The Mitzvah of Yishuv Eretz Yisrael - Living in the Land of Israel (#2) By Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz

good morning everybody hope hope that you are well uh we're actually last week we're in the middle of a of a sugya even though it's a different parti already but uh because of shalak we were looking at the Mitzvah of yes Isel the Mitzvah of living in the land of Israel and what we looked at last week was the sh of the ramban ra mosha benman uh remember the rambam wrote the SE mitzvos and the ramban wrote at the end of the sa mitzvos a list of mitzvos that he felt that the rambam had omitted and there's a whole bunch of ones that he omitted and of course um it's a zero sum game here because remember that for every Mitzvah you add you got to subtract another one because you got to come up with 6113 and and the ramban manages to do the arithmetic pretty well but in his list of mitv that he felt that the rambam had omitted probably the most famous one is the Mitzvah which the ran counts as a Torah now I don't want to review everything of last week but just we have to remember that the ramban said there are four components in that Mitzvah many people only know the fourth component about living here which of of course is part of the Mitzvah but the ramban points out there is a Mitzvah to establish number one Jewish sovereignty over all territory I'm just quoting I'm not politicizing here just the ramban says there's a Mitzvah to establish Jewish sovereignty over all territory that is within the torah's boundaries of arra again yeah well yeah yeah yeah actually I wrote A friend of mine uh Gary Schiff wrote an article about uh what should be the next decade in Gaza instead of asking about the next know next day let's talk about the next decade so he said you know he talked about the fact that you know until know less than 100 years ago uh Gaza actually had you know schs and well even now before the disengagement there was a Jewish community and he said he's looking forward to having Chief Rabbi of Gaza you know Etc so who knows um I I wouldn't apply for the job right now uh but you know but who knows bat Shalom and we'll follow the ramban's directive to establish Jewish sovereignty over all lands that is within the boundaries of er Israel and that's why I made the argument last week that it appears that establishing a Jewish state is not only permitted according to the ramban it is Hally mandatory because the point the ran is making is it is not simply living in Israel right you can live in Israel under British mandate under whatever it is rather there is an idea of Mal Isel that it should be under Jewish sovereignty and the ramban says that is what is called right we have two types of Wars we have a war that uh is a pre you know a war of aggression which strangely enough we're allowed to do if a prophet allow gave us authorization which we don't have today but then we have Mitzvah Wars and the ramban says a Mitzvah war is not only a war of Defense a war of defense is certainly a Mitzvah War everybody says that but the ranish and this is not politically correct at all so don't quote me but the ranes is a Mitzvah war is not only a offensive War it is even a war of aggression if it is to secure territory within the boundaries of arish Israel so which means according to ramban now again keep in mind ramban may have a different view of this so be sure to keep that in mind uh the war in Gaza or the struggle in Gaza uh is is a mitvah maybe for two separate reasons is a mitvah certainly because it is defending the Jewish people from an enemy that would want to destroy us which means it's a war of Defense Wars of Defense are absolutely but in addition to the degree that it would rescure and of course we don't even know that yet but if it would rescure Jewish sovereignty over the area and I I realized that that's part of the big big question that itself would make it a even if it would have been an unpr even if wouldn't have been provocation again this is not politically correct but let's imagine let's imagine a Palestinian State uh would be living in peace with with Israel side by side again you have to have a good imagination U but let's imagine such a thing according to ramban even that would be illegitimate because we have to have Jewish sovereignty over ER Israel again I'm I'm only giving you ramban we're going to see that the ramban might might differ with this but this this is a prong of yesel that a lot of people don't realize the the the obligation to establish Jewish uh sovereignty over ER Israel now prong number two again I'm just reviewing the four prongs and I'll go on to something new is that even when there is Jewish sovereignty the land should not be left desolate or nonproductive you don't simply have empty land you do something with it it should be me you vet that could either mean people live there or it could be agricultural or it can be industrial or it could even be recreational anesthetic but you don't leave the land in a state of shim and that is why the the commentary say that every time you pick up a piece of garbage in ER Israel you're doing the Mitzvah of making the land more habitable and that part of the Mitzvah you can even do so if for example you plant trees in Israel or whatever it is so at least there's some aspect of Israel that you are contributing to that's the second prong the third prong is psychological a Jew is not allowed to regard any other country in the world as the homeland of the Jewish people meaning even if you're not living in erit Israel but you have to regard yourself as a temporary dweller abroad so once again uh this is almost kind of prophetically addressing herzl's proposal that Uganda should become the The Jewish Home uh according to ramban that type of attitude would be forbidden meaning maybe individuals live in all sorts of places but you don't regard this as your in fact there's a beautiful medish or at least beautiful interpretation of a medish the medish says the following it's really really uh interesting medish that why was why did yoseph deserve yoseph died in Egypt and yoseph however for 40 years was carried in the desert and ysep was buried in erel some say the K of Yosef as you know is