Rav Kook: Chibat Ha’aretz | Rabbi Aaron Goldscheider

to see everyone this morning and uh let me just begin with the the sponsor of the sheer the shear this morning sponsored for the 2025 Academic Year all right so today is a uh special day to learn it's always a special day to learn it's arbat tonight we bring in yeah amazing we're going to be bringing in the month of Shabbat Wednesday evening Thursday tomorrow is roses and shat has the special Merit and BR of tubish that we'll be celebrating in two weeks from uh from tomorrow and I think today she is very much in line with that so I think in the in the sense of in y as we're moving ATV to talk about this topic it's a topic that I would say is is uh is definitional that it very much defines the heart and soul of Ru cuk you know so much that we've studied over this year and over the last number of years you see the special qualities and the novel ideas of R cook but this is something that really is uh I would say very much a definition of his personality and I'll give it the title which means loving the land of Israel the the love that we have for the land of Israel one of the most beautiful sources for this is found at the end of of it's at the very end the last and interesting the student of and it speaks about we'll see it in a moment you probably are familiar with some of these uh these uh teachings or episodes incidents um they're all about loving the land of Israel the student of rev cook the Nazir RAV Cohen he says it's not accidental that it's found at the end of K in this m why here of all the different of well what isos about it's about a marriage it's about the love of a husband and wife and Amel and er Israel is a marriage there's a bond between the Jewish person the Jewish people and the land of Israel and he says that's why it's here in kot and it ends it's kind of like the ultimate at the very end the very last teaching of the Masa that's all about love and all about relationship with husband and wife in marriage so this is the marriage of am Israel to her land the gamar has the following in and again I think you're probably familiar with some of them R ABA I'll read it it's the very first Source you have it in the Hebrew translation RAB ABA AKO he would he would kiss the stones of AKO when he would enter AKO coming from his ship froming coming from the sea as he would come to dry land he would pick up a stone and he would kiss it we're familiar with that as people coming off of an L flight at least in the old days many people would would fall to the ground in the Tarmac today they bring you right in so I don't know if anybody wants to really kiss the carpet in the uh in the airport Reina he would pick up obstacles the unevenness of the roads in ER errell he didn't want anyone to complain or maybe anyone to trip in errell so as he would walk down the street if you see some garbage if you see a can sitting there you pick it up it's erell you love errell you don't want anyone to complain about erell anyone to get injured in errell RBI am ASI they did something very interesting as they were learning Torah together if they were in a cold place they would get up and they would move to a warm place and if they were in a place that was too warm they would find a place that was shady and why did they do that this is based on Rashi it says here they did this in order to eliminate any cause for complaint they might have about living in ER toell they didn't want to complain about anything and if they sit there they're going to say it's too cold they didn't want to say that about so they found a place and the maam say even the Hef and learning which is a very serious issue you're in the middle of T Torah to take 10 minutes to find where the sun is down the street that little spot where the sun is so you're you're breaking from your learning that's a serious issue but they took this idea so seriously that they moved in the middle of their learning to a place where they would not say a negative word about ER Israel and then you have he would roll in the dust of in a Beautiful from for your servants have cherished her stones and they favor her dust so this is a well-known well-known section that really closes out the the garos and I just want to share with you the following I'm not going to read inside it's the next Source it's the maharal prag Mahal prag says he has a he has his commentary on the a and he says the following he said he says that these really all represent different that we have about the land of Israel fascinating he says well first it's the the rocks of right the kissing of the Rocks so he says that's based on Al that anyone who walks on the rocks on the stones on the streets of that if you walk four steps that's considered to be a Mitzvah it's not true in Muny or in Baltimore or in Lakewood but here four steps every time dalad that's considered a Mitzvah he says that's what the gamar is hinting at he says that they moved from the Sun to the shade that's referring to the a he say he says that that really refers to a that in AEL just the air itself just the a ofel that it brings us greater perception and insight greater intelligence in the land of Israel you cannot have the same perception outside of the land of Israel as you have in Israel and then the last speaking about rolling in the dust of Earth so the maral says that that's referring to the special quality of being buried in the land of Israel and thear says that one is Forgiven for all their sins if you're buried in the soil of erel in the earth of erel and the gar says that one is one will be the first to uh for those that are buried inel they are first brought back to life before those outside of