Year: 2021

Aliyah in the Face of Tyranny and Stockholm Syndrome – What To Tell a Diaspora Jew

Question

Shavua Tov,

I am referring this issue particularly to you two – Hyehudi editor and R’ Chananya – as people who are pro yishuv Eretz Yisroel and anti government-organized crime (i.e. vaccination, especially when compulsory for all intents and purposes).

I had a long conversation with someone the other day about the possibilities of living in Eretz Yisroel today. He is currently in the U.S. and does feel connected to Eretz Yisroel, but takes big issue with the government, and with the brainwashing campaign that seems to be quite successful – this is his impression from the information he’s exposed to, such as the enormous percentage of people who have been vaccinated here etc. He says that even where he lives, in California, a die-hard Democrat state, the percentage of vaccinations is only about 40%. He is very uncomfortable with the Israeli government’s encroaching on all basic rights, privacy, etc., and for this reason, he doesn’t see himself making the move to Eretz Yisroel (assuming he would be de facto under their jurisdiction), at least as long as this kind of government (and, for the most part, accompanying brainwashed populace) is in place here in Eretz Yisroel.
What’s your take on this? Is this a legitimate/appropriate reason to forgo yishuv Eretz Yisroel for now? Please back this up with sources and/or sevaros.
Thank you!
(I don’t know how Rabbi Chananya Weissman responded.)
Here is my response:
Dear R’ _____,
I don’t reject his basic perspective. I’m not against multiple-citizenship, for instance. I also agree with your own view, to wit, one shouldn’t pressure people into this decision before they’re ready (I don’t always resist temptation, myself, though online I hold “אין קריאה אלא לדעת”). Halachically speaking? No comment.
But is Ploni computing the downsides of staying put?
Also, when you Socratically “peel” an anti-tyranny Jew, asking what’s so bad about the loss of rights, and, in turn, what’s so bad about being less of a “person”, etc., the answer is ultimately the hindrance to Judaism. Well, one cannot be a good Jew outside Israel, anyway, so the argument is often self-defeating.
Historically, Jews stayed here under worse regimes and worse problems (“Government should be a Kapparah!”).
(Diaspora Jews usually make good points, by the way, but vaccines are a poor example since the stats don’t factor in the massive differences between different communities and pillarised populations. Also, the vaccines got here sooner, were free, and aren’t (yet) coerced.)
Bottom line, perhaps he broaden his horizons by visiting Hyehudi.org, eh (or reading Martin Luther)?
And it’s not all or nothing, nor now or never: Does he visit the land, at least? Does he pray for regime change? (I don’t know how one can conceive of abandoning even Jerusalem after halachically ascending the Temple Mount!) Donate (עניי ארץ ישראל…)? If a man of means, would he consider buying a home here? Where is his (extended) family? Children study here? Does he discuss the weekly Parsha (!) or its mitzvos at the Shabbos table? And so on.
P.S., If he needs to speak to someone, maybe Rabbi Pruzansky fits the bill.
Please pass this on.

תיקוני עירובין גליון 293#

גליון שאלות הלכתיות המתחדשות מידי שבוע בבדיקת העירובים השכונתיים

השבוע בגליון: פתיחת השיעורים בהלכות סוכה הלכה למעשה, למעלה ממאה לומדים הצטרפו בס”ד / במקביל מתקבלות הזמנות שאברכים נבחרים ילכו לבדוק / חישוב התחום לרב שהולך לישובים לדרוש בשבת שובה / התושבים בשכונה החדשה בנתיבות אינם יכולים להגיע למקומות בתוך הקהילה החרדית בעיר / האם חייבים לבדוק את העירוב כל שבוע ומדוע? / ישוב שתעלת מים חוצה אותו מצד לצד / משמיים שבאנו לבדוק תעלה ומצאנו שהעירוב נפסל ממש בגלל מחיצה תלויה.

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