in sh which is been a sight of all sorts of disturbances over many many years but yoseph certainly was buried in ER Israel Moshe rabenu the greatest of all the prophets did not Merit even to be buried in marriage Israel now the medish asks okay God decreed that Moshe could not you know enter the land because of his sins but at least give him a burial I mean like yose got buried in AR Israel so the medish says that yoseph when Yosef was asked where is he from Yosef answered when pyro asked him he said I am from the land of the irim I'm the land of the Hebrews yoseph was Moda that he's from ER Israel therefore he was Z to be buried inel when Moshe is asked by y's daughters where is he from he describes himself as is I am a man from Egypt so the medis says Y is therefore he was to be buried Moshe was K kofer denied therefore he was not so to be buried beo now the KAS is very simple Moshe didn't deny it mosha had never been in Israel in other words uh what did Moshe did wrong Moshe is asked where are you from yoseph happens to be from ER Israel Moshe happens to be from MIT what type of claim is it Moshe you denied your place of origin so the maam say beautiful thought that even if a Jew was born in a foreign country when he's ask where are you from instinctively your answer should be I am from erel yeah maybe I've never seen it I've never been there but this is my home this is what how a Jew identifies this is my home like there was rebi whose family had been in in Poland and then um then even America you know 500 years they had they had no physical connection to erit Isel for more than five 00 years and whenever he would be asked where he's from he would say I'm aid from but for the you know past few hundred years you know I haven't been home uh but my home is my home is there my home is there so that's the third prong of the r and that too can be fulfilled even if you're living you know as said from Spain my heart is in the East even if my body is in the west now the fourth one however is where the rubber hits the road so to speak the fourth one is there is a to live here there is a to physically live here meaning it's not enough to beautify the land even though that's a Mitzvah too and it's not enough to consider erel my home even though that's also important but you got to physically be here and the ran brings many many riots to this and again I want to make the point that he specifically says this does not depend on a mikdash this does not depend on mashia and we'll talk about the other views this does not depend on any of the things that we think you know you need says today there's a mitvah and he brings uh many many proofs practical proofs from the gamorra I think I'd mentioned uh the gamara says husband and wife either spouse has the right to demand that we move to ER Israel the gamarra says that even though you're not allowed to tell a non-jew to do work on Shabbat but in order to purchase land take it out of a non-jews possession uh you can even ask a non-jew to sign a deed on Shabbat which you normally you can you cannot sign the deed but you can ask the nonu to sign the deed on Shabbat and indeed the gar the gamar says in many many places I mean this is a phrase that appears in the gorra in different different contexts and therefore there ran considers this to be a and if you ask me what is the P that says there's a Mitzvah so the ran locates the in par Mas the end of bid you shall inherit the land and you shall dwell in the land the ran says that is one of the 613 Commandments the Commandments of living in Israel a BisMan so the immediate question you might ask yourself is this let's look at ramban's own life the ramban who is considered to be really in the generation after the ramban uh perhaps the literally the greatest Rabbi of the generation the godol hador uh the ramban lived in Catholic Spain uh and uh the ramban spent most of his life in Spain uh as you know uh towards the end of his life there was a famous disputation at Barcelona uh that is called vak haran where in those days uh one of the popular entertainments would be that have these Jewish Christian debates uh and the audience would judge like who's the winner or or whatever whatever it would be and there was an apostate Jew there was a Jew who converted course it's not a valid conversion but he converted to Christianity and he became a frier and his name was well the name he gave himself was Pablo christiani but I mean but obviously uh he was he was Jewish and uh the king the king of of Aragon summoned ramban to publicly debate with Pablo Christianity in front of an audience and uh they would talk about uh the attempts to discredit Judaism or build up Christianity Pablo Christianity uh Christian brought up all of the things that missionaries brought up about the Virgin birth and passages in the Tom to try to prove that yashka was mashia and the like and the ramban gave his different answers this was a debate this is called ran uh and the ramban gave us a transcript the ramban gave us an account of this debate you can actually find it uh in Hebrew and I believe they even made a a play out of it uh different different things they dramatized it uh and the like well uh Pablo Christianity was christiani was initially very very confident as well as the other Jesuits that were there that you know ramban's going to fall apart now the ramban didn't want to do this the ramban was very much against participating in this debate because the ramban saw this as a no- win proposition because if he wins there may be I don't know what they call a pagram in Spain but there may a pgam because he discredited the Catholic Church if by some Shalom he loses that's even worse because he's discredited Judaism even in the eyes of fellow Jews so the ramban's strong desire was not to participate in this discussion at all because he did not see any benefits to the Jewish Community but the king demanded the king ordered him to come so the ramban had to uh get involved in this and uh in Truth uh I think um after one day uh it kind of resembled President Biden in last th Thursday's debate uh meaning meaning uh the case was not as strong on the Christian side the ramban's arguments were very very strong and very very convincing