the land of Israel so that is what yes in right no so there is a beautiful mug as well of people even if they lived a lifetime outside of erell that they're buried in erell to have that there are those sources that say that by the way I believe that the Zohar says that just to come a whole lifetime and say well I'll just come to be buried here that that's not the way that ER erell wants to receive you we want to receive you in a in a joyous manner not just to to bury a personer to thr what that's right become you very nice become you that's right very good I think rev cook and his students said that um rev cook has another really a well-known he has a well-known teaching on this as well so that's the maral's teaching interesting the maral when we think about the teachings of ruk a lot of his philosophy and his insights seem to be based on uh on teachings of the maral here Ru cook says the following he says why do we need both the example of the dust or the dirt of errell and the rocks of errell it seems kind of like redundant to some degree so he says no there is a difference between the two ruk says when he speak about the soil or the dust of erell you might say erell is Holy because they're a because you because you can plant things talking about so all Theos of planting things so there are mitos that you can only do here but he said were the gamar only to speak about the dust or the soil of arel you would think that that's why it's holy because there are more Mitzvah here but it's true also of kissing the stones what mitzvot are there in the stones of erel cook says there are no mitzvot it's just intrinsically what it's teaching us is that ER Isel that the soil that the land of er Isel has embedded in it Holiness there is Holiness here in the land of Israel even without a Mitzvah again talking about soil that's a their particular Mitzvah that are connected to that so that's how R cook a RI cook introduces or or adds to this teaching okay talking about the love of erel theba um I think this is we need to see a classic piece from R cook and it's the very first thing that R cook writes in his famous safer oot this is the bottom of the page um Source number three this is oot he wrote a uh he wrote a book all about the Jewish people about the land of Israel his philosophy and he speaks about the very first thing that he speaks about in the book and again you can see the love that that ruk has and he's going to use the word to appreciate what is is it that's unique about the land of Israel how do we conceptualize this Holiness the land how do we Define it what does it mean when we talk about the Holiness of the land of Israel so this is what he writes and we have the translation below this from Bal or's translation of Aro and I'll read the Hebrew on top number one it's not something that is external to the Jewish people as we don't think we should not think about errell there's a particular Mitzvah or something outside of the very essence of what it means to be Jewish it's not a it's not an acquisition that it is external to the nation that it's just the means the with a goal in mind that it's a place that we can bond together and it's a place that we can as a people physically that we can exist in that place and it's not even a place that we set aside that's here in this world as a place for spirituality all of that is true by the way and know it's a place that we all gather together there is Auda that we're all together We're a nation here it's a place of spirituality but that's not the definition of eres cook so what is erel CES cook second line and the line erel he it's an essential unit unit it is bound together with the nation itself we are bound as a nation and every Jew is bound to ER Israel it's not something that is external to us it's something that's part and parcel of what it means to be Jewish and what it means for the Jewish Nation to have the land of Israel it's bound to the bound of life to the people to the very essence of am Israel it's impossible really to Define this singular quality of and to speak about it's true here's the word are talking about he uses the word you cannot speak about this love what's that's right in any rational terms we cannot speak about it in logical terms when we speak about the love and the attachment and the bond that's not something that we can speak about in a rational way in a logical way we are just intrinsically bound that's how God created the Jewish people in Eric Israel that we are one and the same this is the very essence of the spirit of God that he places on the nation and the attachment that we have to ER Isel you know there is that that famous story of Rari lvin when his wife was not feeling well that she had her foot her leg was hurting and they walk into the doctor and Rari lvin says our leg is hurting right our leg is hurting so our leg is hurting means that I'm one and the same right I am I feel the pain what the gar says right that when you're married you become it's one somehow you merge into into a Oneness and that's what of cook says about the land of Israel and am Israel and when you talk about about the love of people also can you really break that down into rational or logic this is why I love my wife let me tell you the the the four reasons or the 150 reason at some point it's not about reason not about logic there is a there's a bond so this is what R cook says when we think about we're talking about an intrinsic love a a bond between erel and am Israel Turn the Page now this is a very interesting source and uh um so we have this sitter of Rook it's called or which is which on the one hand that means the sacrifice the but it also is the the offering of