from the Mishna located in the Gemora in masechet Ketovot, perek gimel, page quf yod. It literally states that, "he who does not live in Israel has no God, and he that says that it is beautiful to live outside of Israel, it is as if he prays to the stars. [as oppose to God.]"
> Well, that literally, one would assume, says it all. According to the Halacha, to live in Galut is to not have a God.
< There is a quick answer to this. The rabbis in the Gemora, well at least the Talmud Bavli, were in Galut. To say that those rabbis did not believe in God would pretty much kill religious Judaism.
> Of course, the line does not really mean that anybody living outside of Israel is Atheist. The Gedolim were not Atheists. It's not a paradox when it's looked into. The line has two applications to recommend Aliya. It is saying that without a homeland, Jews do not have the support that they would have had if God was there with them, second, he who proposes that any place is better for the Jews then Israel he is ignoring God.
< The first part there doesn't really need to be argued with, the supposition is that we now do have the country. Only the second part needs to be argued with. When the Mishnasays that there is no God, that is because God does not, as seen in Jonah, communicate well to people outside the land of Israel. He hears us, or we wouldn't be instructed to pray, but we cannot hear him. Unless I was intended to be a prophet then, I'm not hurting anybody.
< Furthermore, I'm not advocating that there is a better land than Israel. For my needs, perhaps, I may have found one, but I am not telling everybody to come follow me, and therefore, I am once again in the same position as those two and a half tribes. I am not violating the Halacha by staying abroad.
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> It is common for a class to show Israel's legitimacy as divine, to show all of the amazing occurrences that have happened in Israel's history. The first three wars, in 1948, 56, and 67 were clearly miraculous, and it is easy to see that God was on Israel's side.
> The quote of Mark Twain is also brought up over and over again. In the 1870's Mark Twain visited Palestine, and noted that it was a deserted wasteland, with nothing but beggars, lepers, and sand. The point being that since the Jews have gotten hold of it, it is a fully flourishing country, and goes on to prove the line that Israel will only grow in the hands of the Jews. Truly Israel must be the land of miracles.
< Israel has not really had such great luck after the Six Day War. Yom Kippur was luck. They barely pulled out of that one alive. Entebbe in '76 was rather incredible, but since my lifetime, Israel has not seen outstanding miracles.
< Furthermore, nearly everybody who has conquered Israel has had a rather impressive reign. The Greeks conquered, they ruled for quite a while, and conquered most of the world. The Persians conquered Israel, they lasted a few centuries, and were one of the wealthiest dynasties ever. The Romans conquered it, kept it for a better part of a millenium. The Turks then conquered it, and ruled it rather well for around five hundred years. When the British got it, they too had won WWI with a great deal of miracles. They only had it for thirty-one years before they gave it away, but during that time, they had a rather impressive reign. So, a few miracles does not make the current possessors any better than the previous ones.
< Also, this is not the first time that the Jews miraculously reconquered Israel. The Hashmonaim and Bar Kochbe tried. The former lasted over a hundred years, but was corrupt to the point that the rabbis rightfully refused to allow the story in the Nach, and Bar Kochbe, after having Rabbi Akiva go and declare him to be the Mashiach, lasted two years, and led to the Diaspora, or Galut. Jewish acquisition of Israel does not mean it is divinely ordained nor a great place to live.
> It is a common quoted fact that the intermarriage rate among Jews in the States is near 60%, and 8% of Jews convert away. Wouldn't it be better to raise them in Israel, offers the argument, so that they can maintain their Jewishness?
< The problem with that is other common statistics. Nearly fifty percent of the Dati'im in Israel become Chiloni'im, twenty percent of Dati Jews will become yordim, five percent of Chiloni Jews will become yordim. That means two things. First, that raising them in Israel does not help their potential Jewishness much, and second that by me moving here, I am actually increasing the chilonim - dati'im ratio. Fifty percent of my kids will be dati, fifty chiloni. But twenty percent of the dati'im will leave, leaving forty percent, whereas minus yordim, the chilonim are at forty-eight.
< Furthermore, a new threat appears. As stated above, in America, 8% of the people convert out of Judaism. When the millenium comes, assuming that Jesus doesn't also, missionaries will go into full swing in Israel, trying to convert the Jews. The Anti-missionary bill that was brought forward in the Knesset was shot down, and meanwhile proselytizing groups have been coming into the country in rather large numbers. Jews for Jesus, the Mormons, the African Hebrews, not to mention, normal Protestants and Catholics who have been steadfastly incresing their numbers as of late. It's not going too be much safer for their Yiddushkite here.
< And is it better for my kids to be drafted?
> Rambam said that if there is a time when no Jews are in Israel, then all of Judaism will die. This is a very common argument to show the necessity of making alliya. However, if there are already six million Jews in Israel, am I really needed?