and the galim the priest wanted to pull the plug they just wanted let's let's just terminate this right now but the King was in the king got interested the king said no no no it was a three-day debate let's keep it going so it was literally a three-day debate about Judaism Christian this proof that proof uh and apparently at the end the audience votes like those those TV shows the audience votes like uh who wins the debate and the ramban was deemed the winner of the debate and the King was very impressed the king gave the ramban a prize and he said I never saw somebody who so a defend defended a wrong position he says he says of course you're wrong of course everything you said is not right but you def defended it so well uh now there is good news and there's bad news the good news is the ran defended yish and yish came out good the bad news was the Jesuits were Furious and the Jesuits actually demanded that the king execute ramban for defaming the faith for blaspheming Christianity and the like for declaring that you know Jesus is not the mashiach or or or what whatever it would be the king liked the ramban the king befriended the ramban the king did not want to kill the ramban but apparently the King was under great great great great pressure from the whole ecclesiastical establishment which was very very powerful so the compromise that emerged would be the ramban could live if he would be exiled if he would be expelled from Spain and that was the Compromise meaning leave the country and you'll live if you stay here we're going to kill you so because of that ramban had to leave Spain in his Advanced uh years in his 70s and he decided at that point to come to arel so he came to erel simply because he was kicked out of Spain and he really had to go so he figured I'll go to erel now uh what happened was the ramban did come to erel as you know there's a very famous letter a beautiful beautiful letter called theet haramban that many sedur print which he wrote to his children upon his leaving ER Isel I'm not sure exactly if his wife went with him his wife was alive I I don't know the all the his wife was dead or she she stay she she stayed to okay because he writes about leaving his children uh andar ran is a beautiful it's a short letter it's a beautiful beautiful work of mus about humility and seeing the good in people it's very very interesting the ran kind of was teaching his children how they should relate to all types of you beings that was his Farewell message but he came to ER Israel and indeed his great commentary on the Kash which which is considered to be after Rashi is considered to be the greatest of the mafor of Kash was if not totally written in ER was certainly completed in in ER Israel um and uh the ramban wrote another letter besides the famous musan about uh his impressions of about coming here and he writes that the land this is in the uh uh 1100s early 1200s the land was so desolate and he writes in a very famous line the Holier the land the more desolate it was you know think about the the area that we call the cotel of maravi right so now we have big wall beautiful Plaza you know even before 67 you saw it was not the same but in the time of the ran the cotal was like 2 feet above the ground I mean the whole area was garbage and everything else and the ramban writes that he could not even get a m there was not even a minion of Jews in yush and for rashash they had to get people from Kon and a saer Torah from Kon so the ramban initially wanted to live in which was under Muslim control very few Jews and Islamic persecutions were great so for a while he went up to Ako AKO was a crusader town that was under Christian domination at the time and there actually were several hundred Jewish families from France a whole family based on the balos who came up there and the ramban spent a little time in AKO and in fact we have a very famous rashash drasa rashash that the ran gave which he gave in AKO um as a rabbi who gives rashes I'm always very amazed the ramban said that this Dr rashash was given orally and he wrote it up later well based on the number of words there this drasa must have taken at least two and a half hours uh to deliver so either people had more patience then or or maybe when the ramban talks you listen no no matter no matter what uh but this was his famous rashash in AKO and it's so interesting that he brings yeah if you understand history why he draws on so many of the ballet toos for his sources because he's actually talking to the Bal so he's referring to their rebies and their teachers and that the ran had known there but eventually he did go back to us and as you know the oldest functioning continuous almost almost continuous except for 19 years bit caness in is besset raan not the one but the the one in the old city the building is not the same building is is not the same but but the site is said to be the actual site of the ramban's bit bait knesset and the ramban even engaged in a little bit of what we might call amateur archaeology it's very very fascinating that uh we know there's a Mitzvah of a half shekel and PID is five and that's a certain weight of silver and the gar gives you but there's M how to understand the gor so there was a rash and to neither of whom had ever seen a half shekele or a shekele coin what is the weight of the half shekele and mlus it's a theoretical mlus so the ran says when I came to ER Israel I bought a half sheo from an Arab and I carefully waigh it several times and the raban determined that Rashi was correct that even though Rashi had never seen a half she butes or whatever it would be so the ran was willing to be M this itself was an interesting point because there are poim who don't want to look at empirical evidence they say we only work with h texts we don't look at realia we don't look at archaeology we don't look at artifacts but this is actually one of the most one one of the interesting examples of a great Reon a great great Authority who was m a by looking at the archaeological reality of the of the situation so be it as it may though the question I'm asking is a very simple question and that is if ramban takes the position that yes Isel is a mitvah then why didn't he go when he was 35 or