Medinas Yisroel: Halachic Significance, Messianism

We'll try to focus briefly, בעזרת השם בלי נדר, on the question of what, if any, is the halakhic, religious significance of Medinas Yisrael. We're going to try to answer that question according to the Rav as best I understand his position. In one of the drashas originally published in Yiddish, the language in which they were given, and subsequently translated into Hebrew, so the Rav said as follows: הקמת המדינה חשיבות הלכתית. With the establishment of the medina, and in the establishment of the medina, there is halakhic importance מאחר שבאמצעותה נוכל לקיים את המצווה של ירושה וישיבה. Through, and he means only through having the state, can we fulfill the mitzvah of

והורשתם את הארץ וישבתם בה. מצווה זו מתקיימת לא רק בבניינה המשקי של הארץ אלא גם על ידי ריבונותנו בה.

For the mitzvah to be fulfilled, it means not just developing the economy, but through our sovereignty. קיומה של מדינת ישראל, the existence of Medinas Yisrael and veha'uvda, and the fact, sheyehudim velo anglim, that Jews, not the English, kovim es ha'aliya, they're the ones who determine who comes in. כי יהודים ולא ערבים, Jews and not Arabs, הינם הבעלים המדיניים בארץ, they're the ones who control governmentally, politically. וקיימת ממשלה יהודית משטרה וצבא, there's a Jewish government, police, army.

הרי זה קיומה הגדול ביותר של מצוות יישוב ארץ ישראל.

Al nishkach, we shouldn't forget ki mitzvah zo, this mitzvah, novas migezeras hakosuv derives from the gezeras hakosuv והורשתם את הארץ וישבתם בה. Yerusha perusha kibush, conquest, shilton mamlachti, governmental control, sovereignty. רמב"ן כבר ניסח את האמת, the Ramban already formulated this truth שריבונות מדינית בארץ ישראל, that political sovereignty in Eretz Yisrael היא מיסודות של הירושה וישיבה, it's one of the fundamental elements of yerusha veyeshiva. Shenitztavinu, the Ramban writes in the mitzvas asei sheshachach harambam, shenitztavinu, we're commanded

לרשת את הארץ אשר נתן הקל לאבותינו ואל נעזבנה ביד זולתנו מן האומות,

we shouldn't abandon Eretz Yisrael either to a different nation o leshmama or to just leave it desolate. So that's the halakhic, religious significance that the Rav sees in Medinas Yisrael. He doesn't camouflage the fact that there's a lot that happens in the medina...

נכון לא תמיד היינו שבעי רצון ממעשיה ובתכסיסים מסוימים של הממשלה. אך אין זה גורע

that fact, whatever happens that is just totally wrong.

אך אין זה גורע מחשיבותה של מדינת ישראל כמכשיר של הגשמת ירושת הארץ.

But that doesn't detract from the importance of Medinat Yisrael as an instrument for realizing yerushat ha'aretz. הננו יודעים שהממשלה אינה המדינה עצמה. The existence of the medina is one reality, what any particular government does, what any particular governmental policy is, is something different and the two shouldn't be conflated. Now what the Rav doesn't, let's see what he does say. But there's also significance in what he doesn't say. He doesn't view or define the significance, halakhic religious significance of Medinat Yisrael in messianic terms. He doesn't say that this is the unfolding of yemot hamashiach and kemiduma that's for two reasons. The first is that practically to again what the halakhic significance of Medinat Yisrael is, which obviously then determines what our attitude should be, is a halakhic question. And we just don't know enough in terms of how yemot hamashiach will come about and how the Melech HaMashiach is going to appear to decide anything based on that scant, very fragmentary ideas that we have.

יראה מפשוטם של דברי נביאים שבתחילת ימות המשיח תהיה מלחמת גוג ומגוג ושקודם מלחמת גוג ומגוג יעמוד נביא לישראל לישר ישראל ולהכין לבם שנאמר הנה אנכי שולח לכם את אליהו הנביא. ויש בין החכמים שאומרים שקודם ביאת המלך המשיח יבוא אליהו וכל אלו הדברים וכיוצא בהן לא ידע אדם איך יהיו עד שיהיו.

No one knows. Rambam says no one knows how it's going to unfold. שדברים סתומים הם אצל הנביאים. The nevuos are intentionally cryptic.

