On Voting in Elections in the Land of Israel

The remains of the shul in Neve Dekalim, Gush Katif,
may it be speedily rebuilt

On voting in elections in the Land of Israel

Rabbi Yehoishophot Oliver

Someone wrote to the Rebbe concerning someone who had written to him, encouraging him not to vote in the Israeli elections. This was the Rebbe’s response.

... Anyone who has a passport in his hand automatically has the ability to vote. By registering for the passport he acknowledges, and not under coercion, the [political] leadership there. If after this he does not participate in the elections, and others see and do likewise, and this is liable to affect the determination of a “major” law or even a minor one, when they [the politicians voted in] vote for the legislation incorrectly, then he shares the blame for the calamity of many.  I have not yet found the person with the “broad shoulders” to be able to take responsibility for such a calamity.

Of course, the above words are not directed at those who give no recognition at all to the [political] leadership, or who don’t want to travel to the Holy Land, may it be rebuilt, for this reason, etc. However, those who are there, and who take part in whatever manner there,[1] but only when it comes to taking part in the elections, they parade their zeal, should know that the opposite is the case [i.e., true zeal is expressed by voting]. 

Moreover, they do damage to the many, as mentioned above. Especially after they have tangibly seen over the course of the years that have passed how the vote of one political representative could have prevented a stumbling block to the many that constituted violation of a rabbinic prohibition and even of a biblical prohibition. This will suffice for the understanding.

It is self-evident that you have permission to write all that I have written here concerning the elections to the one mentioned above, and you may also add sharpness, because no matter how much you add, it will not do justice to the matter.

[1] You should ask him whether he benefits and pays—and thereby assists them—for water service, electricity, and the like. Does he pay taxes, some of which is also given to support the Ministry of Religions—in the plural—and its goals, and so on, and so forth. That constitutes actual assistance, not merely participation. How many times was he or one of his colleagues imprisoned for not paying taxes? If he is truly on the level about which which he writes, why doesn’t he fulfill the ruling of Rambam in Hilchos Dei’os, 6:1 [requiring one living in an environment of wicked people to move away]?

Igros Kodesh, Vol. 11, p. 168.

In my own words: Yes, it is indeed very worthy to oppose Zionism (see here, here, and here). However, that opposition is not applicable in this case. First, if opposing Zionism means not acknowledging the state, the one who refuses to vote in the Israeli elections with the claim: “We don’t want to participate and lend endorsement to the anti-religious Zionist state in any way” has not solved his problem, because he has chosen to be a citizen of the state, and in so doing he is already participating in it regardless: 1. he benefits from government services; 2. he is actively supporting causes that are antithetical to Torah simply by paying taxes.

Now that he is already part of this objectionable system, benefiting from it, and even assisting it, he has a moral and halachic obligation to at least exert a positive influence, and if he doesn’t, he is in fact causing harm to his fellow Jews.

Moreover, the voter is the true anti-Zionist zealot, because he uses his ability to vote and to influence others to vote to thwart the anti-religious legislation that the state would otherwise pass, or at least to lessen the amount and severity of such legislation.

Elsewhere the Rebbe elaborates on the importance of even a handful of votes to the political system as a whole:

The ruling of our holy Torah is known: “One should always view oneself as in an equal balance, and the entire world as in an equal balance” (Mishneh Torah, Hilchos Teshuvah, 3:4). With regard to the elections, sometimes a small number of votes can affect, over the course of time, that a decree [harmful legislation] not be passed, or even revoke the existing decrees. Who is the one in our time who can say: “I saved my own soul, and the community in the Holy Land, may it be rebuilt, let it be as it may be. If they issue a decree, what does that matter to me?” Especially since he pays taxes to all the government offices, which constitutes assistance, and in a direct manner, to their agendas. He registered for their passport, and when he writes letters he certainly knows that what he spends on the stamps goes to the tax offices, and some of that money goes to various objectionable causes. 

Igros Kodesh, Vol. 11, p. 253.

Moreover, the Rebbe specified how one should vote (ibid.):

Obviously, one should vote for the most charedi [G–d-fearing] parties.