what's R in this case cook so that's the name of his sitter one of the section the sitter has the has the uh has the text has the section fora for circumcision what one says Ed bris and he has a comment and I would say this is really not a not typical for of cook this comment um you know it was a combination he wrote some of it and who the cook his son also uh took certain passages I believe this would be a passage that his son added again it sounds but it's from RI cook it's written by riff cook but um but you'll see it's it's something a little bit a little bit different than the way riff cook normally writes but on this so we're on the top of page to it's on the PK that said it's part of the bris text the and quotes the following theer in the saer with the title sh which I looked up it's written in the 1800s he brings a quote from another saer called I'm not sure exactly what that safer is I believe it's more a cabalistic safer so he's quoting from the safer Sher and quotes from that the that the uh the greatness of erel is as great that it's elevated like a br now that's what it says in the sa and then it says the following this is based on the four names that we have for erel that ER Isel is called it's called ER it's called ER Isel and it's called ER that's what this safer says we have four names of er Isel and soot if you look at the last letter of each of those names it spells out the word mil so again that's you have the me at the end at the end at the end and has a at the end so that's mil that and mil that there's a unique correlation or connection between the two and then Rook writes the following and I would like to add the following in means in my humble in my humble thinking I'll say the following if you look at the rot the first letters by the way you don't usually hear sopot have you heard that we're all familiar with rash but there's something called sop also which means the last letters you can look at that and that also has significance so that's this saer says but ruk says let me give you a rash i' rather go with the more traditional rash vot that if you take those four words that we talk about being so the and the what does that spell that's and who is he was the first person ever to receive a Brisa on the eth day you never left good excellent so what do we have here we have we have we have so what what are all these Illusions well first of all when we talk about Mila what are we talking about we're talking about a breit we're talking about a cant a bris bre Mila when we talk about erel is that a Mitzvah it is a Mitzvah but it's something else as well what else is it it's also a breath it's also a confident that same term is used to erel in gracius that it will be this will be a confident so we're talking what exactly the breath of the land so here we're talking about something that really goes beyond the idea of a Mitzvah we have something that is Covenant and what does covenant mean it means that it's something that that binds Us and something that binds us forever again this is this is the idea and they talk about the difference between a contract what's the difference between contract and Covenant contract I can rip up the contract right I can I can say I'm no longer in right or or Covenant there's no way out that's Co Covenant contract so Covenant means this is forever this is forever so Brit La is the sign on the on the body of the Jew of that relationship that Eternal relationship with God of the Jewish people and then we have another breit and that is the land of Israel and then we have yit who is the first to receive G Mila and he also is the first to be born in ER Isel and never to leave erra right Abraham comes yob has to leave y represents he embodies the idea of erra so there you have the covenants all coming together so I think these are some of the again R cook doesn't spell it out but I'm trying to just but what are the Illusions here he's not not just a cute thing well Yak is Isel you know putting together these letters but what does it mean and it means that this is what erel is er really goes beyond the Mitzvah to talk about erel just as another Mitzvah and that's exactly what R cook said earlier do not think about it that way do not think about it as something external that there's 613 mitv and you take a Lula esog that's one Mitzvah you're connected to it but it's not something that you do all the time it's a no this is cident this is the very essence is the very heart and soul of a uh of a Jew and the Jewish people look at the following this is the bottom of page two and this is the tombstone this is the Mata of ruk and talking about a person that loved the land of Israel so what do you write on a Mata so it's interesting whenever you know God forbid we shouldn't know it but when we think about what to write on a Mata so people do think about that and what's appropriate so this is what's written on the Mata of ruk it talks about it's the date that he arrives in Israel it's the date that he arrives in Yim and it's the date that he goes to sh that's what we have what okay good so when does he arrive so if you look you can read it here I took it from the took it from Google you can Google this and I have this picture here so the son of right in the middle in the the year 1904 so the first thing that I'll point out to you when did he arrive on the 28th of ER What's significant about the 28th of that's right it's going to be the same day amazingly that we're going to return to J that's the day that ruk comes to Israel 63 years later it'll be the day that that uh that we will regain the old city now now the next day is Allah yusa that he came to Jerusalem now this is where he was he left