Aaron Berkovich Writes to the FJJ: Mitzvas Yishuv Eretz Yisrael " is a modern day invention that has nothing to do with the Torah"

 

Below is a "Letter to the Editor" to the FJJ (Flatbush Jewish Journal) from a guy called "Aaron Berkovich" who takes another letter writer "The Brooklyn Anaylist" to task on his view that Jews should make Aliyah en maase!

Even though this letter by Aaron Berkovich will never win the Pulitzer Prize Award in Journalism, I will never-the-less answer some of his outrages ignorant remarks, which borders on apikorsas,  and needs to be addressed, as this is the prevalent view of the Yeshivishe ama-ratzim.!

*****

Letter to editor of FJJ

AB: Once again, a letter-writer who happens to be too humble to introduce himself by name is nonetheless having enough self-confidence to herald to the FJJ readers that “the time has come” to ascend to Zion en masse. 

Apparently, the sefer he has read – but whose name he has chosen to keep in secret – made him feel guilty for not living in Eretz Yisroel and his letter is an attempt to at least somewhat alleviate this sense of guilt. I did not read the sefer and don’t even know what sefer he’s referring to and who its author is, so I’m not in a position to jump to conclusions about its contents.

DIN: I also don't know which sefer he read, but I can refer you to the Drishas Tzion by Harav Tzvi Kalisher, Eim Habanim Semicha by Harav Yisacher Shlomo Teichtal, Aleh Naaleh by Harav Shlomo Avinar, Ki Eis Le'chenneh by Harav Reuvein Friedman,  and the Avnei Nezer, just for starters!

 AB: But I am confident that there’s no reason to feel guilty. My unwillingness to feel guilty for residing outside of The Land does not take away my respect to those who live there, particularly those who have chosen to move there. 

DIN: Thanks, we living in Israel, all needed that, we cherish "your respect." However your "unwillingness to feel guilty for residing outside of The Land" is an affront to the gift that Hashem gave the Jewish people and if you don't have any "guilt" living in the tumidika chutz le'aaretz, you should do a quick check of your DNA! 

AB:“The Brooklyn Analyst” is asking whether we can declare that" we’re on the west but our heart is on the east. "

The level of your affinity to Eretz Yisroel is not something you can measure in units. For one person it means making Israel his primary vacation destination while for another it means moving there regardless of any challenges. But the Jewish nation has been living in the east and the west simultaneously since the Talmudic times, only the designation of the two directions have swapped due to changes of the Jewish geography, with Israel changing from being the “West” to being the “East”.

DIN: Completly incoherent! Does anyone out there know what the hell he is talking about?

 AB:But here are my answers – mostly in form of questions – to “The Brooklyn Analyst”: 

Are you more knowledgeable than the sages of the past generations who vehemently opposed Zionism? 

DIN: What does making Aliyah have to do with Zionism? There are and were Gedoilei Yisrael that made Aliya and opposed Zionism. In fact most gedoilei hador of Klall Yisrael live in Israel and aren't necessarily supporters of Zionism. The majority of the Gedoilim that vehemently opposed Zionism pre-WW2 were murdered in the gas chambers, the majority of the Gedoilim survivors did in fact make Aliyah!

But how about "Sages" that supported Zionism, are YOU more knowledgeable than them? Are you more knowledgeable than the Netziv?  How about Rav Zvi Kalishcher, Rav Elyahu Guttmacher, star students of Rabbi Akiva Eigar?  Are you more knowledgeable than Rav Shmuel Mohliver or Rav Moshe Shmuel Glasner? Just a smidgen of respected Gedoilei Yisrael that supported Zionism! How about R' Yaakov Emden known as the Yaavetz that pushed Aliyah back in the 1700's are you more knowledgeable than him?

AB:Why was the concept of religious Zionism essentially non-existent prior to Rav Kook? 

DIN: That is actually a bald faced lie, all the above mentioned gedoilim except for R' Yaakov Emden were all religious Zionists way before Rav Kook was even known! And even if we were to go with your fabricated premise, so????It had to start sometime. didn't it? Every thing in life is "non-existent" before it exists!

AB:The Chofetz Chaim was yearning to move to Eretz Yisroel; yet he didn’t impose that as a must for everyone. If the notion of our return to the Land being a prerequisite for the redemption was an unarguable postulate, most Orthodox rabbis would’ve signed on to it; yet, they don’t. Are they not credible to you at all? 

