The words of the Gaon of Vilna have come to pass. The Gaon of Vilna, Rabbi Eliahu ben Shlomo Zalman, also known as the Gra, was unsurpassed in Torah wisdom. One-hundred-and-sixty years before the establishment of Medinat Yisrael he sent his students to settle the Land of Israel – long before Herzl was born. He lived in the thriving Torah community of Vilna, where great yeshivot abounded, yet he wrote:
“Since the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed, our spirit and our crown departed, and only we remained, the body without the soul. Exile to outside of the Land of Israel is a grave. Worms surround us there (gentile cultures), and we do not have the power to save ourselves from the idol worshippers who devour our flesh (via assimilation). In every place, there were great Jewish communities and yeshivot until the body decayed and the bones scattered, again and again. Yet, always, some bones still existed, the Torah Scholars of the Israelite Nation, the pillars of the body – until even these bones rotted, and there only remained a rancid waste which disintegrated into dust – our life turned into dust.”
We see today that the great Rabbis of the Diaspora are no more. Nothing remains except a hollow shadow of Jewish life in gentile lands. With the outbursts of anti-Semitism which are exploding throughout the globe, Jews are once again trembling on college campuses and on the streets. The “good life” will be no more. And the situation will worsen so long as Israel must fight against enemies bent on destroying the Jewish State. There is no future for Jews in America, England and France. This shouldn’t surprise us. It is a fact of Jewish History that all through our wanderings in foreign Gentile lands we enjoyed periods of prosperity and comfort, sometimes for two-hundred years, sometimes for three, but the time always arrived, again and again, when the Gentiles taught us that we don’t belong in their countries. We don’t belong on their campuses nor on their streets. Today is Lag B’Omer, when we pay honor to Talmudic Sage and Kabbalist, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai who stated: “It is a known halachah that Esau hates Jacob.”
Brothers and sisters living in strange foreign lands, listen closely: The good life is OVER. If not to save yourselves, then to save your children. If you love them, rescue them from the grave. Come home to Israel. As fast as you can.