Israel for a period of time he was going to in Auda convention he got stuck there for a number of years and then he made his way back and he was invited to come to Yim to become the chief Rabbi of y when did he step foot in Yim that time and he at that moment he was then given that title to be the leader of Yim and becomes the chief Rabbi that was on gim 1919 T 1919 that's the day that he steps foot allaha that he comes to and when did he leave this world on that same date on giml El in 1935 so amazing these dates in terms of talking about a person who loves the land of Israel I can't I I don't believe that this is all coincidence that it comes on the 28th of the year that becomes a day that we regain comes gim that's the day that he that he ascends to heaven and you see his special special connection in a very spiritual in a very deep way to uh to ER Israel and to sh okay we turn out to the next page page three and um here you know there are many suim and again this very appropriate for as we're about to enter the month of shat many PIM in the Torah that speak about alos the laws of ER but then we have suim that just speak about the beauty what I would say is in this category OFA the love that we have the love that we have for Israel for the land of Israel I think this is a good example of such a p the PK said say and this is safer and it is 88 I think that's like a that's a good number Eight's it's chapter eight verse eight it's a good way to remember it Eight's always like right the supernatural like Beyond this world so what does a PK say and it's a PK that we're all I think all of us are familiar with we're probably going to be talking more about in the coming weeks that it's called an it's a land that grows wheat in barley the geen and grapes and Tena and figs Von and pomegranates have you seen pomegranates around yeah they're every I mean not right now they're not in season right now you can walk the streets of yam every few block there are pomegranate trees all over that's what the that's what the PK says are there grapes all around my sister lives in her no she has grapes just growing right outside her house just not a she doesn't have a Vineyard but somehow grapes you know they're growing there so this is yeah this is the description the beautiful description of the land of Israel and then it says it's an ed Z it's a place where you have the olive oil and the Vash and it's a place of honey and we know the gamar says it's not referring it's referring to dates referring to date hunting so one of the interesting things about this p and Ru cook picks up on this is that it says the word take note of this it says the word eret two times in the P which is strange it should not you would think that would not be the way we would present or Hashem would present the P right it's era second time now why do that why break the PK into two parts so ruk has the following approach very interesting approach it's actually based on the following in has a story where you have and raun they were sitting together at a meal and they brought out some fruits and they had on the table dates and pomegranates they had Tamar tarim and they had uh and and they had remon yes and what happens that rauna first makes a on the Tamar he first makes a on the date now that seems to be somewhat problematic because we would think that it should be based on the order in the pule in other words the closer you are to the beginning of the pule that should be what is considered to be more important so you should make that braa first but the gamar for some reason and the gamar is going to discuss this why is it that he did the following and the gamar says you know why because the date is closer to the word erets in that second part of the P but the remon the pomagranate where does it come out in the first part of the pet it comes out what number let's let's count that what it's so it's fifth it's fifth on the list from the first erat right but in the second erat you have the Tamar the Das the date which is number two so being that it's closer to the word er in the second part so he believed rauna said I first need to make a br on the date first because that word is closer to the word erit in the second part of the all this sounds a little bit confusing it is a bit confusing R cook gives the following explanation he says that the word erat the two words represent two way ways in which Jews love the land of Israel it represents two different relationships to the land of Israel let's look at the let's look at what R cook writes this is the this is number three right below there really two ways to think about here's this word the love that we have for the land of Israel there are different people different groups that love the land of Israel in a different way that love the Holy Land because it has very unique qualities spiritual qualities and these people have a great thirst they want to roll in the in the they want to kiss the stones of the they want to roll in the dust they want to fulfill the Mitzvah of the land of Israel they want to come to the land of Israel they love the land of Israel because of the ultimate the spiritual spiritual ity of the land of Israel that's found here for the Jewish people how so that's one way that we love the land of Israel or Jews love it because of the spiritual qualities and that's why they come to Israel however are there are those that want to live here why they see that it's a safer place to live they see on a physical level or materially that it's better to live in the land of Israel what is he referring to he's referring to really the two different communities that were coming to Israel at that time it's true today as well