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Alan Perlman is a resident of the community of Carmel in the Hebron Hills region and a technical writer. Perlman has a master's degree in social work.
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By Alan Perlman
June 14, 2004
In the Torah portion of Shalach Lecha, we read the account of the sin of the spies. To recap briefly, G-d is about to bring the Israelites into the Land of Israel. However, the Israelites choose to send out twelve scouts, one from each tribe, to spy out the land. Ten returned with a highly negative report and strongly counseled against entering the land. Two, Caleb and Joshua, report that the Israelites should put their trust in G-d, and go up to the land immediately. The nation rejects entry into the land, accepting the report of the ten instead of the two. G-d decrees that the generation dies in the wilderness, and that the next generation enters the land. Too late, the people realize their foolishness, and cry all night. It is the 9th of Av (the eleventh month, making it the original 9/11), and it becomes a perennial time of tragedy for the Jewish people. The next day, disregarding the decree, the Israelites try unsuccessfully to enter the land - the door has been slammed shut.
Many lessons can be learned from this Torah portion, but the central point is that when the Jews are offered, and then reject, a desirable path to redemption, G-d leads them along a more difficult path. This lesson may not be important during exile, but it is critical once redemption begins. And this past century has witnessed at least three major instances of this lesson being ignored at tremendous cost.
Holocaust
When the age of prophecy ended, cause and effect in Jewish history became far less clear than in the generation of the spies. Therefore, when the Jewish community undergoes suffering, to understand the cause of the suffering it must do a Heshbon Nefesh, that is, it must critically examine the deeds of the community using the Torah as its guide.
The Holocaust, a catastrophe of epic proportions, requires such a heshbon nefesh, and I offer my own reflections (which relate to the sin of the spies) with the caveat that I may be wrong, and that in any case, other conclusions can certainly be drawn.
In the 1800s, two powerful movements emerged in the Germany Jewish community: the Reform movement and the Haskalah ("Enlightenment").
The Reform movement was a religious reformation movement that jettisoned central religious beliefs and practices, including belief in redemption and the coming of the Messiah. For the reformers, Berlin was the New Jerusalem. (Later imported to the United States, this movement became the undisputed leader in fostering Jewish ignorance, assimilation and intermarriage.)
The Haskalah attempted to integrate the Jewish community into non-Jewish society through the adoption of "enlightened" values, knowledge, and manners. Its adherents replaced G-d with secularism, and actively worked, often in collaboration with their governments, to destroy Yeshiva and Torah education.
Both movements worked to undermine the religious way of life that had preserved the Jewish people throughout the exile. Against this backdrop, the religious leaders of Europe appropriately rejected the Zionist movement as just another secular Jewish movement at odds with Torah. There was, after all, no indication that the redemption had begun. But then things changed. Drastically. Dramatically.
G-d had promised the Jews that during the exile, the cities of Israel would remain in ruins, and the once rich land would become a barren wasteland, and remain so until the redemption. Then, when the redemption was underway, the cities would be rebuilt and the Land would again give its produce. The rebuilt cities and abundance of produce would thus constitute proof of the redemption. Another indicator of redemption is the requirement (stated in the Talmudic Tractate Kesubos) that the nations of the world give the Jews permission to return to their land.
Jewish settlement outside the Old City walls began in the 1800s, and Tel Aviv, the first modern Jewish city in Israel, had its beginnings in 1909. The early Jewish settlers engaged in agricultural enterprises, and the land began to give its produce. In November 1917, the British issued the Balfour declaration declaring their intention to establish a Jewish national home in the Land of Israel. In 1920, the League of Nations, representing the nations of the world, created the British Mandate for Palestine whose stated purpose was "establishing in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people."
The rejection of Zionism and return, which made sense in the late 1800s, required rethinking. In this sense, it was similar to the rejection by the sages of the Jewish uprising against the Hellenists in ancient times. Only well after the battles and the restoration of the Temple did the sages rethink the matter and, recognizing the hand of G-d, and declare Chanukah a holiday. Sadly, the position of our modern sages did not change, neither in the early 1900s, nor when Hitler rose to power in 1933, nor following Kristalnacht, on November 9, 1938 (also 9/11, in the European calendar) when Jews were slaughtered, and Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues burned. Then suddenly in 1939, the doors of entry to Israel slammed shut when Britain issued the White Paper, and decimation of the Jews of Europe began in earnest.
Today, with Israel at the center of the entire Jewish world, including the Yeshiva and Torah world, it seems clear that the Jewish ingathering to Israel heralds G-d's redemption rather than some premature return to the land. Unfortunately, European Jewry, secular and religious, that rejected this redemption perished in the European wilderness.
It should be noted that the spies were princes of the tribes. They, and the religious leaders of Europe were the Gedolei HaDor, the leaders of highest stature in their generation, completely righteous in all respects. Still the majority erred by rejecting the land and the redemption, while some, like Rav Avraham Yitzhak HaCohen Kook, saw the redemption underway and advocated a return to the land. He died in 1935, before the Holocaust and the creation of the state. He and others like him were the Calebs and Joshuas of their day.
American and West European Jewry
To a great extent, the rejection of Israel by pre-WWII European Jews was understandable. The exile had already lasted so long; the signs of redemption, though clear in retrospect, could easily be overlooked as they occurred, and the horror of the pending Holocaust was clearly unimaginable. But Jews today in America, Canada, England, France, and other countries, have the benefit of hindsight not available to pre-WWII Jewry. How then to explain their decision to remain in exile, especially while alarms sound across the globe?