And again, this time in a letter to Agudas Chassidei Chabad, the Chabad umbrella organization:

I have come to emphasize ... the holy duty and privilege, that everyone of those who tremble and fear the word of Hashem should take part in the elections. He should do so himself, and he should influence others, to vote for the most charedi parties, so that not even one vote goes to waste. I hereby give permission and authorization to publicize my opinion with full vigor and full force: Every single male and female among those who fear Hashem and think about His Name should do all in their power to increase the number of voters for the most charedi parties.

 Igros Kodesh, Vol. 4, pp. 345-346.

The Rebbe also stressed the disastrous spiritual effects on the country of simply failing to vote for the most charedi party:

... Refraining from this [voting for the most charedi party] automatically augments the strength of the parties who oppose Hashem, His Torah, and its Mitzvos.

Igros Kodesh, Vol. 11, p. 279.

Not going to the elections automatically leads to several more representatives ... from the heretics, and they declare in the Diaspora, and also in the Holy Land, may it be rebuilt, that this is solid proof that this is the majority in the Holy Land [i.e., this supports their claim that the majority in the Land of Israel don’t believe in Torah], and there is no greater desecration of Hashem’s Name than this.

Ibid., p. 357.

What does this all mean to us? Well, if you live in the Diaspora, as I do, it might mean to influence your friends in the Holy Land to vote, if you think that they might not be.

But if you are reading this in the Holy Land, then a very simple, practical question arises: What is the exact  meaning of the phrase, “the most charedi parties”?

What I’m about to say may seem obvious to many, but I believe that it needs to be spelled out. (See some Hebrew letters from distinguished Chabad rabbis here making the same point.) Being charedi is not about dressing very differently from the non-Jews, speaking in Yiddish, and so on. As proper and worthy as those (and many other praiseworthy pious) practices are, they are superficial. Being charedi is about being genuinely afraid to go against the word of Hashem in His holy Torah, and devoted to following it without compromise, starting with refusing to compromise one iota on basic halachah.

With regard to Israeli politics, unfortunately the so-called religious and charedi parties have betrayed us in this regard. In recent decades, this holds true first and foremost with regard to the issue of ceding land. As the Rebbe declared and even screamed in pain from the depth of his heart countless times, Jewish law forbids the surrender of land or even autonomy to non-Jews, or even discussing and admitting the possibility of such a course of action. This is categorically forbidden because:

1. this land is vital for security, and thus surrendering it endangers the safety of all the Jews living in the Holy Land, may G–d save us; 
2. Hashem gave the Jewish people the entire land as an eternal gift, and so it is forbidden to give any of it away to non-Jews; 
3. doing so causes tremendous damage and loss to Jewish property and livelihood;
4. doing so emboldens the desire of the enemy to demand more and terrorize us more, seeing that we are weak and concluding that their threats and attacks are effective
5. when Jews publicly violate the ruling of Torah, spurn the Land Hashem gave us, etc., it desecrates Hashem’s Name.

Yet parties that call themselves religious and even charedi, whose names are infamous, chose time and again to remain in the government coalition and thereby helped unforgivably heinous, wicked deeds to be done (remaining in the coalition in such a case is forbidden, as the Rebbe states in Igros Kodesh, Vol. 11, p. 168), and some even actively voted for such laws, may G–d save us, which of course makes it forbidden to vote for them, “religious” or otherwise (Karasi Ve’ein Oneh, Vol. 2, p. 422). To be specific, the Camp David Accords, the Oslo Accords, and the “Disengagement” were all only able to be passed because of the “religious” parties that chose to enable them by staying in the coalition, and in some cases, even vote for them.

Although there are obviously many other considerations in promoting Torah observance than this one, Torah rules clearly that “pikuach nefesh [danger to life] overrides the entire Torah” (Yoma 82a). As the Rebbe said many times, if one has a choice between a government grant to support Yeshivos, build shuls and mikva’os, and a matter related to securing the Land of Israel, one should forgo the government grant and not compromise on Jewish safety (see Karasi Ve’ein Oneh, pp. 378, 405, 463, etc.). On another occasion (ibid. p. 473), the Rebbe spoke very harshly, declaring that “one cannot base education for Torah and fear of Heaven on funds stained with Jewish blood. Not only is it forbidden to build Yeshivos with such funds, or to teach students fear of Heaven with such funds, it is even forbidden to build a bathroom with such funds (see Avodah Zarah 17a).”