DIN:Excuse me.....Actually the Chofetz Chayim DID IN FACT "impose that for everyone as he put Mitzvas Yishuv Eretz Yisrael in his Sefer Ha'Mitzvos Ha'kitzur. 

You failed to mention the Vilna Gaon who actually sold his home and was on his way to Eretz Yisrael but was turned back because his daughter got sick, but practically all his talmidim did make aliyah, unless the "talmeidei-ha'gra" buried in Har Hazeisim are imposters. In fact the minhag in Yerushlayim follows the GRA because of the talmidim who lived there and instituted it. 

What about the talmedei Bal Shem Tov all buried in Tveria, all made aliyah! What about the Ari Hakodosh? What about the Mechaber of the Shulcha Aruch, R' Yosef Karo? R'Shlomo Alkabetz the mechaber of Lecha Dodi? What about the Orach Chayim Ha'kodosh? What about R' Shmuel Salant? R' Tzvi Pesach Frank? R' Zonninfeld? Belzer Rebbe, Gerrer Rebbe, the Kloizinberger, Rav Gustman, The Steipler, the Chazon Ish? 

"Are they not credible to you at all? "

AB:You care about Israel, right? 

I’m sure you do. If so, please tell me how you expect it to successfully accommodate the hordes of new olim who are too young to retire (and receive their social security from America or elsewhere) but too old to start their career from scratch (and to serve in the IDF, which is said to be the entry pass to the Israeli society). You don’t want Israel to become a welfare state, do you?

DIN: Eretz Yisrael is referred in Tanach as "Eretz Ha'Tzvi" the "land of the deer" Just like the skin of a deer expands as the deer grows so does Israel. There is room in Israel for another 12 million people with no problem !

 AB:You’re wondering why we stay in Galus?

 Because G-d has put us into Galus two millennia ago. Who said that by stepping on the ground of Eretz Yisroel and becoming the citizen of the State of Israel you’re no longer in Galus? With no Beis HaMikdash, no Sanhedrin, no way of becoming tahor and bringing karbonos, there’s no basis to claim that the status of Eretz Yisroel has changed over the past couple of centuries to a non-Galus. 

DIN: It seems that the Chasam Sofer disagrees with you as the CS (see Sefer Ha Ish al Ha'choma)gave constant warnings against feeling at home in Galus. The CS said that the main reason for the inability to create mass aliyah movement in Hungary and Austria seems to have been the relatively comfortable and benign conditions enjoyed by Jews in those lands. 

The Yaavetz, R' Yaakov Me'Emden, writes in his Sefer "Sulam" printed in his siddur, says that all pogroms, inquistion, and expulsions were a message from the RBS"O for Jews to leave Chutz Le'aaretz and make Aliyah! 

AB:No one disputes the advantages of being surrounded by the kedusha of the Land itself and by the many extra mitzvos only available there. But it had already been so all along and does not eliminate the reality of Galus. 

DIN: This is exactly what Jews said in Europe pre-WW2, so how did that work out?

 AB:Is there a mitzvah to adjust our lives to Israel rather than vice-versa? Never heard of that one. Which makes me suspect that this “mitzvah” is a modern day invention that has nothing to do with the Torah. 

DIN:This comment is the sickest of them all, and a reflection of the hate that Yeshivos instill in their students against Israel, wiping out a mitzva to further their agenda of keeping Jews in diaspora!

The Ramban holds that the Mitzva of Yishuv Eretz Yisrael is a Mitzvas "eseh mideorissah" a positive Biblical commandment  "bezman hazeh" in the here and now,and as he was one of the "moneh ha'mitzvois"he counts Mitzvas Yishuv Eretz Yisrael as part of the Taryag Mitzvois!

The Chofetz Chayim counted Mitzvas Yishuv Eretz Yisrael as a Biblical commandment in his Sefer Hamitzvois Hakatzir. 

Harav Yosef Chayim Zonninfeld said that Mitzvas Yishuv Eeretz Yisrael is "be'geder chova" an obligation.