שדברים סתומים הם אצל הנביאים גם החכמים אין להם קבלה בדברים אלו.

Chazal had no tradition in this area.

אלא לפי הכרעת הפסוקים ולפיכך יש להם מחלוקת בדברים אלו.

Like the Rambam in Perush HaMishnayot, what we have a tradition on, so there's no machloket about, but here there's machlokets because we don't have a tradition in terms of how secret, sequence, etc.

ועל כל פנים אין סדר הויות דברים אלו ולא דקדוקן עיקר בדת.

One of the Ikkarei Ha-das that there's going to be a Yemos Ha-mashiach at the center of which stands the Melech Ha-mashiach. That that that is a fundamental belief. But how the sequence, the details, that's not a part of the Ikkar Ha-das. We don't know.

ולעולם לא יתעסק אדם בדברי הגדות ולא יאריך בדברי מדרשות האמורים בעניינים אלו וכיוצא בהם.

A person's really not supposed to be preoccupied with trying to figure this out.

ולא ישימם עיקר שאינן מביאין לא לידי אהבה ולא לידי יראה.

There's no Nafka Mina. There's no Nafka Mina.

וכן לא יחשב הקיצין. אמרו חכמים תפח דעתם של מחשבי קיצין אלא יחכה ויאמין בכל הדבר כמו שביארנו.

So first of all, how could we Pasken on the significance of Medinas Yisrael in terms of Achris Hayamim, in terms of Mashiach, when we don't have the requisite degree of knowledge? But K'imdumeh, it's not only practically, I mean it is that also, but it's not only that practically we lack the requisite knowledge. This type of, in quotation marks, knowledge, I mean in reality it's speculation, is not part of a halachic analysis. Now, there are times in life when we have to make decisions based on what we anticipate in the future. It could be, you know, in one's personal life. You know, should you go to graduate school in a certain field? It's going to take two, three, four years to get the degree, so you need to try to anticipate what the job market is going to be in that field two, three, four years from now. So there are lots of decisions that are sort of in the larger scheme of things, a small example. Obviously, there are bigger examples. But absent Urim V'tumim or a Navi who brings a message, so the way one prognosticates about the future is in natural terms. You look at what the trends are and based on that you try to figure out, you know, what the job market is going to be like when I finish my degree and I'm looking for a position. Whatever the Mahalach of Achris Hayamim is, it doesn't belong to that domain of something we prognosticatе about naturally. It belongs to the Hashgacha Ha-elyona. The Rambam writes in the Yud-Gimmel Ikkarim when he talks about Yemos Ha-mashiach: והיסוד השלושה עשר ימות המשיח והוא להאמין ולאמת to believe and belief should be a real belief Sheyavo. Skipping a little bit: ולא לפרש את המקראות כדי להוציא מהן זמן בואו. Not to try to interpret the Psukim in Daniel or wherever to try to elicit when he's going to come. אמרו חכמים תפח דעתם של מחשבי קיצין. And then the Rambam says, so what does it consist of, our belief, and how should it be? ולהאמין בו מן הגדולה והאהבה ולהתפלל Supposed to daven the Moshiach should come. Might it be that what's been happening since 1948 is the process of Moshiach coming? It might be. It might be. Do we know it for a fact? Well, we don't know anything for a fact. In that same passage that we read before and with this I will end, and you can check the Yiddish original, the translation is entirely accurate. ממשלה באה וממשלה הלכה, again, in when the Rav is speaking of not conflating the existence of a medina with the particular or the policies of a particular government.

ממשלה באה וממשלה הלכה מושל הולך מושל בא והארץ והמדינה,

I think in the Yiddish original the word is melucha, והמדינה אנו מקווים להקדוש ברוך הוא לעולם ועד. We hope it's forever. We don't know that it's forever. Can't take for granted that it's forever in terms of not being worried about Rachmana litzlan the consequences of sinat chinam. אנו מקווים להקדוש ברוך הוא. We hope, of course we hope, of course we hope that that's what it is. We don't dismiss the possibility Rachmana litzlan. Of course we hope that's what it is. And halevai that that hope will be realized. But we don't know and the halakhic religious significance is that which we from our vantage point through the halakhic process or analysis that we can engage in reveals, which is the eretz kiyum of וירשתם את הארץ וישבתם בה.