Ideas and Opinions of Religious Leaders on the Disengagment
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Us and the State, Harav Yaacov Halevi Filber (English)Entered: 27/Oct/2005 |
(Translated from Be’ahavah U-Ve’emunah, Mechon Meir, Parshat Va-Yelech)
In our community of faith, among both the youth and adults, there is an ongoing discussion about how to relate to the government and its institutions in light of the fact that all of the government agencies – the coalition, the Knesset, the courts, the army, the police, etc. – joined together to evict thousands of faithful and righteous Jews who had established their homes in Gush Katif in fulfillment of a government mission, and to callously and harshly drive them from their land. And now, at the conclusion of the storm, as the settlers have not yet had a chance to pick up the broken pieces of their lives, we have begun to hear public expressions of doubts and questions regarding their connection to the state. After such a harsh turning of the back, do we still need to be devoted to it? Beyond its personal dimensions, this question has been relevant from the beginning of the establishment of the state, from the time that the peiyot (sidelocks) of the Yemenite Jewish children were cut off and other such incidents. Even then, we could have asked if the State of Israel is really “the foundation of G-d’s throne on earth” ?
This question mixes up two components that our teacher, Harav Tzvi Yehudah Kook, expressed as follows: “The state belongs to G-d, the pigs belong to Ben Gurion.” For what is “the state”? In his listing of the mitzvot, the Ramban defines the commandment to settle the Landof Israel (mitzvat yishuv ha’aretz) as follows: “That we should not leave it in the hands of other nations or desolate” - in other words, Jewish sovereignty over the Landof Israel, which can only be understood as the state. In this sense, the establishment of the State of Israel was the fulfillment of a positive commandment of the Torah. This was indeed the opinion of two great Torah scholars of previous generations – Harav Yehoshua of Kutna (Yeshuot Malko, Yoreh Deah 66) and Harav Tzadok Hacohen of Lublin(Divrei Sofrim, section 14) who stated that settling in Eretz Yisrael under foreign rule is not a fulfillment of the commandment to settle the Landof Israel. According to their opinions, the mitzvah of settling the Landof Israelwas renewed by the Jewish people on the 5th of Iyar in 1948.
What is the meaning of the phrase “the state belongs to G-d”? It means that the state does not belong to any particular group within the Jewish people, nor does it belong to any particular generation. Rather, it belongs to the entire Jewish people for all generations. It is the eternal dream to which Jews aspired when they declared: “Next year in Jerusalemrebuilt.” Let us take the Torah as a point of comparison. There is nothing that we attribute to G-d more clearly than the Torah, as we say “The Torah of G-d is perfect.” We also say about the Torah that: “The path of G-d is just, the righteous will walk on it, and transgressors will stumble on it.” Would anyone consider that we should be “angry” with the Torah because of a few transgressors who fail in its observance? The same is true with regard to the state. Should we disassociate from the state because of the inappropriate behavior of some government agencies or of a particular government?
Masechet Brachot tells that the Prophet Yeshayahu rebuked King Chizkiyahu because he did not fulfill the mitzvah of procreation. Chizkiyahu explained that he had seen through prophecy that his children would be evil. The prophet responded: “How are the secrets of G-d your business? Do what you are commanded to do, and let G-d do what is good in his eyes.” Harav Kook explained that Chizkiyahu was looking from a temporal perspective. From this vantage point, he saw that his evil son would be appointed king and that he would bring calamity upon Israel. He did not want to be a partner in this process. The prophet, on the other hand, who viewed things from the perspective of eternity, said to the king: “The Davidic dynasty is like a chain that is made up of many links. If one link is missing, it destroys the entire chain. What is one generation compared to eternity? It is worth it to suffer through one generation of an evil king in order to preserve the continuity of the kingship.” The same could be said with regard to the State of Israel. It is worth it to suffer through one or more negative governments in order to preserve the continuity of the sovereignty of the Jewish people in Eretz Yisrael. This was the intent of Harav Tzvi Yehudah when he said: “The state belongs to G-d, the pigs belong to Ben Gurion.”
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