The Chazon Ish said and wrote that Mitzvas Yishuv Eretz Yisrael is a Biblical commandment now, according to both the Ramban and the Rambam, and he adds that "there is no disagreements between them" (Kovetz Igrois Chazon Ish Letter 174) 

The Minchas Yitzchak, The Avi Ezri, The Tzitz Eliezer, The Avnei Nezer all held that to live in Eretz Yisrael today is a "mitzva eseh mi'doirisah"

AB:The last but not the least, how come you’re still in America? 

If you had made a move and were by now posing yourself not as “The Brooklyn Analyst” but as “The Jerusalem Analyst” or “The Tel Aviv Analyst” or some sort of a kibbutz or settlement analyst, your position would at least sound credible. But being “The Brooklyn Analyst” while heralding about the “time having come” or the “call of Zion” doesn’t make a lot of sense. 

First, show us an example. 

And secondly, even your example won’t necessarily justify the imposition of your standards on everyone else. 

Aaron Berkovich 

Rabbi Boylan's Lame Excuse Why The FJJ (Flatbush Jewish Journal) Chose Not to write about the 3 most Important Events that took place In Eretz Yisrael

I don't always read the FJJ, the Flatbush Jewish Journal, but it must have been Seyata De'Shmaya that I perused last week's issue.

I lived in Flatbush for many years and I found the shaven and "Flatbush bearded" community, a hotbed of anti-Israel sentiment. 

BTW, this is the only place on earth where you can still see clean shaven guys with bekeshes,. What's up with that?

I digress.

 These guys are by-in-large children of Holocaust survivors who became very successful financially and comfortable in their million dollar homes, but learned nothing from their own history, so Israel is the furthest thing on their minds. 

Yes, they will come to Israel once in a while to visit their daughters attending seminaries that have $30,000 tuitions, but this is for shidduch reasons. Their married children they send for two or three years to Mir Yerushalyim to start them off, but the children know they will come back to the USA back to the materialistic world of the Goldene Medina. 

I have met many of them when they come for Shabbos and I can tell you first hand that the majority of them are spoiled who lack nothing, B"H. I am frightened for them if their fortunes should G-d forbid change. The kids I meet, both the guys and their wives have absolutely no connection to Israel and when they speak I can hear their anti-Israel biases that they inevitably picked up in their affluent Flatbush homes. Their parents learned in the best yeshivos in the USA that never offered them any love for the Land and in fact discouraged any connection to not only the State of Israel but offered them no understanding of the importance and the holiness of Eretz Yisrael. Except for the dying Young Israels, no shuls in Flatbush make a mi-shebeirach for the State or even for the chayalim.

It is this environment that the FJJ flourishes and it is this type of community that produces the Rabbi Boyans of the world!

The State of Israel, yes the Zionist State of Israel is the home of close to 7 million Jews, bli eyin hara. For this reason alone a Jewish Newspaper in a Jewish Community should have the decency to acknowledge a holiday that is being celebrated by millions of Israeli Jews. We are not asking for 20 page spreads, we are asking for an Honorable Mention. 

I have read many of R' Boylans letters to the editors previously, but this one piqued my interests because it reflects the deep divide between the "yeshivish" world and reality! 

To excuse the FJJ's disgusting omittance of three meaningful consecutive events that were taking place in Eretz Yisrael with the supposedly "Daas Torah" dictum hits a new low for even the FJJ. I showed Rabbi Boyan's letter to three different Holocaust survivors here in Beit Shemesh to see and read  their reactions just to make sure that I am on target. They were outraged! 

Below and after the break is Rabbi Boylan's letter to the editor and my remarks in red.

Girls Now "Talking in Learning" With Their Dates ... and He doesn't Like it One Bit

Published in FJJ (Ask the Shadchan)

 DEAR MRS. ROSE, 

Our son just went out with his first girl. Naturally, we did our homework and everything checked out to our satisfaction. We would be delighted if this would be his “bashert.” So, what’s the issue? Here goes… He went out on a second date after a very promising first date. The girl spent most of the date questioning him about his learning. What he is learning, where, (what sugya), why he is learning that particular inyan etc. It was obvious from the questions she asked that she did not have any understanding, not even elementary knowledge about “learning”. My son felt that there was no point in him being grilled by someone who doesn’t really “chap the inyan” It’s almost insulting! Even if she would have “chapped the inyan”, isn’t she overstepping her boundaries? It was only a second date, our son didn’t grill her about her schooling (not to say that he would have even begun to know what to ask her about her OT, PT, special ed choices). We have heard from other parents of boys in shidduchim that they have encountered similar scenarios. Are they being taught to ask these questions in Seminary? Do you think this makes any sense? 