Rather, the meaning of charedi in our time is simple: Vote for parties whose platform includes a clear, principled opposition to any involvement whatsoever in such treacherous schemes, and whose candidates have demonstrated a consistent example of doing so in their public career. 

Since everything we see and hear should teach us a lesson in our service of Hashem, below are some suggested lessons:

1. If you happen to be in an imperfect situation and part of a faulty system, as long as you choose to remain in it, don’t hesitate to have the maximum positive influence on those around you as you can, and influence others in your situation to do likewise. Yes, the system is deeply flawed, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t be a force for significant good as long as you’re in it (of course, with the proviso that one is not actually violating Jewish law, which is never permissible). 

2. As important as it is to dress as a chossid should (see here and here), the main thing is to be G–d-fearing, and the dress is encouraged because it is another method of reaching that goal. But if one is not G–d-fearing, the pious dress and other trappings do not help. (Along similar lines, see here, and Yeshayah ch. 1.)

3. Even if one’s intentions are supposedly very worthy, any choice of action that comes at the expense of basic Jewish safety is indefensible and contemptible.

(For a great Hebrew article on this topic, see here.)

"A Jew Doesn't Expel A Jew"

“A Jew Doesn’t Expel A Jew”

Rabbi Y. Oliver

Jewish hothouses in Gush Katif, may it be speedily rebuilt.

We know that throughout history, the Jewish people suffered mass tragedies in one form or another around the time of the three weeks and the month of Av. We are now marking six years since the euphemistically-termed “disengagement”—the expulsion of 10,000 Jews from their homes, the mass devastation of dozens of Jewish villages, and the surrender of Jewish land to our arch-enemies. 

In contrast, it was Jews who initiated, organized, and implemented the mass expulsion of their fellow Jews from their homes and land, to knowingly hand over their land to our sworn enemies—the Nazis of today, the PLO and Hamas—knowing full well that this act would empower and embolden them. There was not even any political pressure from the US at the time to make such a move (not that such pressure would in any way have justified the expulsion, of course, but its absence makes the expulsion all the worse).

Now, we were sent into golus, and thus it stands to reason that we are still in golus, because of sinas chinam, baseless hatred. The Gemara tells us that there was a specific event that so exemplified sinas chinam that it precipitated the entire exile. This was the episode in which a Jew in Jerusalem expelled another Jew by the name of Bar Kamtza, thus humiliating him. The relevance of this story is clear.

Let us increase in our love for our fellow Jew, which includes our zeal to defend our fellow Jew from harm—even harm inflicted by another Jew.


Although all the pain and suffering that the Jewish people have suffered throughout the ages is very difficult to digest, in a way, I personally find this tragedy worse than others, and thus representative of the nadir of the golus.



In earlier tragedies—such as the Crusades, the Inquisition, the pogroms, the Holocaust, and so on—it was always goyim who initiated their attacks against Jewish life and property. Even the Judenrat, the European Jews who collaborated with the Nazis in sending Jews to be slaughtered in the gas chambers, did not initiate their actions, as despicable as they were. Rather, they acted as they did for fear of their own lives.



And yet a group of Jews, very stubborn and organized, supposedly sworn to the noble task of leading and serving the Jewish people, initiated and carefully planned a mass expulsion of their fellow Jews on a scale so grand that it simply has no parallel in Jewish history.


Now, surely you will say, quite possibly with outrage, how dare I make such comparisons? No, I am not saying that Mr. Sharon is equal or worse than Torquemada. What I am saying is that I am much more troubled and outraged by a Jew’s callousness than a goy’s.



Because all Jews are brothers. And we are one family. And brothers shouldn’t treat one another like this. In the words of the cry that many of the Jews of Gush Katif and their sympathizers chanted as they were being expelled, “A Jew doesn’t expel a Jew.”


To the extent that we, the Jewish people, allowed this vile event to take place, we are responsible for it, and for the prolongation of the exile that it surely caused.



But this is not merely a matter of feeling sincere remorse for this collective sin, necessary though that is.



Concessions lead very predictably to ever-greater concessions, so ever since the Gush Katif expulsion, there have been various small-scale expulsions, and constant talk of another mass-scale expulsion. Only this time, the threat involves not the expulsion of 10,000 Jews, but 250,000 Jews, G–d forbid—all the residents of the Shomron and Yehuda, and the surrender of their land—our land, the Land of every single Jew—to the Hamas and the PLO, G–d forbid.



