INNER-POLITICS
Kabbalah and Politics
Cultural Revolution in the Land of Israel
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Q: What is your opinion on the declarations of PM … calling to "end the occupation" and the "evacuation of Jewish outposts"?
How, in your opinion, should the settlers of Judea and Samaria (Yesha) react to the government's adoption of the "Road Map" plan?
Should the settlers in Judea and Samaria (Yesha) accept the rules of democracy and the government's stance on the settlements?
Is the Rabbi of the opinion that evacuating settlements will lead to civil war?
What is the role of the Rabbis of Judea and Samaria (Yesha) in the struggle of the settlers to keep their homes? How should they guide the settlers in advance of the conflict over the future of Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria (Yesha)?
A: It seems that Prime Minister … considers the concept "occupation" to be negative and immoral. This is not the Torah stand. It is the duty of the Jewish people to conquer the Land of Israel, the inheritance that the Creator bequeathed to His chosen nation, in order to settle it in its entirety. As with every Torah value, partial fulfillment of a mitzvah ("commandment") blemishes the goal of the mitzvah, and is liable to invalidate it totally. The mitzvah may even appear to be distorted, G-d forbid. In our case, we see that our unfortunate circumstances are a result of our unwillingness to complete the "occupation," the conquest of the Land of Israel, properly–and to immediately settle all the land–when G-d returned us to the majority of our land in the Six Day War. In those days of miraculous victory our nation reached an apex of spiritual confidence, which has continuously eroded (with the aid of our 'leaders' and the media).
By using the political "doublethink" term "evacuation of outposts" the Prime Minister is attempting to blur the essential difference between an army outpost in occupied territory and a Jewish settlement in the land promised by G-d to the Jewish people. On a deeper plane, Sharon's willingness to uproot Jews from their homes points to the root of the problem. Sharon was one of the great builders of settlement in all parts of the land of Israel. Nonetheless, we see that without the recognition of the Torah as the basic foundation of our lives in Israel, and without the willingness to accept Torah guidance and solutions to our problems, even the most fervent "rightists" lose their way and accept as necessity the left’s "solution" of evacuating Jews from their homes. Only a cultural revolution can change the direction in which all the recent governments of Israel, both right and left, have been proceeding.
Thus, the settlers of Judea and Samaria (Yesha) should not prepare to struggle over specific points or for isolated reactions to various actions of the government. Instead, both the settlers and the Rabbis of Judea and Samaria (Yesha), as well as every Rabbi and every believing Jew in Israel and in the Diaspora, should unite to bring about a cultural revolution in the state of Israel. Even if this struggle must be conducted within the confines of the law and the rules of democracy, its goal is the total transformation of the regime in Israel. This struggle precludes the use of violence, and any threat of civil war is misplaced. If the Rabbis want to correctly represent the Torah outlook, they must clarify to all that what is needed now is total change.
The Torah has the solutions to all of our existential problems. The guidance of the Torah will bring us development and prosperity in every facet of our lives. This is good for the Jews, and also for our non-Jewish neighbors. Thus, the true struggle is not over a particular settlement, despite its importance, but rather over the essence of the State of Israel. Even though we must conduct this struggle within the parameters of modern-day democracy, no believing Jew may adopt in his heart rules, mindsets, and morals that are foreign to the Torah of Israel. We must clearly present the true Jewish alternative, with firm faith in the Creator, in His choice of Am Yisrael ("the people of Israel"), in His Torah and in the fact that He bequeathed us the Land of Israel for an eternal inheritance.