there are those that connect to the land of Israel because of the religious spiritual qualities I think for many of us here that's what inspired us to come to the land of Israel that we feel that this is a Mitzvah the Holiness of the land of Israel but are there not Jews there are many Jews that come every year and I think I just heard recently neish been they said there's like 50% of non-religious Jews that are coming to Israel that are making alah so I I was I was shocked 40% 50% are they're coming they're not coming because you know the midot of the land of Israel right they're not coming for those reasons why are they coming to the land of Israel well they're coming because they believe in in in nationhood and that one needs to be here and building up the land of Israel so Ru cook says there are two types of Jews and two communities that come to the land of Israel and let's go to the very end here alcain alcain the if you go six lines on the second column okay a person who loves the land of Israel even if they're on a lower level and again that's what he's referring to the second part of the p right the first part represents those Jews that love the land of Israel because the spiritual qualities but then the second erat in the PK is referring to those Jews that are drawn to the land of Israel not necessarily because of the spiritual or religious ideals but they're coming here for other reasons but if those people have a great love for the land of Israel we have to strengthen that community and we should begin with them when we recite a so he's explaining the gamar this quite a novel interpretation the gamar that that Rabbi r know that he first picked up the date before he made a br and he made AA first on the date before he made on the remon now the remon is in the first part of the p and the dates in the second part of the PK but where is the date in that second part of the PK next to erit he's Clos to terel and with cook says somebody that loves the land of Israel that has that kind of intense love for the land of Israel even if they're not doing it for religious reasons but because they feel that closeness to ER Isel that BR comes first that that's what R cook says somebody who's distant from Israel that person has sort of he that person believes in the spiritual qualities the land of Israel but where is that person in his beliefs about the spiritual qualities the land of Israel he's not really that connected to the land I mean he believes it but he's pretty far he's fifth on the list he's like the remon he's all the way down there on the list he knows he believes in that that's his that's his perspective at the land of Israel but it doesn't really animate his life it doesn't really speak to him he believes in it but that's not really how he lives his life based on that love for the land of Israel but what does the date represent yes it's the lower quality of loving the land of Israel but it's very close to the land of Israel and one who has this is Rook one who has that of Eric Israel and a strong that's something that needs to be celebrated and he says that comes first by the way that's how we P that's as well if you have on the table a date or remone the date comes first do you want to make a comment please yes is right right right right yeah yeah yeah yeah it's a bit complicated you need to kind of work out the uh yes please uh right yeah very nice and by the way the gamar itself says this it says how do we determine the bra it's whatever is closest to the word er I mean just that alone without going into that's the gar how do you determine which one you say first whatever fruit appears in the P closest to the word erit to erit Isel and that now takes precedence okay so that's uh that's r i want to uh I want to share with you two other sources and then I'll I'll share uh a couple of stories with you related to the go to page four and uh here we come to to a close this is a famous this is a famous teaching of Theos lived in the 1700s he actually comes to in The Old City you can see the sh where he DAV has anybody ever visited thead the synagogue right in the old city and he has one of the most famous uh one of the most important commentaries on the Torah known as the and he writes the following the PK says we're on top of page four when you come to the land of Israel right this that's the name of the par coming to the land of Israel so his comment is on the word and he says whenever you see the word in the Torah it's always something that's joyous that's a word that always is a is a sign for something of of joy of happiness and he writes the following it says begins with the word is always Joy that's to teach us that one is to be joyous with sitting with settling living in the land of isra like it says in the that we come to the land of Israel will be filled with joy that we filled with laughter so the joy he says is always always represents joy and that's why it says coming to the land of Israel is joyous living in the land of Israel is joyous now what is the joy of being in the land of Israel I think there many ways that we can answer that but I want to answer it in the following way and this is a saer called the very important work going back to the 1500s R aiki he was born in spat he was one of the rabbis along with Ros Cairo and that very very special time in spat and you may know him from another uh prayer that he wrote rikri the ID nees that we sing on Friday night in shal nees he is the author of Y Nees he has a saer called sa nothing to do with the of today per se but that's the name of sa means right those that are those that are that are in fear of God and closeness to hem and he writes also about this