Every Jew should shudder with dread at the thought of this unspeakably evil act being inflicted upon our brethren in the Holy Land, and pour out his heart to Hashem that this evil plot be completely and forever forgotten, and do everything in his power to avert it.

FAQs about Zionism II

(Continued from here.)

Question: Aren’t the wars to defend the Land of Israel that we have won so miraculously proof that the messianic redemption has begun?


Answer: It is true that over recent decades the Jews living in Eretz Yisroel have, with the help of Hashem, won many wars against tremendous odds, but that does not constitute a sign of redemption. Consider the case of Purim, when the Jewish people took arms against our goyisheh enemies and won, but remained in exile afterward nonetheless, as the Talmud states, “We are still [even after the miracle of Purim] slaves of Achashverosh” (Megillah 14a).


Thus, refusing to associate these miracles with the messianic redemption does not mean “turning one’s back” on them. Indeed, we should give great thanks to Hashem for the miracles by which so many Jews were saved and so much of our sacred Land was protected, and vast segments of it liberated.

However, there is no inherent connection between these salvations and the future redemption other than the fact that all salvations are spiritually interrelated. Note also that in the Amidah prayer, we praise Hashem Who “redeems [the people of] Israel,” and the commentaries state that this is not a prayer for the future redemption, but for salvation “from the troubles that befall us” in exile. The Jewish people have experienced divine salvation despite fighting against great odds many times during their protracted exile, and this was yet another such occasion. Thus, the indisputable miraculousness of these events does not detract from the fact that we are still in exile.


Question: Shouldn’t we take action in order to hasten the redemption?


Answer: It is not our role to try to hasten the redemption through force. Hashem has promised us that when the time comes, Moshiach will usher in the age of redemption. For the true cause of the exile was not the Babylonians, the Romans, or any other empire, but our sins, and thus the only way to hasten and ultimately bring the redemption is by increasing in our own Torah observance and encouraging our fellow Jews to do likewise. This rectifies our sin, the cause of the exile, and therefore removes its outcome, the exile, automatically.


Question: Won’t leaving the exile and moving to Eretz Yisroel ...


Answer: Whoa, hold it right there. Until Moshiach comes, the Land of Israel is a part of exile and the Jews in it are in a state of exile just as are those living in the Diaspora. The confusion of the two meanings of the word golus—diaspora and exile—is unfortunate and highly misleading, although I imagine it is unintentional. This identification implies that living in the Land means living in a world of redemption, or at least partial redemption, while living in the diaspora means choosing to remain in exile.

With all due respect, this is incorrect. Even a Jew who lives in Eretz Yisroel declares during his prayers: “On account of our sins, we were exiled from our Land.” And he does so even when praying in the holiest city, Yerushalayim, and at the Kosel, the holiest place in the world that we can go. So even a Jew living in the Holy Land, in the holiest city, and standing at the Kosel, is in exile just the same. For exile is not about being banished from the Land, but about being in a state of exile in which we cannot serve Hashem properly, which is only possible when we have the Beis HaMikdash, a Jewish king (in the case of the upcoming redemption, the king Moshiach), and so on. There were Jews living in the Land throughout our long exile, albeit in smaller numbers, and yet no one ever saw anything redemptive in that.


Question: How do you respond when you see Jews displaying the Israeli flag?


Answer: I am unhappy. However, I find it doubly sad when I witness someone who identifies with the cause of strengthening the Jews of Yehuda and Shomron displaying the Israeli flag so proudly. It was only yesterday, in the suicidal idiocy and treason so euphemistically but callously termed “disengagement,” that we all saw the true colours of the Israeli government and its flag.

We saw how the government sent young men and women (who should have been elsewhere defending us from our true enemies) to systematically and efficiently expel our brethren from their homes and villages in the Gaza strip and Northern Shomron—all with that very flag emblazoned on their blackshirted vests. To add insult to injury, when their dirty deed was done, they raised that flag over the Jew-free territory to declare “victory” (may Hashem have mercy) in their mission. And then we saw how the same government that had promised so publicly, using costly advertising campaigns, that there would be a “solution for every settler” did nothing of the sort, instead leaving these expellees in the lurch. The “dawn of the redemption,” indeed.