whatever it is he didn't go until he was kicked out of Spain and he had to leave so the truth of the matter is we honestly don't know uh he he gave us no reason for his delay but the two reasons that are commonly given just as speculations is number one p and that is the idea that even if there's a Mitzvah it is not a mitzvah for which you have to risk your life although I'm going to mention in a moment that that may be questionable but uh this is the Assumption now in those days TR just traveling to ER Israel was absolutely a matter of P uh you were dealing with uh with pirates with Marauders with wild animals uh with starvation with shipwrecks of these ships that just fell apart it was literally a matter of physical danger to travel to arra and once you got there the physical danger was very acute as well everyone knows the story now it is a story it probably is not true but but but it's an illustrative story of revu Hali Who was the gener before rambam and The Story Goes he too came from Spain and he came to ER Israel and uh the story is the legend is that he was at the gates of yush bowing down prostrating and an Arab came by and killed him with a spear and he died by the gates of yush now whether or not that is actually true I don't know um in all probability it probably is not true I believe Yuda Ley died they say in Alexandria on the way to arel but be it as it may this notion of danger was very very prevalent ER Israel was in a Land of fas part of it was controlled by Muslims part of it was by Christians constant uh battling between them uh I had mentioned that in the ramban when the ramban came to erit Israel the settlement in AKO was very well established over 300 Jewish families and that would be the place to go well 50 years later that's that's settlement was massacred so you know one day you're with the Muslims one day you're with the Christians one day the Muslims are nice the Christians are mean other times it's the opposite and very very often they both hated the Jews uh you know that's the uh the common factor that unites people who would otherwise be be enemies so was a real concern meaning it's less so today people still invoke it today people say ah I know I shouldn't live in Israel be well I mean life life is risky sure uh everything has dangers driving is dangerous buses are dangerous I mean I mean anywhere uh crossing the street uh you know what do you stay in bed staying in bed is dangerous um number one you're not you're not getting your exercise but number two I mean I remember reading uh in when I lived in in Maryland that an 8-year-old kid uh was was killed asleep what was going on there was a drug war outside of his house in a very very bad neighborhood and they were just shooting bullets and the cheap uh construction of where this where this kid lived the bullets just went through killed the kid sleeping in bed a bullet just goes through his heart so of course if you're asking me are there dangerous living in Israel yeah sure there sure there are are there dangerous living in New York or in London or in Paris or or or or Pittsburgh or or Sandy Hook or you know whatever is sure there are so I think PES is a very weak argument to make today because the world is dangerous unfortunately uh but in the ramban's time pish was a a strong strong strong concern so that might be one argument the other argument and again these are speculations we don't know why the ramban didn't go but the other argument uh was that the ramban was needed meaning this is an issue that even rabbis have to Grapple with today uh in those days obviously you didn't have email you didn't have faxes uh you didn't have telephones uh so once somebody came to Israel he was more or less out of out of commission meaning there was very little way to reasonably communicate uh with people even within Europe communication was not was not so easy and if the ramban was considered to be the god hador the greatest Rabbi of the generation he needed to be in a place where he was more accessible more reachable uh and the like so perhaps there was what you might call the godor exception uh for people now whether that applies today is again very very questionable because today we have you know communication we have zoom we have a million a million different ways of staying in touch uh but even so um when the as an all in his old age wanted to come to erel so and other gum of Europe this probably goes back to like the early 1920s they came to him and they said you're not allowed to leave because we need you to help us and guide us now by that time at least there were telephones and the like and a they said it was necessary that you physically be there by the way rejected that intreaty and the absolutely was determined to go toel what happened was very shortly before they were going to leave uh his Ritson broke her leg so they had to uh defer it by a few months till she got better and unfortunately by the time she got better his health had declined and he was no longer able to make the trip so although it was his sh uh to come to erel did not did not come yeah wasn't as well the ran was a physician yeah that's that's correct he had a community of people who relied on him well here um yeah yeah Again The Physician thing I'm not sure would have been so compelling because presumably there were other other doctors but yeah it it is a concern now as I say this is a concern that's no even and that is um if people need you now then then you have to Define it if they need you uh you're a RAV you're a mager maybe a doctor in some situations you're needed by a community then there is a ser I I I personally know ranim who were told by gim that they were not supposed to relocate to ER Israel because their Community would fall apart without them brought their communi that's correct so bring it in I understand there's a rabbi in Baltimore Rabbi silur is a very very fine Rabbi um I don't know exactly what he's trying to do but he's trying to split his time he's trying to create two communities uh he's he's a Rend Baltimore of a big show Suburban Orthodox and he's trying to do something here uh but he's not moving he's going to like split split the year or something so he's trying to uh I guess have your cake