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Beit Midrash
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- Chemdat Yamim
- Moreshet Shaul
"I came to the destroyed city; it is desolate, without its children, and I appropriately mourned: ‘Zion became a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation’ (Yeshayahu 64:9). When I was near the city, opposite its gateway, I ripped my clothes over her. And when I came opposite the great and holy House, we called out with great wailing: ‘Our father, the merciful father, Israel is neither an orphan nor a widower, for Your mercy is upon them in every place and at every moment.’"
Subsequently, he established the first shul in Jerusalem in which both Sephardim and Ashkenazim prayed, and boldly urged to return and claim the Land we inherited from our forefathers.
He left his home and his family in Spain and moved to Eretz Yisrael not only due to his churning heart and emotional yearnings. It is also due to a binding halachic obligation, which he established as an unmovable "stake in the ground." He expresses this idea in his comments on the Rambam’s Book of Mitzvot (omitted positive mitzva #4):
"… we were commanded to possess the Land that Hashem gave our fathers, Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, and not leave it in the hands of any nation but us or to desolation … It is a positive commandment for all generations, obligating everyone, even in the time of exile."
With these words he built the halachic foundation, and his actions provided a personal example. From that point, the Jewish settlement of Eretz Yisrael progressively grew and broadened from generation to generation and era to era. The longings for Zion "took on flesh and skin," and there has been a real push to fulfill this mitzva with one’s fullest dedication of self and resources. Driven by his direct strength and its enduring ripple effects, pious and dynamic idealists were drawn to Eretz Yisrael. Permanent Jewish population centers were established and maintained in four areas of the Holy Land – Yerushalayim, Tzfat, Teveria, and Chevron. They inspired the pre-Herzl religious Zionist movement, which led to the developments of the hundred years leading to the establishment of the State of Israel and the wondrous phenomenon of standing by the gates and expanded boundaries of the Six Day War.
Moreshet Shaul (51)
Various Rabbis
46 - MORESHET SHAUL: THE STAFF OF PLEASANTNESS
47 - I Will Bring You Back Up – part I
48 - I Will Bring You Back Up – part II
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Let us raise the memory of the father of the Jewish settlement of Eretz Yisrael, our master and teacher, the Ramban zt"l and firmly accept to follow his path.
This obligation to possess the Land, which the Ramban posited devolves on each person, as a positive commandment for all generations, takes on special significance in relation to communal leaders, including lay leadership of synagogues and study halls throughout the world.
Let us analyze the section from the parasha we just read. Hashem said to our patriarch Yaakov: "Do not fear going down to Egypt … I will go with you to Egypt and will bring you up, and Yosef will place his hands over your eyes" (Bereishit 46:3-4). Israel did not enter exile alone, as the Divine Presence accompanied them into each place of exile (Megilla 29a). The gemara continues with the question of where one can find the Divine Presence outside Eretz Yisrael. It mentions two specific batei knesset in Bavel. Rashi (ad loc.) explains that Yechanya built them with the earth and stones he brought into the exile, based on the pasuk, "For His servants wanted her stones and desired her earth" (Tehillim 102:15).
We continue next time.
Moreshet Shaul Moreshet Shaul: Eretz Yisrael in Halacha and in Sanctity – part II
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 137
Moreshet Shaul Moreshet Shaul: Returning Torah to its Central Standing – part I
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 312
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part I
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
P'ninat Mishpat A Non-Contractor in Changing Times – part I
(based on ruling 85128 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
Moreshet Shaul Our King on Rosh Hashana, Our Father on Yom Kippur.
Based on Aroch Siach, p. 221 (Rav Shaul Yisraeli)
P'ninat Mishpat A Non-Contractor in Changing Times – part II
(based on ruling 85128 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part II
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
Parashat Hashavua Happiness for the Right Reasons
[With painful longing, we share these divrei Torah from our co-Rosh Kollel for close to 40 years, Harav Moshe Ehrenreich zt”l.]