Proudly Promoting Exclusively Jewish Ownership of the Tomb of the Patriarchs

Proudly Promoting Exclusively Jewish
Ownership of the Tomb of the Patriarchs

Rabbi Yehoishophot Oliver

This week’s Parsha discusses Avraham’s purchase of the Cave of Machpelah, a.k.a. the Tomb of the Patriarchs. How does one respond to Arabs who claim rights over it? The Rebbe explains:

When the descendants of Yishmael approach us with the claim that the Cave of Machpelah belongs to them, for they trace their lineage to Avraham[1], this week’s Torah portion[2] provides us with a clear response:

1) It is well known that the vast majority of the Arabs now living in the countries neighboring the Land of Israel do not descend from Yishmael.[3]

2) Moreover, Yishmael himself has no connection to the Cave of Machpelah, for Avraham bought it in order to bury Sarah.[4] Yishmael was not Avraham’s heir, and certainly not Sarah’s heir. Thus, it belongs only to Sarah’s son Yitzchok, and to Yitzchok’s descendants, who are traced only through Yaakov.[5]

The conclusion of this week’s Torah portion teaches us another point:

When a time comes that [the descendants of] Yishmael becomes wild, and approaches us with wild claims and demands, the Jewish people should not become afraid, G–d forbid, or discouraged. We must merely remind Yishmael of the truth: His existence is defined by his being “born of Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s maidservant, for Avraham.”[6] However, if he begins to hold himself as an independent entity, and not as the son of Sarah’s maidservant, he will “fall amongst all his brothers.”[7]

Non-Jews also believe in the Written Law. Thus, when the Jew is sufficiently confident of the above, and explains it to the non-Jew using appropriate language, but in a clear, open manner (and there is certainly no need to become dejected, G–d forbid, before the non-Jews, and certainly not before those who consider themselves descendants of Yishmael), they will stop applying pressure upon the Jewish people.

They too will sense (especially by “their mazal seeing”[8]) that for their own welfare, the Cave of Machpelah, and the entire land of Israel with all its borders, should be openly, even during the era of exile, completely in the possession of the Jewish people.

Likutei Sichos, Vol. 15, pp. 153-154.

_____________________________________________
[1] Avraham is buried in this cave.

[2] This Torah portion is known as Chayei Sarah. See Bereshis 23-25:18.
[3] See Ibn Ezra on Bereshis 27:40.
[4] Bereshis ch. 23.
[5] See Likutei Sichos, ibid., p. 149.
[6] Nedarim 31a explains the extra “in” in Bereshis 21:12, “For in Yitzchak your seed will be called” as meaning that not all of Yitzchak’s seed is to be considered Avraham’s—only Yitzchok’s son Yaakov, and not Esav.
[7] Bereshis 25:12.
[8] ibid. 25:18.
[9] I.e., the spiritual source of their souls senses the spiritual reality without the person being consciously aware; this then affects the level of the non-Jews’ soul vested in a body. See Megillah 3a.

The Rebbe states clearly: The Jewish people should declare and publicize unapologetically that according to the “Bible,” even if the Arabs are descended from Yishmael, they have no claim to the Cave of Machpelah, and thus the Jewish people must be allowed to hold exclusive control over it. When we say this confidently but respectfully, non-Jews will surely accept it.

Practically speaking, most of the Cave of Machpelah is currently under the control of the Arab “Wakf,” the Islamic trust. By far the largest section of the Cave of Machpelah, known as Isaac’s Hall, is maintained as a mosque for the entire year except for ten days (click on the red dots here to see what’s what), with Jews forbidden from entry, while an area over three times smaller, known as the Hall of Yaakov and Leah, is maintained as a shul for the entire year, with Muslims forbidden from entry, except for 10 days, in which Muslims are allowed in and Jews are not.

Why, you may ask, when the Cave of Machpelah is under Jewish military control, have the Jews ceded control of the vast majority of their second most holy site to the Muslims? My understanding of the reason for this situation is that when the holy city of Chevron was liberated after the Six-Day War (after it being forbidden for Jews to enter there for over seven hundred years), the Jewish people, and in particular the politicians responsible for the Holy Land, did not enthusiastically declare the entire Cave of Machpelah a Jewish synagogue. In fact, they barely allowed any entry, and it was only through great wrangling against those politicians that Jews have even the degree of access that they do today.

