We should not only teach new immigrants Hebrew in the absorption center, they should also major in how a Jew should behave in the Holy Land, in which we are under direct Divine supervision, “A land Havayah, your God, looks after; the eyes of Havayah your God are always upon it”; living in it demands observing a Torah life according to God’s mitzvot with even more care; living in it the Torah and commandments are observed in full; and living in it we will merit heightened spiritual awareness and prophecy. Immigrating to the Land of Israel is infused with a sense of the eternal nature of the Jewish People, “The Eternity of Israel (netzach yisroel) does not lie.” In essence, this is also true of belief in the Resurrection of the Dead (the eternal nature of every individual Jew), “He gives a soul [Resurrection of the Dead] to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk upon it.”
Removing Dangerous Elements – Acknowledgment
Together with the sefirah of netzach (victory) comes the sefirah of hod (acknowledgment), as a joint effort of the two legs (also referred to as “two halves of one body”). In the human psyche, the sefirah of acknowledgment relates to the ability to be grateful for the good, to admit to sin and to acknowledge the truth, and it is motivated by the quality of sincerity in the soul, “Be sincere with Havayah your God.” The sefirah of victory is relatively “male” and active, while the sefirah of acknowledgment is “female” and passive, with a mindset that “everything that God does is for the best.” In the psyche, acknowledgment and thanksgiving refine and purify the soul and act like the immune system acts in the body to guard us against unwelcome intrusions to our minds.
With reference to rectifying the state, alongside the positive action of encouraging Jewish immigration, undesirable elements must be prevented from taking hold of the country. Just as the sefirah of might accompanies the sefirah of loving-kindness and complements it, so too the sefirah of acknowledgment accompanies the sefirah of victory and guards it from falling into a state of disease [a case of “My glory has turned upon me as a destroyer,” where “My glory” (הוֹדִי) is also the possessive form of “acknowledgment” (הוֹד)]. So, for example, although the “Law of Return” is a wonderful idea, nonetheless, we still have an obligation to correct the definition of “Who is a Jew?” since this law currently contains a broad breach through which many gentiles can enter the country (such as ‘converts’ who did not accept upon themselves to live by the Torah, or hundreds of thousands of Russian immigrants who are not Jewish). So too we cannot ignore the broad phenomenon of illegal foreign immigrants. No civilized country can ever light-heartedly allow a flood of illegal foreign immigrants to drown it, how much more so is this true for a Jewish state, whose main task is to guard its Jewish character by nurturing a sensitivity towards the danger of intermarriage, which for us is an existential question (this in particular will bring great blessing to all of mankind).
At the first phase – as early as possible – we must prevent anyone who endangers our security from residing in the country. This belongs to the earlier stage of the sefirah of might, and “Israel’s firm arm” by which we deport terrorists (and missionaries, too) who pose an immediate threat to our existence. However, now, in the sefirah of acknowledgment, we come to a more comprehensive “root” treatment, which will become possible once the law system has been rectified and follows mass Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel. This treatment relates not only to the obvious enemy but also to the undercover enemy, i.e., any hostile population who pose a long-term security or spiritual danger (such as intermarriage). Therefore emigration for this population to other countries must be encouraged, whether by offering a financial grant, or at least by not offering them with our own hands the optimal conditions necessary to foster a hotbed for terror. Let’s recall that when the War of Independence broke out, entire Arab villages fled from the country. However, even if the situation today appears to be different, we must begin repairing our mindset by recognizing our right and our obligation not to leave an antagonistic element in our midst. Indeed, the Torah’s warns us, “But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the Land from before you, then those whom you leave over will be as spikes in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they will harass you in the land in which you settle.”