In America, where Jews are completely accepted in the fabric of society, the major threat to secular Jews has been extinction through assimilation. But as Islamic fascism threatens the "Great American Satan," all American Jews are in increasing danger. Physical attacks and threats on Jewish students and Israeli guests at universities are frowned upon but tolerated. Terrorism is increasingly accepted as an understandable, perhaps legitimate, response to discontent. Reputable journals now voice the opinion that Israel was conceived in sin and that the world would be better off without it. Political parties woo Arab votes. Oil prices are soaring.
Simultaneously, the Jews of Europe face raging anti-Semitism and physical harm from resident Muslim hordes that are about to unleash their Islamic fury against an impotent Europe that anyway cares little for its Jews.
So why do today's Jews remain in exile? They do so because they like their Western affluence and easy life. They lack nothing. Even religious Jews have everything they need for a full Torah life - Yeshivas, synagogues, restaurants, etc. Why exchange that for the land of Israel? Most do not really feel they are in exile, nor do they yearn for Israel. They just love where they are.
Despite their hindsight, the Jews of exile, especially the religious Jews, are today repeating the sin of the spies. The spies did not reject Torah. They rejected the land of Israel. G-d provided for all their needs in the wilderness. He supplied them Manna for food, and ensured that they were never ill. He shielded them with the Clouds of Glory. They learned Torah from Moses himself. Their life was one of relative ease and comfort. Why exchange it for the land of Israel? Yet, G-d's response was unequivocal. The generation died.
No doubt, many who today choose exile as their preferred life style rely on the belief that if things get really bad, they can always come to Israel. But the doors slammed shut in the blink of an eye on both the generation of the desert and the Jews of Europe. And certain indicators suggest this may be happening again, though only time will tell. Israel eliminated most rights and benefits it grants to immigrants, making immigration harder than before. And perhaps as a foreshadowing of things to come, air travel abruptly halted when the World Trade Center towers fell. Perhaps in the future, Jews may find borders sealed and travel by air and ship impossible, due to terrorist threat. Doors to Israel may just be closed to those who preferred exile to the land.
Israel
Successive Israeli governments rejected the redemption that was unfolding around them. In the Six Day War, Israel gave control of the Temple Mount to the Wakf (Islamic Trust), told Israeli soldiers to prevent the Arabs of Judea and Samaria from running away to Jordan, and announced that it would trade the territories for peace treaties. Since then, Israel has tried repeatedly to rid itself of the territories, and the arguments are always the same - there are too many Arabs and they constitute an insurmountable demographic problem (never mind that G-d was clearing them out in 1967 until Israel stopped them from leaving).
Here again, the parallel to the spies is clear. Seeing that giants inhabited the land, the spies reported that they felt like grasshoppers in their own eyes. They were overwhelmed by the prospect of facing the giants - an insurmountable demographic problem. As if G-d couldn't handle it.
The land is an eternal heritage that belongs to all Jews in perpetuity. It cannot be given way, whether through worthless agreements or unilateral retreat, and today, both Israelis and Arabs are paying the price for the Israeli rejection of the territories that began in 1967. We are experiencing a tikkun (correction) that is leading to the removal of the enemy from the land.
In 1967, the Arab flight was voluntarily - they feared Israeli vengeance for the pre-State Arab pogroms. Had Israel not stopped them, they would today be happily resettled in Jordan. The rejection of the redemption not only kept the Arabs in Israel, it convinced them that though victorious in 1967, Israel would lose the long-term war. In the ensuing years, the Arabs have been trying to destroy Israel's claim to the land. They created a phony Palestinian identity, fostered the myth that they have been here since time immemorial, and bestowed upon Israel and mankind their sole gift of unbridled terrorism.
Rather than transfer (expel) them, Israel offered the Arabs the heartland of Israel at Oslo, and brought in arch terrorist and mass murderer, Yasser Arafat. Arafat, who so deserves to die, could have easily been eliminated in Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, Gaza and Ramallah. Yet he is still alive. He even miraculously survived a plane crash in Libya. Like Pharaoh and Haman, Arafat seems to have a redemptive task, and is part of that tikkun process. His task is to make his people so psychopathically murderous and dangerous that coexistence is not an option. For four years, the Arabs have waged a war of destruction against Israel, constantly increasing the stakes, and toiling day and night to launch mega-terror attacks.
The Left is wrong when it says that Israeli withdrawal is inevitable and that two peoples will share the land, living side by side in two nations. The only inevitability in redemption is that Jews will live in all of Israel, in peace and security. The exact scenario remains to be seen. Perhaps this demented enemy will launch so successful a mega-terror attack that Israel finds it must utterly destroy them for self-preservation. Or perhaps the enemy will destroy its own cities in non-conventional terrorist work accidents.
Regardless of the scenario, for Jews and Arabs alike, a voluntary Arab exit in 1967 would have been the most benign turn of events. The next best scenario would be forced transfer. Mislabeled as racist, it is not. Transfer is not advocated for loyal citizens, such as the Druse. It is advocated for enemies that would destroy Israel and the Jewish homeland. Though forced, it would leave the Arabs alive and the Jews in peace in their land. But successive secular, Leftist Israeli governments, including the current government, have decried transfer and have instead acted to uproot Jews from their homes and give away major tracts of the Land of Israel. These governments, unwittingly and ironically, ensure a scenario of destruction of the enemy simply because, like the spies before them, they reject redemption.
It behooves Israel, and Jews the world over, to recognize and embrace the redemption and the Land of Israel.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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