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Last Updated: Nov 10th, 2005 - 19:31:01 |
As the month of Nissan began, Rabbi Eliezer Waldman, rosh yeshiva of the Hesder Yeshiva in Kiryat Arba, moved his yeshiva from the southern Hebron city of Kiryat Arba to SaNur in northern Shomron.
I had last spoken with Rabbi Waldman in February after the Knesset voted to “disengage” from Gaza and northern Shomron, in an interview that appeared in The Jewish Press on March 11. Upon hearing of this drastic move I telephoned the rabbi to get an update.
The Jewish Press: Why did you leave Kiryat Arba for SaNur?
Rabbi Waldman: My wife and I and all of my students felt that we must do something tangible to join the struggle for our homeland. We also wanted to identify with the brave young families who live here. But I must say that it is very painful to be struggling against our own government.
What accommodations do they have for you in SaNur?
The accommodations are not important. We have a very small apartment here. I feel like it is 37 years ago. At that time my wife and I and our children joined two other families and went to Hebron and that was the beginning of Jewish life there. Then too we had to struggle against our government. But G-d helped us and from that beginning we have a thriving city in Kiryat Arba/Hebron. But it did all begin with just three families. I look at the residents of SaNur. They are young religious Zionistic couples, so very much like we were then. These are beautiful people that any nation would be proud of. And I thank G-d that our second and third generation of children and grandchildren are even stronger than we in their faith and pioneering spirit and devotion to building the land of Israel. These are the Zionists of SaNur.
How does this struggle compare with your struggle after the Six Day War?
Today̓s struggle is harder. Thirty-seven years ago we had Yigal Alon, a minister in the Labor-led government, advising us to go forward even without government permission.
Today we are struggling with the whole world that does not want to see us expand. They want to limit our growth. Even President Bush told Sharon to freeze settlements, including Maaleh Adumim. And if Prime Minister Sharon goes through with his expulsion plan it gives legitimacy to the world to tell us what our borders are.
The struggle with our own Jewish brothers is the struggle between Zionism and post-Zionism. Those who want to retreat do not have the strength to stand up to the world. They find it too difficult to take upon themselves Jewish values. Rather, they see Israel as the state of its citizens. Holding onto Yehuda and Shomron and Gaza (YESHA) is the test case for the classical Zionist process, i.e., renewing Jewish life in all of Israel – and Yesha is the heart of Eretz Yisrael.
Isn̓t it too late to turn back now [on the expulsion plan]?
I have heard that said. But you must know that nothing man-made is ever irreversible.
But what if in spite of all of our efforts, this does in fact come to pass?
The mainstream of Jews continues in G-d̓s plan, and the mainstream will prevail. We need our faith and our self-respect and our national pride and our prayers to make us worthy of Gd̓s help in overturning this evil decree.
I believe that this can only be stopped by divine intervention. And if, Heaven forbid, this expulsion plan does come to pass, we know that G-d will also bring us back.
His promise to Abraham is eternal and it is through Abraham and his children, Israel, that the entire world will be blessed.All we ask of our G-d is that He continues to allow us to recreate Jewish life here and continue the Kiddush Hashem of Jews coming back home to Israel.
© Copyright 5764, 5765 by author and Tsel Harim
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