My father, Rabbi Dr. Moshe Weiss, a former columnist for 40 years for The Jewish Press, lived in the city of Auschwitz, Poland before he emigrated to the United States. He had nine brothers and sisters. His parents, Rav David and his wife Sarah, had the foresight to leave Poland and escape Hitler’s persecution by emigrating to the United States in the 1930s before the coming of the main persecution by Hitler in Germany.
Three of my father’s siblings didn’t survive. Each had the opportunity and the ability to emigrate to the United States, but each chose to stay, using the reasoning that things would get better – “We’ve gone through this before. After all, how can we leave our successful businesses, our community?” Yechezkel Shragai, Edila, and Chadsha eventually were swept up in the brutal and sadistic killing of our people. They saw the signs, but believed it would pass.
The world is in turmoil. It’s not only the United States, but the entire planet. Hate speeches can be heard against our people; Jews are being beaten up, blocked from entering their synagogue to pray; universities, the seat of knowledge and intelligence in the community, espouse hatred against our people.
And the question arises: What will it take for the Jews in the Diaspora today to realize that the handwriting is on the wall and it’s time to emigrate to Israel where it’s safe – and where one can proudly live as a Jew? When will our people realize that the only friends of the Jewish people are the Jewish people?
It’s easy to say that our times are different – that sane people would not allow another Holocaust to happen. America is the land of the free, the land of opportunity where one can realize the American dream. It cannot happen here.
That’s exactly what they said in Germany before Hitler came to power.
Let’s also understand that it is a mitzvah to live in Israel. I understand that many Jewish people use the excuse that the mitzvah to live in Israel is a mitzvah kiyumis, which essentially means that if you perform the mitzvah, you will be credited and given reward, but that it is optional, not obligatory.
This kind of reasoning is a grand rationalization in order to avoid the obligation of Yishuv Eretz Yisrael which today is vital for the existence of the Jewish people. The entire Torah is connected to the land of Israel, including most of the mitzvot. From the earliest time in our history, when Almighty G-d revealed himself to Avraham our forefather, Hashem promised him the land of Israel. All the sacrifices are integrally connected to Israel. Both Rashi and the Ramban indicate that a mitzvah performed in the Diaspora does not have the same worth as its performance in Israel. In fact, it is only a preparation for living in Israel, where every mitzvah takes on a life of its own.
It’s time for all our people to stop using these rationalizations because any thinking Jew knows in their heart of hearts that every Jew should be in Israel, and these excuses have no basis. Our grandparents would have given everything that they own to have the opportunity that we have today to make aliyah and live in Israel.
I am not minimizing the difficulty in picking up and moving to Israel. A new land, a new language, and Jews from all parts of the world with different traditions than ours make up its population. It’s challenging!
But look around. While you can, consider what is happening right in front of your eyes and make the leap to come home to Israel. Better now when we can come on our own than to be told that we can only take one suitcase.
The land of Israel is often referred to by our Sages as the bride of the Jewish people. In all of our history following the destruction of the Second Temple, the bride – Eretz Yisrael – would not open her arms to receive anyone. Everyone wanted a share in this land, but no nation was able to cultivate the land of Israel until the chatan (the groom) returned to the land. The bride, our land, opened her arms and welcomed back once again her chatan, our Jewish people.
The land is beckoning to its people: Come home! Mashiach will not appear in Boro Park or Monsey. He will appear in the streets of Yerushalayim Ir HaKodesh.
We should all be there to greet him.
