| Living in The Land is part of our religion |
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| Written by David Ha'Ivri | |
| Jul 24, 2007 at 12:30 PM | |
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The people of Israel entered the land of Cana'an in the 13th century
before the Common Era. According to the Bible, the land was promised on
numerous occasions by HaShem (God) to the sons of Avraham, Yitzchak and
Yaakov, who all lived in the Land until Yaakov (Jacob) and all of his
children went to Egypt in search of food during time of severe famine.
Consequently they became slaves and were stuck in Egypt for over 400
years.
After the death of Moshe, the seven nations of Cana'an who dwelt in the land were conquered by Yehoshua and his army, and the first Jewish State in Israel was born. "He declared to his people the strength of his works, in order that he might give them the land of the nations" (Psalms 111:6).Getting back to the 13 th century BCE; under the leadership of Yehoshua Bin Nun, the people of Israel crossed the Jordan River and entered the Land of Israel. Note that in Hebrew we call our country "ha'Aretz" which means "The Land". There is a specific emphasis on "The", because for us it is the only land. The Jewish people are commanded to observe 613 commandments in the Torah. Since many of them (more than half) can only be carried out in the Land of Israel, a Jew living outside of "the Land" can not possibly observe our faith in its fullness! Or in other words: living in Israel under our own government is part of our religion. "The whole of the commandments which I command you this day to observe to do is in order that you may live, propagate, come to and inherit the land which the Lord has sworn to your ancestors." (Deut 8:1) From that moment onwards, our people lived in an independent Jewish state. Our King Solomon built the holy Temple in Jerusalem that was the center of our religious and cultural life for nearly a thousand years. The first Temple stood on the Temple Mount in our capital city Jerusalem for nearly 500 years until it was overrun by the Babylonians, who slaughtered many and exiled most of the survivors. Our people were punished for not following the words of the Torah: "You shall not defile yourselves ... for the nations, whom I am sending away from before you, have defiled themselves with all these things. The land became defiled, and I visited its sin upon it, and the land vomited out its inhabitants." (Leviticus 18:24-25). Our people were marched away in chains to foreign lands in north and there they "sat on the rivers of Babylon and cried while they remembered Jerusalem" (Psalm 137). But they did not forget and they did not give up hope. Two and a half thousand years ago, the first Zionists rose up and returned to our land – but they faced many challenges. They were predominantly poor, the land was burnt and over-run, and new-comers had settled in parts of the land. The returnees did the best that they could and rebuilt the Temple on the Mount that was named for it in Jerusalem. The 2nd Temple stood for over 400 years until it was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 CE. Even after the destruction, though, throughout history there has always been a Jewish presence in the land, even if at times the land was scarcely populated. Most of those who survived the destruction of the Second Temple were once again exiled, and from that time on the Jewish people wandered the four corners of the earth, never forgetting our homeland and never giving up hope to return and re-establish our independent country on our land. From that time Jewish people - wherever they were - prayed three times a day to haShem to return us to our land. Over those many long and painful years the Jewish people remained scattered and persecuted. Expelled and made refugees, running from to place, they we were unable to re-gather together as a single, unified nation. However, that all started to change about hundred years ago, and from that moment, the historical miracle of the re-gathering of the Jewish people in our historic homeland began. After nearly 2000 years of exile, spread out all over the world, the Jewish people began to return to our land. Jews from Yemen to India; America to Morocco; Europe to Australia – literally from the four corners of the globe – gathered together in the Land of Israel and our independent Jewish State was reborn. Between the beginnings of the Roman exile until today, various armies and peoples have passed though our land. At any given point in history, the country has been controlled by the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, the British and French Crusaders, the Ottoman Turks, the British (again), and only finally back to us. Naturally, with each passing nation and army the make-up of the general populace changed and was molded in accordance with the character of whichever marauding power was in control. Over the course of history many were killed, forcibly removed (or left of their own accord), whilst others stayed put. The demographics shifted along with the sands of time. One thing, however, remains certain: since our last exile in the year 70 CE until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 there was no independent state on this land. There were no independent kings or governments beyond those who were representatives of foreign rulers (i.e. the Ottoman Turks or the British-controlled mandate). There never was a Palestinian state or king or government or even people for that mater. The "Palestinian" idea only came into being less than a hundred years ago as a local response by Arab squatters to Zionism the return of the Jews - the rightful owners of the land. Gaza and the "West Bank" of the Jordan River are part of our historic homeland and were liberated by the Jewish army (the IDF) as a result of the assault by neighboring Arab countries of the Jewish State as it existed at the time within its "pre-1967 borders." Had Egypt, Syria and Jordan not attacked Israel in June of 1967, the "West Bank" would still be occupied by The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Gaza would still be controlled by Egypt and The Golan Heights would be in Syrian hands. But at the time – giddy with power and convinced of certain victory – the Arab nations all thought otherwise. They were sure that the power was in their hands to "drive the Jews into the sea" and bring an end to the Zionist dream. Baruch haShem they were wrong. They went to war and lost. And you know what happens when you go to war and lose; to put it quite bluntly: you lose. If you ask me the Israelis were very nice about it. Consider this: If the Arabs would have won, how many Jews do you think would be living today in Arab-controlled "Palestine"? Today, there are many Arab residents of the Jewish-controlled cities of Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem, and many more. Now contrast that with the fact that Jews are forbidden outright to live in any lands controlled by the Arab "Palestinian Authority." Those Jews who choose to do so are subject to all kinds of international and domestic pressures, and are often forcibly removed from those areas simply because they are Jews, whilst the government and international community coin terms such as "disengagement" to whitewash what is a policy of anti-Jewish ethnic cleansing. Do you know that Jews are not even allowed to pass through many Arab-controlled areas? Now let the Arabs complain about apartheid against them… If you ask me, the wall that the Israeli government constructed (that many of you call "the apartheid wall") is an incredible mistake. The reason that they put it up is because terrorists had been coming in from the West Bank into Israeli cities and blowing up buses and shopping centers. The truth must be told that since the construction of the wall and the targeted assassination of a number of terrorist the bombing attacks in Israeli cities have gone down. But I don't believe that fences are the way to deal with terrorists in the long-term. The way to deal with murderers and terrorists is to – quite simply – smash them out of existence. Good fences can encourage good neighbors, but only when there is a basic good to start with. People who teach their children to blow themselves up in other people's buses have no good in them and must be dealt with via military force. The land of Israel is mentioned hundreds of times in the Torah, and is repeatedly promised to the Jewish people: "from the river of Egypt until the great river, the River Euphrates" (Gen. 15:18). Our deed to the Land of Israel is the Torah itself. The incredible historical phenomenon of the re-gathering of our people and the re-birth of our language and culture. All in line with the promises of the Torah and the visions of the prophets prove the divineness of our faith. "The Lord your G-d is bringing you to a good land, a land of streams of water, wells and deep reservoirs which come forth from valleys and mountains. It is a land of wheat and barley, of vines, figs and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and date honey. It is a land in which you will eat bread without suffering, which lacks for nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose mountains you can mine forth copper. And so you shall eat, be satisfied, and praise the Lord your G-d for the good land which He has given to you" (Deut 8: 7 '10). |
