HaRav Shaul Yisraeli zt"l, Rosh Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav, has been known for over forty years as one of the foremost Torah scholars of our time. In addition to the shi’urim he gave as Rosh Yeshiva, he also served as a dayan on the High Rabbinical Court, and as a member of the Chief Rabbinate Council. In keeping with the teachings of HaRav Kook, under whom he studied, HaRav Yisraeli defined and expounded the ways in which a modern state can be administered in complete accordance with halacha.
When he passed away on Shabbat Parshat Shelach, at the age of eighty-six, Israel, and the religious zionist movement lost one of its greatest spiritual leaders.
During the past two years he expressed time and again deep concern over the current political situation.
We wish to present excerpts from two speeches made by HaRav Shaul Yisraeli, one of the co-founders of Ichud HaRabanim, following the commencement of the "Middle East Peace Process".
17th of Cheshvan 5754 (1.11.1993)
...We find ourselves in a state of confusion, of perplexity as events take shape before our eyes which constitute a hindrance to the very existence of Israel and Eretz Israel...the forming of a nation, the establishment of a state hostile to Israel within the borders of Eretz Israel!
Can this be anything less than Heavenly Retribution, when at our head stand leaders and rulers who are so lacking in judgment, whose eyes and ears are so shut to the truth, that time after time, when the plans of our enemies are revealed - those who were our enemies yesterday and are no less our enemies today...they bow their heads in resignation and acceptance...
There is a great danger that Jewish ghettos are to be created within Eretz Israel. Before us lies the danger that a land of Ishmael is to be created within a large part of Eretz Israel...
...`Thus saith Hezekiah: This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of contumely; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth...' (I Kings 19:3) These were the words of Hezekiah the king of Judah in the hour when Jerusalem lay under siege, and in Jerusalem itself there were those who felt that the best policy was surrender, that it was worthwhile being handed over to a foreign government, to be given in to the hands of Sennacherib, the king of Assyria...
“...a day of contumely - of insult and insolence”. For it is we ourselves, our own leaders, who are enpowering those who were never able to rule over us, even when we were incomparably worse off than we are today. We are bringing into being with our own hands, a Jewish ghetto.
We are surrendering to a foreign authority in our own holy and glorious land that which we have won with the help of G-d - a Jewish state, Jewish strength, Jewish might, Jewish armed forces and all the prerequisites of self-rule.
...We state and proclaim: we have no interest in ruling others, or in influencing others - but we want to live our lives. We want the Jewish code of ethics, Jewish values, the Jewish family. We want a Jewish army, a Jewish state, whole and complete, whose people do not bend the knee because they know G-d is with them. For in that same moment that we turn to the Protector of Israel (Shomer Israel) He will protect Israel. In that moment that we say `Hear O Israel' - the L-rd G-d will hear our prayers.
...`Guardian of Israel, preserve the remnant of Israel, let not Israel perish, who say: "Hear, O Israel." '
(Six months later - 12th of Sivan 5754 (22.5.1994))
...We were promised that a new day is dawning - a new sun is rising. We were warned not to interfere with the rising of the sun. And indeed a red sun has risen over us. Blood and fire and pillars of smoke...Citizens and soldiers. The military man and the civilian. Men and women. The infant and the aged. All are now targets illuminated by the sun of this new day of peace...
The prophet Isaiah, at a time not unlike our own, when the enemy gathered his strength from the weak ones within us, cried out against those faithless ones: "...hear the word of the L-rd, ye scoffers, The ballad-mongers of this people which is in Jerusalem: Because ye have said: `We have made a covenant with death, And with the nether-world are we at agreement; When the scouring scourge shall pass through, It shall not come unto us; For we have made lies our refuge, And in falsehood have we hid ourselves';" (Isa. 28:14-15)
...And the prophet continues and says - and we repeat after him:
"And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, And your agreement with the nether-world shall not stand; When the scouring scourge shall pass through, Then ye shall be trodden down by it." (Isa. 28:18)
For the meaning of this new reality is that we have no right to Eretz Israel. If we have no right to Eretz Israel in Jericho, then we also have no right to Eretz Israel in Tel Aviv.
If we have no right to Eretz Israel in Jerusalem and its environs, then we have no right to any place at all in Eretz Israel - not in Lod, not in Jaffa, not in Haifa, not in Acco, not in the Negev, not in the Galilee - not in any place in Eretz Israel to which others lay claim.
If we do not recognize our inner right, if the People of Israel do not know how to defend their honor, to guard their right to the Land of their inheritance, if they do not know how to preserve what is theirs - how will they be preserved?
...Let the People resolve to stand upon their rights, upon their right to Eretz Israel, to live in Eretz Israel, to gather in Israel's banished to Eretz Israel.
If we will stand firm , if we will overcome this weakness within us, then the L-rd G-d, Blessed Be He, will come to our aid, and we will be privileged to see the Ingathering of the Exiles to the Land of Israel - perfect in its wholeness - to see a People of Israel standing erect without fear or dread, with faith in the Rock of Israel and His Redemption that He will not abandon us, but will hear our supplications and make us walk upright, speedily in our days, amen.
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