and eat it too then you have Rabbi risken Rabbi risken is a is a great example of uh Lincoln Square was in his day particularly uh was a huge huge uh show modern Orthodox show um and uh he just you know got up and left and you know he established things things here uh in uh where is it in afula there's an American Rabbi who established Rabbi kadal I think his name is he established a community so it's something to consider but still a lot of people aren't going to go and uh you have an Aras you have a responsibility you have a responsibility to them you know they say when rabbis either go on vacation or make alah or something there are two things they're afraid of uh one is the show will fall apart the other is they'll do great you know and uh they'll do great either one is a fear they'll do great without being like how important was I you know and and the like but here uh you know a rer a CLE kodesh has to be very very honest with themselves meaning uh you know um the world goes on meaning a person convinces himself oh without me you know everything is going to going to fall apart in some cases that is true in some cases that is true in most cases it's not true you know and therefore to use the uh sore as my head there may not necessarily uh be be appropriate but this is the story of Raman ramban now it's important to understand are we okay yeah it's important to understands that ramban is one side of the equation now I want to talk about the other side of the equation because yesel is ultimately yeah I apologize I hope uh I know it's hard to hear me anyway so I apologize for the extra the extra noise yeah well was it duringa yeah well because we were we were constructing or during Corona was building a new base medish so the noise was deafening even now we building the dining room you know so there's still noise going on so uh yeah yeah so again ramban is what we've been talking about I want to talk about the other side because there are there are two sides now to understand my Moni rambam's position there's an inherent difficulty here because it's not like he states there is no Mitzvah that's not that which works it's not that ramban says there is no Mitzvah and ramban says there is a Mitzvah that's not how it works ran says there is a Mitzvah yeah rambam simply doesn't say anything so you understand right off the bat that there's always going to be an ambiguity in interpreting a negative meaning why didn't rambam count the Mitzvah of yes and that's why you're going to see there's a big big of commentaries how to interpret rambam's position now one other thing before I leave ramban before I leave ramban there's one more Point actually we'll go we'll go back and forth to the ramban anyway but one more point about the ramban I need to share with you and this is a Chua of the gr of mosha Feinstein and again I'm a little I'm a little reluctant because because the Chua is so so difficult that I cannot claim to understand it and yet on the other hand how is it possible for anyone to argue with the the greatness of rosstein which is unbelievable rosha Feinstein takes the position that even according to ran that is a mitvah even according to ramban he says according to ramban it is called mitv and notv let me explain these two terms is a Mitzvah you are obligated to do if you don't do it you're committing an AA so for example for a man reciting the shma twice a day women are exempt is a if I don't recite kma I have an A putting Onin every day for a man again is a keeping shabas for men and women is however there's another category of Mitzvah which if you do it you're doing a Mitzvah and hasem will reward you but you're not obligated to do it so if you don't do it you haven't committed any a it's not a this is called in the language of poim Mitzvah or Mitzvah meaning a Mitzvah that if you do it it's a Mitzvah but it's not something you're obligated to do rosha Feinstein says in a Chua and this would give a big header to to people not to come toel rosha Feinstein says the Mitzvah of is and not so if somebody does not make alah they are not doing anything wrong they are simply not getting the Mitzvah of yes now again again I I I I I have a little bit of trepidation here because uh there is nobody who is marcker of moshe's Godless as much as I mean that his unbelievable unbelievable greatness situs and greatness and Brilliance and knowledge of the whole Torah so how can I possibly say anything against him I can't but all I can say is that if you simply look at the language of the ramban the language it's not a matter of interpretation the ramban's language in the is he uses the word several times obligation obligation obligation obligation so now that that's not to say there may not be and I'll talk about that in a moment too meaning an obligation is not absolute under all circumstances but if you don't have your checklist of ramban does describe it as an obligation and that would hardly be the same as a mitzvah mitvah for example might beus the Torah says if you wear a four cornered garment you are obligated to put on situs and you get a but if I decide not to wear a four cornered garment even though we like to check our our children foras technically there's no AA there's no AA I'm doing it's very very interesting a person is not a person is I'm talking about a man here A man is not obligated to wear sites and in fact in different parts of Jewish history I think in Morocco it was common that only the ranim wore the Talan meaning the average religious Jew religious Jew didn't wear tal and there's nothing wrong with that now today the Customs are different and and you know if a person doesn't wear s it you know that that kind of indicates a rebellion but there's technically no a because the Mitzvah only in fact sometimes wearing tis can be worse you know when you're wearing a tet Katan that some SES might be ripped they might be toring if you're wearing a tet Katan or talal for that matter and the S as are not Kosher you are doing an AA you're wearing a baged of four corners without proper siss but if I'm not wearing it at all there's actually nothing wrong that I'm doing that's called a MIT yeah are you saying because they don't have a t that's interesting so in that way even