word in the beginning of this it begins with the word why the word v is one of the names of God now there are different ways of breaking up but those same letters V look at the word vay do you see those letters those are the letters of the holiest name of God so what is it about the land of Israel we say the joy of being in the land of Israel it's the joy of being in the presence of Hashem that's what it means it's an illusion to God's presence that is revealed in the land of Israel like nowhere else in the world REM and that is a hint that one is closer to hem and the land of Israel which is just the opposite of one who lives outside the land of Israel and now go to the second paragraph thean and ran wrote Min mitvah when he enumerated the 63 Commandments he wrote the one who lives in I'm sorry mitvah the Mitzvah of living in the land of Israel V so this is also people may remember this from from uh the comparison OFA inel that when you're living in Israel You're fulfilling says ran a Mitzvah every moment you're in Israel you're in a you're in a place where you're fulfilling automatically you are fulfilling it's not the day that you got off the flight and said I'm making Aliah right it's every moment that you're living in Israel says ran m now this is this is what uh what the writes this is very important but the essence of the Mitzvah the real reward for the Mitzvah is what when you feel the joy of living in Israel based on the right there's a sin of not feeling that Joy here this this final line we can underline it even though I think it's underlined got another underline says all those that are living in you have to always be happy that with this Mitzvah there's a Mitzvah that you're fulfilling every moment and to have a joy for that Mitzvah that you should love that Mitzvah so I think there's something to think about in our own lives in terms of the the the joy that we have you know we can be riding on a bus and we're surrounded you know kind of smushed in with everyone and you can look around and say wow what a joy to be you know to have bodyto body with all with with uh with my fellow with my fellow Jews you're walking on the street and you hear French and you hear Russian and you hear all different languages and to say wow what a Simka what a joy right that I'm here with Jews that are coming from all over the world and um how about all the building that's going going on Yim sometimes it's not not always so you know getting through the streets right to look up that's right the they say the official right the official bird of Israel the crane so the and to look up and to say what a joy to see with our own eyes to be living at this time to see the building here in Israel so Rook is a uh there's no question as I said earlier in terms of the very heart and soul of cook is is he actually writes in one place that we need to we need to remind the je people of of he says like a Mitzvah or something that's been lost a little bit over the generations and that is the for love that's true Everywhere by the way you can be living anywhere in the world and to be walking around with a sense of of a real love for erel I think it's even you know even more true for all of us that are that are here to be able to experience that so I think about Ru cook certainly as an example of that I just want to share one other example or another Rabbi isn't Rabbi that I you know I I heard quoted over the years and uh I'm not sure if that's the name that anyone is familiar with he was the he was the rabbi of the tel Isa in Cleveland for many many years one of the G Torah and um actually when I was in Wu there was like a tape that was going around Wu of a gifter and it wasn't really such a great uh wasn't such a great talk he was kind of lambasting whyu for the way that they teach talmud and just listed as another course it was not he wasn't really so positive about Wu it was one of those tapes that everybody was in those years that was a way you you know to listen to something yeah that's right it went viral that way so I don't know I always thought of a gifter you know the Tells rashash Shiva and Cleveland and I don't know not not a rabbi that necessarily you know think about Eric Chell like his his relationship so he was asked to come to erell to start a Yeshiva a branch of TS here which is called tells Stone today those that are familiar with tell Stone that's tells and stone is Irving Stone that was the man that gave the money for the ISA well-known philanthropist the stone Kish the art scroll is the stone Kish and that's why I till today it's called tells Stone it was to build TS here and with the money of stone that's tells Stone so not the stones of errell no just tell Stone this Mr Irving Stone from Cleveland what REM yeah that's right REM um so he was asked to come and he came to erel he came to erel so first of all he moves there they still the Yeshiva is still there I believe it's not part of TS any longer I think another Yeshiva moved in years later and he was here first of all when he they the students describe and you can see this in the uh in the biography of artscroll that when he came to erell his learning changed he he used to give a Shear once or twice a week on the gamar he was was just he was giving every single day like the learn he just felt like he was again as I said the AA that really it really affected him in a very very positive way he felt he felt the spirituality that he never felt before and the way that it affected his learning there's a story where he's walking he's walking he would walk in tellstone I think it may be true today as well you can see Yim from like the heights of tellstone not far from measer where you can