Jews must campaign to have the entire area transformed into a shul.

(Although this would have meant transforming it from a mosque, this would have been no different from the way it became a mosque in the first place—when the Muslims conquered it from from the Christians, who had turned it into a church, which happened twice.)

Inner versus external reality

One of the core differences between the secular world-view that enshrines moral relativism and that of the Torah, which teaches timeless, eternal truth, is that according to the secular world-view, reality is determined by externalities, while according to the Torah, the internal, spiritual reality is the true one. Here are some examples.

• Modern thinkers, buoyed by the tremendous accomplishments of science and technology, have dismissed religious belief as outdated and silly, superstitious and uncultured. So how then did the world come to exist? It just evolved all by itself. First there was a primordial mass, that exploded somehow or other, and developed slowly for many billions of years, until the universe as we know it came to exist!

But no amount of highfaluting sophistry can alter the basic principle that order cannot emerge from disorder. As astronomer Fred Hoyle famously declared, the theory of evolution is as unlikely as a 747 forming out of a tornado in a junkyard. Rather, a design reflects upon a designer, and the more complex and intricate the design, the more one is compelled to reach this conclusion. Our world in all its virtually infinite complexity exists because Hashem created it, and asserting otherwise cannot change this.

• These days, if a man has undergone an operation that surgically removes his private parts, and takes hormone “therapy” and wears feminine clothes and declares that he is now a she, it is considered objectionable to reject this claim, and improper to refer to this person as a he.

But in reality, the artificial removal or minimization of certain typical gender traits and practices cannot change the inner self. Gender is not a matter of whim and preference. Hashem “hardwired” into the core of a person’s identity ever since he separated Adam from Chava.

• According to civil law in certain areas, euthenasia is permissible, for they deem the person to have the inalienable right to choose between his own life and death.

According to Torah, however, actively ending a life is an act of murder regardless of one’s humane intentions, for one’s life is not subject to forfeiture.

• Some people consider themselves Jewish because they have distant Jewish ancestry or Jewish friends, or because they like Jewish food or Jewish literature ... or because they took a conversion course at a reform temple. Others who were born Jewish have come to tragically reject their identity, and (at least on the surface) identify themselves as no different from the non-Jews around them.

However, Jewishness is a status conferred by Hashem, and thus only He is qualified to decide who has it. He revealed His will in the Halacha (Jewish law), which declares categorically that Jewishness is not a matter of personal choice and preference, or even of belief and conviction. Rather, only one who was born of a Jewish mother or was converted according to Halacha can be considered Jewish. Conversely, when one who does fall under one of these two categories claims that he is no longer Jewish, his declaration cannot be accepted. His Jewishness is at the core of his inner self, and is therefore not subject to change through any external action.

• Certain arabs have declared that they are entitled to a portion of the Land of Israel, or all of it, because in their way of thinking, it belongs to them. They have terrorized Jews and cruelly murdered thousands of innocents in a bid to promote this agenda. In a craven effort to appease these filthy murderers, certain politicians have ceded certain segments of the Land of Israel to these non-Jews. These concessions are invariably “honored” with solemn declarations of a desire for peace and harmony, brotherhood and cooperation.

But Hashem gave the Land of Israel to the Jewish people—the entire Jewish people—as an eternal gift. The external act of physically handing over parts of the land to non-Jews cannot change this fundamental fact. So although non-Jews who receive land from Jews come to physically control it, they do not in fact acquire it. Instead, they become robbers, or, to use a popular expression, illegal occupiers. Thus, in reality ceding them land is spiritually detrimental (not only for the Jewish people, but also) for them, and against their own best interest.

In light of the above, I believe that part of the struggle to cast off insidious secular attitudes (see here) consists of consciously training ourselves to become attuned to the deeper reality of the world in which we live. In order to accomplish this in the deepest sense, it is neccessary to study the “inner,” mystical dimension of Torah. This enables one to see within everything one sees in the world the true inner character and purpose of that thing, and this in turn guides one in how to relate to it according to the wishes of Hashem.