kid that wasn't wearing aan would at least do the Mitzvah of that's an interesting speculation I hear I'll check into that check into that uh a little a little bit um what's the expression there when they say you shouldn't ask too many questions about how FR people are you say uh don't ask to check their sissors right that's the expression but the truth that guy can be very firm and not have sors you know that they can also be and and the like uh so I I'm mentioning R Moshe because you need to know it and mosha would actually furnish a justification for those who do not make alah uh but I I will leave it as again I I've been criticized for even saying saying that raos Chua is difficult but all I will say is it's difficult and and I will also say this it is not the interpretation of ramban that the every other safer says meaning meaning every other interpretation of the raban certainly looks at yes is as and not only not only okay so I just wanted to get mosha CH now before we MOS yeah MOS not our time and uh and Israel's time now and he knew everybody that he in New York it's not going to go I I understand in other words you want to say that he didn't want to give a message that people couldn't uh wouldn't live with they probably lose a lot of people well you know he could have said even though he supposed to war no but you know but he but he he could have simply said we passing like the Ramba meaning he didn't have to reinterpret ramban he could have just he could have come to the same oh we follow Ramba and that would have done that would have accomplished your objective uh but this idea you're bringing up is also a very daring idea and a very scary idea and a very controversial idea will a posac modify a ruling because he knows if he goes all the way on the it's going to be ignored and he'll lose lose people that would follow follow uh that's a very very delicate issue some people have claimed that sometimes goes around you know R mosha was asked this goes back to the early 60s about cigarette smoking are you allowed to smoke cigarettes so R MO wrote Because at that point the Surgeon General had already determined that cigarette smoking was a Sakana and R Moshe famously said it's not a good thing don't start it's a bad thing to start but he's not he said he he cannot prohibit it for people who already were smoking because he made different arguments he said every individual cigarette is not going to kill you and therefore one by one by one you know the individual action is not uh is not a problem it's only cumulative uh but some have suggested some have suggested that rosha didn't want to give a Pak that it's forbidden to smoke because people wouldn't have been able to live with that Pak and as a result he did not want to put people in a position where they would be violating Al other people say it's outrageous to assume that rosha might distort aak for that reason but I'll tell you if I can give you an earlier example and again I'm going far field here some say that's what the rambam himself did in a different context you know one of the r you know in addition to the mishna Torah the rambam wrote a number of public letters these are famous letters the rambam wrote and one of his letters was igeret Taman a letter that he wrote to the yemenite community and it's also called M Kem an essay about sanctifying God's name and the Garett tamon concerned a certain Islamic persecution where like teenagers would stop Jews in the street put a knife to their neck and say you have to acknowledge you know Muhammad is God's Prophet Etc or we will kill you and there was no followup meaning if you said yes I acknowledge they let you go and then you can go go to Minion and do doomi and do everything else meaning it was a type of proforma persecution where you just had to declare something and then they let you do what you want so there were a lot of Jews in Yemen they just wanted to get these teenagers off their back so they would say I mean yeah up their friend they're walking to show and this guy goes over to KN right right and then they went and they dabing and they did everything else so there was a rabbi who told them that you by denying the Torah you are no longer Jewish and God doesn't want your mitzvos and your a and everything else so the rambam so they they turned to the rambam they were broken they were heartbroken because these were good Jews and they asked the rambam is it true is it true and the rambam wrote them a very beautiful letter the first part of the letter the rambam expresses his white hot anger at this Rabbi I would have hated to be on the receiving end of that letter he says such a rabbi disparages the Jewish people he doesn't deserve to be a leader mosenu loses his job when he calls the Jewish people rebellious ones El and yes's mouth is burnt with coals because he calls the Jewish people Sinners and the and the ran points out and those Sinners were real Sinners and the rabbis still get criticized and you talking talking to the rabbi in Yemen and you look at people who were fearful for their life who would have been killed and want to serve Hashem so the Ramba makes a number of other points in theer point number one that he makes which is non-controversial is that even if you're supposed to have given your life and you didn't you're still a Jew and whatever Ms vote you can do you should do in other words let's assume I'm supposed to give my life before I profess belief in Islam okay so they didn't give their life they did an AA under duress that doesn't mean they're not Jewish right so that's Point number one and that point is not controversial that point is actually very very very clear that even when there's a to be m nees you're still a Jew and do whatever mitzvot you can do but then he goes on and this is where it gets a little surprising he actually claims that they were not to give up their life and they were permitted to say those words uh you know mam is whatever it is I isn't the that you're supposed to give up your life before you renounce Judaism so the rambam gave two explanations why there was no to give up their life explanation number one is his famous view that Islam is not idolatry because since Islam believes in one God so if they