The Land of Israel Beckons
By Rabbi Yisachar Shlomo Teichtel
[These words of encouragement and warning excerpted from the Second Introduction of the book “Eim HaBanim Semeichah” were written by Rabbi Yisachar Shlomo Teichtal 80 years ago, may Hashem avenge his murder.]
The purpose of this work is to raise our Land from the dust and stimulate love and affection for it in the hearts of our Jewish brethren, young and old alike, so that they may yearn and strive to return to our Land, the Land of our forefathers, and leave the lands of exile. The Midrash states this explicitly, “It is preferable to dwell in the deserts of Eretz Yisrael than the palaces of the Diaspora” (BeReishit Rabbah 39:8).
The sole purpose of all the afflictions which smite us in our exile is to arouse us to return to our Holy Land.
Our desire to return to Eretz Yisrael encompasses three elements. Firstly, “He who dwells in Eretz Yisrael is like one who has a God” (Ketuvot 110b). Also, the rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash will occur (with God’s help) when we assemble in Eretz Yisrael, as explained in Megillah (17b-18a). Afterwards, Mashiach, who represents the kingdom of the House of David, will arrive, as I will demonstrate in this volume. First and foremost, though, we must strive to return to Eretz Yisrael and then, with God’s help, we will attain these three objectives.
The Holy One blessed be He says that when the people of Israel are not in Eretz Yisrael they do not cling to His heart and soul. Therefore, we should not be astonished by what has happened to us in our times, or by the lack of Divine Providence that we are experiencing, for we live in the lands of the nations, and we do not cling to God’s entire heart and soul. However, when we strive to return to Eretz Yisrael, we will immediately cling to His entire heart and soul.
He who sets his eyes and heart upon moving to Eretz Yisrael is considered as if he is already there. It follows, then, that if we dedicate our thoughts to return to our Holy Land we will immediately cling to God’s entire heart and soul. His Divine Providence will keep a watchful eye over us to rescue us from our enemies and bring success to our endeavors. We will go up joyously to Zion, and the Children of Israel will go forth with a high hand from both physical and spiritual exile. HaShem will renew our spirit so that we will yearn to serve Him completely by fulfilling the Torah and mitzvot, as written in His holy Torah.
The essential point is that HaShem is waiting for us to take the initiative, to desire and long for the return to Eretz Yisrael. He does not want us to wait for Him to bring us there. Therefore, He told us, And I will truly implant them in this Land. That is to say, when we, on our own volition, truly and with all of our strength, desire and strive [to return to the Land], then God will complete the work for us beneficially.
Human intellect dictates that we initiate the process of redeeming the Land, and then HaShem will complete it. One must understand the great importance of this matter, for the evil forces (kelipah) gain strength even among the most righteous individuals, in order to nullify this good. This is so because the kelipah’s entire strength depends on exile; when the exile dissolves, so will the kelipah, as the Talmud states in Sukkah.
Who amongst us is greater than the Spies? The Torah testifies that they were upstanding individuals. Nonetheless, since they were influenced by their desire for authority, they rejected the desirable Land and led others astray causing this bitter exile, as Chazal explain. The Zohar and the Shelah note that the Spies were afraid that they would lose their positions of leadership upon entering Eretz Yisrael. The same holds true in our times even among Rabbis, Rebbes and Chassidim. This one has a good rabbinical position; this one is an established Admor; and this one has a profitable business or factory, or a prestigious job which provides great satisfaction. They are afraid that their status will decline if they go to Eretz Yisrael. People of this sort are influenced by their deep-rooted selfish motives to such an extent that they themselves do not realize that their prejudice speaks on their behalf.
When Jews live comfortably in exile, they do not want to hear about aliyah to Eretz Yisrael.
For many years now we have lived in peace and harmony with our Gentile neighbors and suddenly they have turned into enemies and evil neighbors who persecute us. This can only be because some force has incited them against us. Hashem, through His profound counsel, has caused all of this to occur so that we will run after Him to Eretz Yisrael.
The brilliant Ya’avetz also bemoans our lack of interest in returning to and dwelling in Eretz Yisrael. Since we subsist peacefully outside the Land, we imagine that we have already found a different Eretz Yisrael and Jerusalem. This caused great misfortune to the Jews who dwelt comfortably in Spain (and other lands), and they were expelled. There is hardly no remnant of the Jewish people left in that land. Hashem is righteous, for they completely forgot that they were in exile, and they assimilated among the nations. All of this has befallen us because we have neglected to return to our homeland – the Land of the Tzvi.
This is also the cause of the troubles that our nation is experiencing here today. My Beloved is knocking to awaken our desire to return to our Land. After all that has happened to us in these difficult times, there is no doubt that my words will fall upon fertile ground and awaken the hearts of our Jewish brethren in exile to long and yearn to return to the desirable Land of our forefathers.
Now is the most opportune time to endeavor with all our strength to leave the foreign lands, return to our Holy Land, and strive to rebuild it. In this way we will bring the coming of Mashiach closer, speedily in our days. Amen.
[The English translation of “Eim HaBanim Semeichah” was written by Rabbi Moshe D. Lichtman. The book is available at his website: https://toratzion.com/]