Then there the side of the Religious who are opposed to making alliya. They to can have their arguments nullified.
< This argument is a very broad argument that includes the premise that some say that the state of Israel is to be gotten sans fighting, and that it should not be gotten through secular means. Now, as I stated in the beginning, I won't ridicule this premise, it is a legitmate argument. However, I will counter it by saying that the last part of Amos seems to have predicted the state of Israel. In Chapter 9, verse 14, it says, "����� �� ���� ��� ����� ���� ���� ����� ����� ����� ����� ���� �� ����� ���� ���� ����� ����� ����� ����� ���� �� ���� ���� ���� ����� ��-�����." God will return the Jews to the state of Israel, with the God-fearing nations calling for it. And the Jews will plant grain and grapes, and drink the wine. It goes on to say that God will pluck the Jews from their homes, and Jews will return to Israel. It then says that the mountains will bring forth wine. And describes how plants will once more grow in Israel. In short, he describes the modern state. The UN vote is nations of the world calling for it, Israel now has incredible agriculture given its arid climate, and even the mountains, as it says, make delicious wine. (The Golan)
It seems that the prophesy of foretells the present. The people who went to work on the agriculture, and most who "were plucked out from there homes," were Chilonim, who were not intentionally trying to fulfill the prophesy but did it anyway. It would seem that modern Israel is in fact the state which Amos foretold.
< This is a common a common Haredi complaint. Israel was brought to the UN on the grounds of the bible, the flag is a talit, and when they started the country, they eliminated the Jewishness. One cannot live under such heretics.
> The thing is that America is also a secular state, and there is no country in the world that follows Jewish Halachot. However Israel is the closest there is to a religious Jewish State.
> Furthermore, to be lead by non-religious Jews is nothing new, there have always been a very large percentage of Am Ha'aretz among the Jews, and in many cases have been the leaders of the Jewish people. Looking back on many of the horrible Jewish kings that led B'nei Yisrael, it is clear that many of them did not follow the Mitzvot, yet, the religious were still a part of the people.
But the modern, secular arguments for moving or staying are just as strong as the religious ones. I fall prey to the secular arguments as well, and they are, equally as strong.
> Ben Gurion said that "One can no longer live outside of Israel and be a Zionist." If somebody is Jewish, and they really want to see Israel succeed, then the only step they can take is to make alliya. An American Jew who tries to offer his views on Israeli politics, or the peace process is virtually ignored by Israelis, who feel that you can only make decisions after you live here. It is interesting to note, that the word for Zion, in Hebrew, is ����. The word "zion" in Hebrew, ����, means "penis." Israel does not seem to care much for "American Zionism."
< But, Ben Gurion's job was to get Israel populated. He had to sell the country, they didn't have a million people yet, and they desperately needed people. Israelis have so many opinions amongst themselves that they have to degrade any ideas that they can, simply to lesson the many sides. If an American Jew has an opinion, it's ignored, because he doesn't live in Israel.
< Once he moves to Israel, it's still ignored, not because he's American, but because he is yet another voice out of six million.
> In 1898 the offer was made to give the Jews their own state in Uganda. When the Holocaust occurred, one of the potentials to have saved the Jews saved was to have one place other country ready to absorb the Jews. In the initial program of Nazi Germany, the goal to be Judenrein was simply to be rid of Jews. According to Hanna Arendt, Eichmann said on the stand that the first book he ever read was Herzl's Judenstaat, and it affected him to the extant that he agreed that the Jews were their own entity. He didn't act to be scornful to the book, he honestly thought that the Jews should be out of Europe, and in their own place. It was only when no other country would take the Jews that the Final Solution was implemented.
< In a sense, then, this previous statement can say that Zionism caused the Holocaust. It wasn't hatred brought about by anti-Zionism, but the Zionist theory itself, which started the Holocaust. However, we can't blame Herzl for the actions of madmen who misinterpreted his works.
< But, we can ask, why do we need to be in Israel? If the goal is to simply have a single Jewish people, then couldn't the Jews all move to NY? It would be the same thing, if the goal is to merely have the Jews together as one.
< Another point is that just because there is a Jewish country doesn't at all mean it will work. Take Kazaria, which the Kuzari completely changes the story of. It was a country where surrounded by both Christian countries and Arab countries, so to avoid persecution by either side the people (quite ironically) converted in mass to Judaism. Jews were then allowed to move there, but the Jewish State didn't last very long, as the country soon had itself torn apart. A Jewish country does not indicate that the Jews will survive better.
> Jews in America are seeing the same growth, prosperity, and freedom that the Jews in Germany saw until Hitler came to power. Just as the Jews in Europe refused to believe that it could ever happen there, the Jews in America refuse to believe that it could happen in their home. All it takes is one of many triggers that people have suggested.