Christian would have said acknowledge yashar I'll kill you you'd have to give up your life but the rambam says Islam is a monotheistic religion within the same meaning as Judaism understands God at least I don't mean God's midot know at least the nature of God as incorporeal and the like and therefore there was no to be m nees and the second reason he gave is even the people that were persecuting you know that you didn't mean what you said and therefore a statement that even the coercers know is false and not sincere is not considered a repudiation of God these are two two rationals so so again there are three points iner Point number one is even if there would have been a to give up your life as the rabbi as their Rabbi told them okay if you fail to do that you're still Jewish and you should do whatever mitzvot you can do that's Point number one point number two is there is no to give up your life to avoid profession of Islam because Islam is monotheistic and it is not idolatry and therefore PES would override uh the there and number two even renunciation of religion of God is going to be okay if everybody knows that you don't mean it now those two rationals both of them are very very very difficult because number one even if Islam is monotheistic but Islam is absolutely a denial of The Eternity of the Torah because Islam's claim was that the prophecy that God gave Moses Moshe was superseded by a greater Revelation to uh Muhammad if that's the case the of that you have to give up your life before you profess idolatry is not limited to idolatry it includes renunciation of Judaism meaning idolatry is a renunciation of Judaism but I can renounce Judaism in other ways too let's assume I believe in God uh but I say I reject the Torah you know one once again one have you may have to give up your life especially the according to the rambam if you're a Muslim at least if you're a Jewish Muslim uh you're denying 13 principles of Faith among which are the immutability the non- changeability of the Torah and the other point that since nobody nobody takes you seriously that's not a repudiation well if that's the case any person who does something because they're going to be killed I mean I mean let's I mean the guy that says I'm going to kill you unless you say these words knows that you're only saying it because you're going to get killed in other words if you're going to take the idea oh if they know you don't mean it it's okay it's okay then there should never be a den that you have to give your life because everybody knows you don't really mean it so in the Mish Torah the rambam does not give these two rationals at all so there's a famous article by uh Dr Kim salic uh salic is R's son uh very eminent very eminent historian very very eminent historian of halaka fascinating essays uh I want to get the books but they're so expensive they put out like three volumes of collected essays I think it's like uh $300 or whatever whatever it is uh but if you ever come across his stuff it's very worthwhile to read because he's a person who uh is not only an expert in history but in MOS and in goris and and all of these different things so he brings a great deal of learning to it so in one of his articles he actually claims that the rambam was being touchy feely here the rambam was soft pedling Al because he wanted to give Comfort to a broken community and he was making statements that Alp were actually not EMS meaning the notion that you didn't have to give your life before professing Islam he says this was actually not true and R didn't even believe it to be true but he doesn't want them to feel bad now again I don't want to get hate mail over this uh I'm not espousing my position I'm just telling you this is his interpretation of of the rambam I'm giving a very long-winded answer to uh your idea that sometimes a posac might talk in a certain way in order to give people comfort and strength in times of extraordinary distress kind of well maybe there's this argument maybe there's this argument even though the rambam himself would not have come to that to that conclusion so I don't know as I say it's a bit a bit of a controversy is there room in to soften a either because it won't be accepted or because people are so broken that they need to hear some words of of so as they say that this is an old question and you want to say maybe that was part of Rosa's thinking uh in the ramban and the like but okay but be it as it may though bottom line is that except for the ous motion uh virtually everybody understands ramban as and not just Kumi so the final point before I move to the rambam is okay if something is uh is it absolute meaning to say does everybody have to do it or would the ramban recognize exceptions well the answer is sure the ran recognizes exception two of which I already mentioned I did mention PES as an exception and I also mentioned the person that is needed by their Community right those are two exceptions but let's talk about some other exceptions the gamar says in a number of places that even if a person is already living in arus real there are three reasons why they are permitted to leave erel and it would seem anything that gives you a hedra to leave would be AER not to come so I think I think it's reasonable to connect the two and the three that are given is Lil mode Torah you can leave erel we'll have to explain this to learn Torah okay we'll go over this in a moment the second is directed to a man but it would apply to a woman and reverse Lis Isa I can leave ER Israel to find a wife to marry and the third is I can leave ER Israel if I'm not able to have a parasa in ER Isel Torah Lis isaa so let's look at these uh operationally I can leave ER is L mode Torah what does that mean now in the olden days that actually had some actual meaning uh there were centuries where the land of Israel was largely desolate largely empty there were not that many places that were learning Torah or teaching Torah so a person might say I have to go to the ISAT of Babylonia uh whatever and the like today uh it would seem a little bit that it's a little bizarre to say Torah although with the resurrection of the GU is maybe something there where you know people say I got to leave to in order not