Last week, I had a back-and-forth with a man who calls himself “Naftuli.” He argued that the Jewish people cannot have a State until Moshiach comes. When I asked for his sources, this self-proclaimed Talmid Chacham quoted a Gemara in Pesachim (87b):
“ברוך הוא בישראל שפזרן לבין האומות” — A kindness did the Holy One, Blessed be He, for Israel by scattering them among the nations.
Naftuli claimed that this dispersion was a divine favor, protecting us from annihilation, and therefore by extension disallows a State, which makes no sense.
And history tells a different story. In 1944, six million Jews were murdered in Europe. Those who had made Aliyah earlier—often against rabbinic advice—survived. His citation, while interesting, proves nothing about the halachic legitimacy of establishing a Jewish State.
When I didn’t respond to his “proof,” he wrote again, insisting that I had ignored the words of Chazal
"But I posted the words of חז"ל were it says צדקה עשה ד לישראל שפיזרו בין האומות
I guess you ignored this one,"
. I didn’t ignore him—I simply hoped he’d realize that his argument didn’t address the issue. His position was that Jews must remain in Chutz La’Aretz until Moshiach comes.
I have a source that predates the statement in Pesachim by about 800 years: the prophet Yirmiyahu.
“Therefore, behold, days are coming, says Hashem, when it will no longer be said, ‘As Hashem lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ but rather, ‘As Hashem lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ And I will bring them back to their land which I gave to their fathers.” (Jeremiah 16:14–15)
This prophecy describes a miracle greater than the Exodus itself. When Hashem took us out of Egypt, all Jews lived in one place. There wasn't a Jew that lived anywhere else.
At the end of days, He will gather us from every corner of the earth—a far greater miracle. Anyone living in Israel today witnesses this prophecy unfolding before their eyes.
During the first days of Pesach, I stayed at a simple hotel in Jerusalem—no singers, magicians, or boring speakers, just Jews celebrating together. In the hotel’s shul, I saw Anglos, French, Yemenites, Syrians, Lebanese, and Spanish Jews—all under one roof. It struck me that we are living the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s words, watching the ingathering of exiles happen in real time.
The same Masechta Naftuli quoted also tells of Jews who witnessed miracles in Egypt yet refused to go to Eretz Yisrael. They said, “Why go to Israel? There are Canaanites—or Tziyonisten—there!” Those Jews remained or died in Egypt and never entered the Land.
Centuries later, when Ezra HaSofer urged the Jews of Babylonia to make Aliyah, the Gedolei HaDor again refused, even though Yermiyahu prophesied that this exile would only be for 70 years, claiming that only assimilated Jews and Sabbath violators were going.
Ezra cursed them—and it was those very “assimilated” Jews who rebuilt the Land and the Beis HaMikdash. The Gemara teaches that had all the Jews returned, that Temple would never have been destroyed.
Did the Naftulies learn a lesson? Not a chance!
The RBS"O established a State in 1948 (Avraham Aveenu was born in 1948) לשם ולתפארת yet there were again "Gedoilim" who chose and encouraged their followers to remain in the Jewish blood soaked Chutz Leaaretz, and some of these Gedoilim after mocking Theodore Herzl's plan of initially wanting Uganda as the Jewish state, proceeded to establish their own Ugandas in New Square and Kiryas Yoel, mamash Herzl's initial plan, and who they now curse!
The gemara states that Rav Yoisef son of Yehoshua ben Levi went up to heaven and when he returned he proclaimed ..... עולם הפוך ראיתי
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