In 1929, Rav Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook hosted the sixth admor of Lubavitch during his visit to the Holy Land. Since it was Parshat Matot, Rav Kook shared with him the following dvar Torah:
Why wasn’t Moshe Rabbeinu punished for calling the tribes of Reuven and Gad a “brood of sinful men” for wanting to remain on the eastern bank of the Jordan River? After all, when Moshe called the Jews “rebels,” Hashem punished him by not allowing him to enter Eretz Yisrael. Rav Kook answered that for the sin of weakening the nation by not wanting to make aliyah, Reuven and Gad – just like the spies – deserved to be reprimanded.
Rav Kook continued: “And if that is the case with the tribes of Israel, how truer is it today in a generation so poor in deeds. Even if we find the most justified excuses, if that were possible, in failing to perform the mitzvah of aliyah, what are we…what is our righteousness, what is our strength when compared to the tribes in the days of Moshe?”
Rabbi Kook added, “Our knowledge is limited, and the ways of Hashem are hidden, but there is absolutely nothing in the world that can absolve a person from making aliyah to Eretz Yisrael.”
A young man from Lakewood recently told Rav Chaim Kanievsky of Bnei Brak that many American Jews maintain that one shouldn’t move to Israel until Moshiach arrives. The elderly sage replied, “G-d forbid. It is a mitzvah to make aliyah.” When asked if this mitzvah was biblical nowadays, he said, “Yes.” (The video is available online.)
I once raised this topic with the posek Rabbi Shalom Eisen, a longtime chavruta of the gaon Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach. During my first year in Israel several decades ago, I had the honor of escorting him home after Kol Nidre in his Mea Shaarim shtiebel. The kedushah filling the neighborhood was so clear you could almost reach out and feel it.
“It is so holy here,” I said to Rabbi Eisen. “Why don’t all the religious Jews in America move here?” I expected to receive a long lecture on fine halachic points. Instead, the wizened sage held out two fingers, rubbed them together, and said, “Dollarim.”
The Jewish Press recently spoke about aliyah with several American-born rabbis in Israel. Here is what they said:
Rabbi Shalom Gold
“The window of a great opportunity in America is closing,” Rabbi Shalom Gold told The Jewish Press. Before making aliyah in 1982, Rabbi Shalom Gold headed the Young Israel Synagogue of West Hempstead. He is the founder of the large Kehillat Zichron Yosef Synagogue in Har Nof, Jerusalem.
“To my way of thinking,” he said, “the ruling of HaRav Moshe Feinstein and HaRav Yosef Ber Soloveitchik, of blessed memories – that the mitzvah of settling in Israel is an optional mitzvah, rather than an obligation – is a wondrous concept that gives Jews in the Diaspora the chance to serve Hashem, not under the coercion and obligation of a commandment, but out of the idealistic desire….
“Unfortunately, the opportunity to reach this exalted, free-will level of serving G-d is closing because of sinister changes that are taking place in America where more and more synagogues have been forced to hired armed guards. America is no longer the great haven of hospitality and kindness that it was in the past. I don’t know how much longer the Jews of America will have the luxury of coming to live in Israel out of their own free choice – the greatest step a person can take in his life – rather than being compelled to flee.”
When The Jewish Press asked Rabbi Gold why he made aliyah when he was a successful rabbi in America, he replied, “I suppose I was crazy. Sometimes a little craziness can be a positive thing. Thank G-d, I inherited from my father a fervent Zionism and deep love for Eretz Yisrael. I felt that if I didn’t make aliyah, my life would be an absolute failure.”
Rabbi Reuven Grodner
Rabbi Reuven Grodner studied under Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik and received his semicha and M.A. from Yeshiva University in 1965. After serving in the rabbinate in the United States for 18 years, he made aliyah. For the past 30 years, he has served as director of the Beit Midrash Program at Hebrew University.
“Rabbis and Jewish community leaders are definitely needed in the Diaspora to preserve the remnants of our people, who are survivors of an ongoing spiritual Holocaust,” he told The Jewish Press. “Not all who serve in positions of leadership, however, are doing an adequate job in inspiring and educating.
“These people would do well in making aliyah and, at the same time, serve as an example to others. Dynamic leaders and teachers have a license to remain in galut, albeit at the great sacrifice of spiritual fulfillment which a person can attain in Eretz Yisrael.”
Rabbi Ari Shvat
Raised in Riverdale, Rabbi Ari Shvat teaches Jewish studies in the Orot College for Women in Elkana, and is director of the Archives Department at Beit HaRav Kook in Jerusalem.
“Jewish educators outside of Israel don’t teach enough about aliyah,” he told The Jewish Press. “Our Sages explicitly teach that ‘settling in the Land of Israel is equal to the rest of the mitzvot combined’ [Sifre, Re’eh 12] and that a ‘Jew who lives outside of Israel is as if he worships idols’ [Ketuvot 111].
“For obvious reasons, rabbis in America understandably have a problem teaching these dicta. As Torah scholars, they are clearly aware of the ideal to make aliyah, but as one rabbi in New York explained to me when I was 19, ‘How can I talk about a mitzvah that I myself don’t observe?! People would accuse me of hypocrisy and, to a certain extent, they would be correct!’
“To be fair, there are halachic opinions that coming on aliyah is not a Torah obligation today. But I don’t think you could find one leading Torah authority in Israel who would agree with that.”
Rabbi Kenny Cohen
Before making aliyah, Rabbi Kenny Cohen led the Young Israel of Century City in Los Angeles. He teaches in the English-speaking division of the Machon Meir Yeshiva in Jerusalem.
“Back in 1983, I served as a pulpit rabbi in Los Angeles in a young Orthodox synagogue in a good Jewish neighborhood,” he told The Jewish Press. “My future was bright, and it looked like a promising career awaited me. However, as time went on, I began to be tormented by a verse in Ezekiel 36 that gave me no peace of mind. The verse read, ‘[They profaned my name when they said of them:] These are G-d’s people, but they left His Land.’
“The interpretation is that the presence of a Jew in the Exile is a desecration of the name of G-d. It makes G-d look weak. In essence, the verse is saying, ‘If you’re G-d’s chosen people, what are you doing outside of His chosen land?’ I knew that I needed to be true to my ideals, and it was obvious that I needed to move to Israel with my family.
“Thank G-d, in the summer of 1983, I made the most important decision of my life by making aliyah. Never in the past 32 years did I ever regret that decision because it was the right thing to do. I constantly feel blessed and fortunate to be able to live in Israel. I am home.
“It’s time that other rabbis and Jewish leaders shout out this simple message. Israel is the only home for the Jewish people and is the only place in the world where Jews are truly welcome. The doors are open for our people to come home and nothing is preventing this except for Jewish weakness. Jewish leaders have lost the courage to lead…. And more importantly, they must lead by example by moving to Israel.”
(This is the third of a four-part series on aliyah.)