to be drafted okay that's another question we'll talk about uh but the truth of the matter is even B manaz There is a concept of lot Tor simply because people sometimes have unique connections with particular rabbis particular teachers and those cannot autom automatically be replicated you can't always tell a person go to another Yesa go to another she get another Rabbi not everybody you know people are not interchangeable in that way so it might be possible again I'm I'm not I'm just thinking thinking out loud I'm not giving any direction or concrete Direction but little more tah could kick in if one has a unique connection to a RAV or a Yeshiva or a MAG here and they feel they cannot find the replacement here once again you got to look and you got to see and you also have to see if remotely connections could be maintained but there still could be this general idea of lot Torah which means there may be spiritual reasons spiritual reasons why relocation uh is not proper in the right time now I think that this would include issues of of your children as well um it's a major issue and and obviously this is not a a a talk on the practicalities of alah but certainly if you have uh School AG children so uh the issue of schooling the issue of is a major major major issue and there may be situations where the in a given place is what they need and has to be and has to be taken into account so LMO to we can paraphrase as a paradigm spiritual reasons connected to Torah study and religious life usually the the hope would be things would be better here that that would be the hope and that would be the expectation but sometimes not and therefore you have to factor that into the calculus now Lisa Isa getting married can't find a wife here well okay find a wife there and come back right doesn't doesn't need don't come back at all uh but one might once again generalize see I'm looking at these as paradigms that Lisa Isa might mean preservation of Shalom B it is a relevant Factor depends on the situation meaning even though the is clear the is clear that if husband wants to move to arel and wife doesn't she's obligated to go and the opposite is true also if wife wants to move and husband doesn't husband is obligated to go so the is clear nevertheless where this would seriously undermine the Shalom that would be inis is so essentially therefore so we're looking at these categories of generality lilmo Torah is spiritual needs of myself and my children Lisa Isa is Preservation of shom Bas although I I will tell you I'm not sure I agree with the decision I'm sure there must have been other things going on but I know at least one RAB who divorced his wife because she refused to make Aliah now if that is all there is to that story I I would have to say I disagree with it but but my my guess is there's much more to the story that I I don't know so I don't want to get into it but this is what that he divorced her that his love of AR is always so strong that he divorced her but the truth of the matter is Shalom bias Listen by the S we we erase hashem's name in the water and Hashem says my holy name should be erased dissolved in the water to make Shalom between is so is a wonderful wonderful wonderful Mitzvah sh It ultimately is is the most important so once again that's Le now parasa this is a biggie P I don't have to come to if I can't make a living can't make a living like what can't make a living like I did in America well if you're going to go with that standard then nobody would ever come here at all right the old I mean the old Story how do you become a millionaire in Israel come come with 10 million right and that's how you become a millionaire in Israel you know uh so obviously we're not talking about I will live at the same level of comfort a person has to be willing to make sacrifices living in the in the land of kadha is such as a I give up a little bit but but there is a point and the point is different for every PE every person where there's a Breaking Point some people can live with bread and water and they'll be happy and you know these are people of a very very high level they will be happy and they will function other people get broken other people get destroyed they need a certain level so so even like the ramban this is very subjective I I'm I'm asking to you even like the ramban there is this notion that if you're at a level which will break you psychologically then you need to reconsider alah might not be the right decision for you and that's in the idea that people need a certain amount of Economic Security in their life in order to function properly what what that level is depends on on the person very very much some people can live happily at a very very low level some people need a little more and that has to be the now in Truth uh one of the things Corona created but even before Corona was the notion of remote jobs Etc there there are many many people in Israel who have American jobs or you know they're working with that and you know that that way they can kind of get a better salary uh it has to be worked out but the the point I'm giving you here is not so much any obviously I'm not giving any I mean most of the people that are here I've made already U but I'm simply indicating that even if something is a an obligation it doesn't mean it's absolute under every situation it's it is but there are reasons why not which means what that means practically is if you follow the ramban every Jewish person who does not live here must ask themselves a question why am I not living here maybe you'll have an answer Lil M Torah Lisa Isa parasa family responsibility or religious you know my my community responsibility but the point is is you have to ask the question if you don't ask the question then you're simply not caring about a Mitzvah it's a mitv to live here unless you have A B C or D so what does that mean practically you have to ask yourself do I Have A B C or D so if someone asks the question and comes up with the answer that I fall within those categories there is no complaint that's totally legitimate but if you don't even ask there is something wrong with that mentality now this is all the sheet of the ramban remember we still have to look at the r okay have a good day