2 years ago

The Rebbe’s Opinion On: Shleimus HaAretz (Part II)

Chabadinfo in collaboration with Beis Moshiach Magazine presents The Rebbe’s Opinion On, a series featuring the Rebbe’s opinion and directive on various subjects • Last week we republished excerpts from a letter (from 5471/1980) which deals with the painful subject of the Israeli government’s shameful attitude to the “territories” liberated during the Six-Day-War. We present the next section of the letter in which the Rebbe addresses the reason why the Rebbe wasn’t prepared to reopen the Chabad yeshiva Toras Emes in Beit Romano in Chevron (even after the city was liberated during the Six-Day-War • Full Article

Last week we republished excerpts from a letter (from 5471/1980) which deals with the painful subject of the Israeli government’s shameful attitude to the “territories” liberated during the Six-Day-War. We present the next section of the letter in which the Rebbe addresses the reason why the Rebbe wasn’t prepared to reopen the Chabad yeshiva Toras Emes in Beit Romano in Chevron (founded and purchased by the Rebbe Rashab) even after the city was liberated during the Six-Day-War:

…What has been said above is by way of a reply to your letter regarding the property of my late father-in-law of saintly memory in Hevron, etc.

To put it more explicitly: in view of the said policy of the government, who is to guarantee that the government’s policy towards Hevron will be changed, especially since Hevron has consistently been kept, in effect, Judenrein, and the most that was achieved after much pressure was the settlement of Kiryat Arba, with emphasis on the fact that it was outside Hevron? If before Camp David, I was reluctant to do anything about the said property in Hevron, because of my apprehension, these apprehensions turned out to be stark reality after Camp David, when Jewish settlements, in Sinai, were forcibly uprooted in compliance with the Camp David agreement (settlements that included also Jewish settlers from the U.S.A.).

Forgive me, therefore, if I say that your suggestion “to get the Military to take it over” is no guarantee that what happened with those settlements in Sinai could not happen to Hevron for the sake of “peace” on a piece of paper, which would probably be toasted and celebrated as a great achievement in behalf of our grandchildren.

Inasmuch as in keeping with the Torah, every Jew is an optimist, being quite confident in bitochon in G-d, I too, am confident that things will improve and there will come a time when it will be possible to consider action in regard to our property in Hevron and encouraging a Lubavitch settlement in the City of our Ovos.

Incidentally, the above will explain also why I could not encourage a Lubavitch settlement in Kiryat Arba, for it would be tantamount to my approval of the government’s policy in regard to Hevron. At about the same time that I was approached about the above, I also had an offer from a Jewish philanthropist of $100,000 for the purpose of a yeshivah in Hevron proper. I thereupon sounded out the government about the offer and suggested that with adequate protection, by which I mean not just Military, but permitting at least a substantial nucleus of a Jewish presence around the Yeshivah. But nothing came of it.

(The Letter & The Spirit Vol. 5, pg. 449)

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In this shocking letter (of 24 Elul 5741) freely translated) the Rebbe sent to MK Geula Cohen, who wondered why the Rebbe won’t instruct his Chassidim to settle Yesha in general and Chevron in particular, the Rebbe wrote similarly. The Rebbe mentions that he didn’t want to make his position on this matter famous so as to not discourage those who are settling there and doing a great service for Klal Yisrael…

…I must emphasize that my call and the like [to go and settle Yesha] is possible when it can be based on the strong hope that the settlements will be lasting, and not as a political ploy and for the benefit of arousing public opinion, even if after not much time elapses they will remove the settlers, for what concerns me is not politics but halacha.

“According to the approach of those who had influence in this regard throughout the 32 years, I have seen that their influence is in one direction – that of concessions and withdrawals. And most recently to a far greater extent — returning sources of oil that would have supplied more than half, and some say three-quarters, of the country’s industrial and defense needs. And they have actually returned them without a proper reaction from the citizens of our land, despite the fact that everyone knows that this [oil] is the most effective and vital weapon for the security of the land and for its economy. In this regard, uprooting settlers from one or two or more places is not much of a big deal, especially as external pressures etc. [from superpowers] mount.

This is especially the case after this has already been done, and they used the IDF for this, while all political parties have just “ticked it off of the agenda…”

And as I said, to openly call to settle [the land and at the same time] hint to the settlers that it is all but a temporary demonstration is not one of the ways I use…