> The first scenario is that after the millenium bug and the computers fail, a depression dwarfing that of 1929 will sweep the world. The scapegoat of America, as it has been so many times in the world, will be the Jews.
> The second is that the millenium itself is approaching. When it does, the Fundamentalist Christians, who are gaining strength, are going to announce that the reason their Savior has not come is because there still remain Jews, who must either be converted or killed.
> Finally, all it takes is one leader to be elected. True, Jesse Jackson, David Duke, Pat Buchanan, and politicians who have come out of the Religious Right have failed, but it will only take one victorious anti-Semite that will cause problems.
< The problem is that if America is Germany, where is America's WWI? Germany was so devastated by the loss, and went into such disarray, that the people were then willing to elect anybody. In America, Vietnam may have been a tragedy, but the country wasn't destroyed. There hasn't been in America, a reason to quickly rebound, and to then follow an insane leader. The parallel between the two does not hold true.
< Furthermore, the chances of America initiating another Holocaust, are a lot less probable, under the worst of circumstances, than Iran firing a few of it's brand new nukes at Israel.
> America has nearly three hundred million citizens. Israel has a little more than six million. A Jew is much more needed in Israel, where his efforts will be more important than they would be in America.
< What does Israel need? They have a poor economy as of late, which means they have a large potential work force. Manual labor is not hard to find. The country is bureaucratic to the extent that more workers will not speed it up. Perhaps if I had some brilliant plan to smooth out the country, I could be used, but I wouldn't have the protectzia to get it pulled off.
The secular arguments against the State of Israel are mainly against the government. It is not an oppressive country, but there is no Bill of Rights, and other American values appear missing, while problems that have been to a large extent dealt with in America seem to be in full swing here.
< In 1982, Israel went into a very bloody war in Lebanon, and came out with a draw. That could be considered similar to Korea. The action has slowly reheated, the soldiers are trapped; if they leave Lebanon then they will get bombed by the Hezbulla , plus the SLA will turn on Israel. The same was true in Vietnam. The country is not winning many battles, but cannot pull out, and is therefore paying its rent in blood. The same was true in Vietnam. The country is not realy againsdst the minor country, but the larger enemy whose hand is in the puppet. The same was true in Vietnam. There is no conceivable end. The same was true in Vietnam. The youth, who previously were ready to fight for the country, are slowly turning away, led by the music industry, among others. The same was true in Vietnam. Granted, America wasn't protecting its own borders, but the rest holds true.
> It is not Vietnam, it is a measure to save the Israeli citizens. Bombs were being dropped on the North, this was the only way to deal with it. It is not a glorious war, but wars have to be fought. If you do not like the way things are run, you should come to Israel, and try to change them.
< Neither of the political parties are trustworthy. People get high-ranking jobs through protectzia and/or monetary influence. Barak is not much of a choice to Bibi, they're both useless.
> There are bad politicians and corruption everywhere. It's in the States too. Israel does not have a perfect system, but since such a system hasn't been found yet, it's a bit of a moot point.
> Furthermore, Israel is still a young country. Corruption was in every country at this age. However, if it to survive it needs help, and in the future there will be less corruption.
< "Come to Israel," we're told, "no more prejudice against Jews." This is true to a large extant. People aren't second class because they're Jews. People are looked down upon because they are Dassim (Haredi), Sephardim, Tzfardayot (French), Amerikakim (American), Arsim (punks, but generally teens), Yekkim (German), Polani (Polish), Kushim (black), or Zehuvim (Russian.) For a country where the idea was to escape hostilities, hostilities have been created on ethnic lines remarkably similar to the ones that brought people to Israel.
> Every group has racism. It's a sad truth, but a truth. People keep customs from their country, so they are different than people from a different country. However, Israel has not had race riots over it, like Europe and America has had.
< Certainly the terrorist attacks are not as bad as they are portrayed by the media, but that doesn't take away the fact that Israel has in close proximity, many nations and people who will go to any length to try to destroy the country. The attacks are too much, and pose a scare. It is not right to live life wondering if every moment will be your last.
> As stated, the terrorism is exaggerated by the media. There are explosions, there are terrorists, but people are not suspicious of every Arab, nor every bag. The terrorism statistics are far lower than the crime statistics in America. If a people should live in fear, it is those stateside with the high crime rates.
Each one of the arguments brought forth can be struck down. If it did not come across clearly or logically, then it is my fault. There is not a foolproof argument on the question of alliya. If the above arguments made sense, but one of the rebuttals, in your opinion, was not sufficient then you may have your decision as to whether or not you feel that alliya is right for you. It's all a matter of decision. If you feel that you want to make a difference to the State of Israel, then go. If you are scared to death of people being bombed, then perhaps Israel is not the place for you. There is no one answer, and it must be decided on an individual basis.