see right a little bit further down the road is tellstone and he would go to a certain Rock and he would sit by that rock and just like meditate on Y and one day he hears singing as he's on this rock and he's walking around he's looking for this voice this very beautiful niggan that somebody is singing and again in the art SC his biography it says that he then realized it was he was singing that song like that it was coming from him he was he was he was in such an ecstatic and this this heightened spirituality of being new and seeing and seeing being in tellstone looking at Yim that he was lifted to a very very high place um he had to leave actually there and it became a whole question and he went to other G Torah the rashash TS passed away in Cleveland ratkin ratkin and they felt that they needed R gifter to come back and to lead the Yeshiva in Cleveland and again it wasn't easy for him and it describes that it it was a very very difficult decision he goes back to to tells the students say that he was never the same as a person and even his health once he left Israel that he was not the same person again what's interesting the biogra biography says that when he comes back to Cleveland two years later his house is still available to live in and he says to the community he says to tell me them I cannot move into a house after leaving eritel and he moves into the dormatory of the tel Ziva and he says a Jew cannot be settled outside the land of Israel but I'm waiting now to come back to eritel and I'm not going to live in a home and together with his wife he lives for all the the next number of years till the end of his life in the dormatory of the tels yiva so that's uh quite quite a quite an amazing story this is rter again not somebody that I think of as as the kba erell but you see the kba that he had and I'll just end with the following the following story where is he buried I I don't know I believe believe that he's in Cleveland but I don't know is he in haros okay he's in haros haros here in AR haros um and one last story we'll we'll end with this so uh another great lover of erel is uh referal shaer he lives in Washington Heights in uh in New York but a great great lover talking about erel beautiful stories about uh about his love of the land of Israel so the story that I came across this past week listening to air his son R Shai Shaker he's a well-known Rabbi he's in he's in Woodmere a very well-respected RV as well uh they were he tells the story they were here together one summer going back a number of years with Shai Sher and referal sha with his father SCH and they're here over the summer and they hear that there's a Neeses flight that's going to be coming in and Rak the Elder of Shak turns to his son and says let us get it was coming in very early I think 6 7 in the morning let's get up early this Rak saying and let us go to greet those that are making Aliah so that in itself for rakar to take the time and just to be there you know with that with they you know they try to bring people together to welcome the people that are getting off the getting off the flight making alas so that's what they do they get up very early that morning 4:00 am whatever it may be they get to the airport 5 o'clock 5:30 they make a minion together there's about 50 men that are there and they dive in there because they have to you know to dive in there to be ready for the flight that's coming in as they're making their way through daving they're getting closer right after the am to T now t as you know so you say t on a regular basis unless it's a Yanti Arab y Arab Yanti and happy occasions that some you don't say t so now people be so what's that yeah that's right very good so by this afternoon already right before right before rashes we also so as you're about to to bring in a joyous time or joy you don't say t so then everyone starts asking one another how about are we going to say t now why would you not say t and well it's a very joyous occasion people are making alah I don't know people are kind of like half joking like maybe we don't have to say t so at that point rter turns to everybody and he says the following he says we are going to Omit we're not going to recite ton and based on the following and that is that at a c if somebody's celebrating a if they completed let's say a track so at that c let's say you D at that that so no one recites there celebration of the C of somebody completing a g learning of learning is not recited and said so beautifully he said at see if you complete a long journey of learning that we celebrate with not say so these people that are celebrating a in their lives that they have finally come to this moment in their lives this long journey this it's a as well of coming to ER Israel of finally fulfilling this Mitzvah of living of yesel living in the land of Israel just to be in attendance like if that's true of somebody being in attendance of a regular SE that you don't say how much more so for this seum and he called this AUM as well this is the goal in life goal of every Jew theum right right to come the end point to come to erel and live in the land of Israel so that's uh that's what he told his son and that was theak of of that day everybody was happy to know that they could skip Tak that uh that morning so this is uh these These are these are teachings about the love of I think we could take all of this to Heart especially as the I think what a beautiful teaching the Mitzvah of every moment the Sim that we need to have to in Israel to remind ourselves what a joy it is to walk the streets of Yim to be a part of this very very special time and to be able to learn learn together and to grow in ER okay