Confused Mother of an Up and Coming Star Learner just Looking for a Wife

DIN: The mother comments that her son would not even "have begun to know what to ask her about her OT, PT, special ed choices"

Really? Are Yeshiva boys so ignorant that don't have a clue what OT, PT and Special Ed, are all about?  Is this guy living in a cave? And let's say, he didn't know, he can't ask her some questions about her vocation? Isn't she going to bring the "parnassah" home? This "Up and coming Star Learner" has no interest in anything she does which would effect him in every way? 

He is upset that she is "talking in learning" and questioning him?

She is going to support this guy and have children with him and she wants to know, if he is a serious learner. But he thinks there is no "point in him being grilled by someone (the one that he might marry) who doesn't really "chap" the inyan"... but it's ok for her son "not to chap the inyan" when it comes to OT, PT etc.!

Message to the girl: Run ..Run ..far away from this arrogant guy who suddenly becomes defensive when someone questions him on something he is supposedly dedicated his entire life to. Run from his mother...do you need a mother-in-law who finds your questioning "insulting"? Who thinks you "overstepped your boundaries?" You are better off marrying a guy who is working and learns at night and who won't mind "talking in learning" with you! This guy is an immature brat spoiled by a clueless mother who wants to know if those "questions are being taught in seminary" .. she wants to marry off her "star learner" to someone who she thinks cannot think for herself but was coached by her seminary teachers. Run..he will make a very bad husband! Too many red flags!

Message to the boy: You will be lucky to have her!

DEAR CONFUSED MOTHER…., 

Whoa! What an experience your son must have had! Usually, the zooming- in question is about “Hashkafos”. Usually discussed at about date three to four, usually initiated by the boy. This is a new one on me. I really think you’ve picked out a one and a million girl. Clearly, dating is about gradually getting to know a person’s qualities, strengths, direction in life etc. It should be a pleasant experience, not an interview and certainly not an interrogation. When people are put on the spot they tend to shut down and feel overwhelmed and negative feelings surface. Our seminaries teach respect for learning, love of learning, kovod habrios. They are not preparing our girls to be “chavrusas”. Most boys are looking for a wife, not a chavrusa and certainly not a “mashgiach”. This doesn’t make any sense to me, but given that the first date seemed to be great, there is potential here. I would love to be a fly on the wall and be able to see what REALLY transpired on the date. Certainly, do not drop the girl based on that scenario, (unless he didn’t pass her interrogation, and she needs something else, and therefore she’ll say no). Keep me posted, would love to hear how this plays itself out. At the end of the day, Bashert will prevail!

 Chana Rose

Mordy Mehlman Publisher of FJJ Gives A Forum to the Accused Sex Pervert and Jew Hater ..Yaakov Shapiro UPDATED!!

Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro, the self hating Jew, mouthpiece of the Israel bashing Neturei Karta, who is constantly on Utube bashing the State of Israel, and who has been accused countless times of being a sexual pervert, recently wrote a book The Empty Chair , a book that could have easily been  written by Adolf Eichmann YM"S. 

In fact there wasn't any Jewish publisher who would publish this book of hate and fury written against other Jews!!

The book deliberately in a deceitful way omits the fact that hundreds of Gedoilei Yisroel actively supported the State pre-war2 and post WW2. The book doesn't address the fact that many Gedoilei Yisroel that opposed a State, supported the State once it was established in 1948. The book doesn't address the fact that the Zionist State continues to support Moisdei Ha'Torah and did so since its inception. Last year alone the Zionists granted over 250 million US Dollars to Moisdei Ha'Torah! When I write "Moisdei Ha'Torah I include Satmar Moisdois .... yes ... I repeat Satmar Moisdois, even though they deny it... they take and have always taken money from the Zionist Entity ... see my post of Ocober 16.

The book ignores the fact that most Gedoilei Yisroel moved and established their Chassidishe Courts and Yeshivois to the Zionist State. It deliberately omits the fact that the Chafetz Chayim had made concrete plans to move to Petach Tikvah and that a letter recently auctioned off mentioned in detail the CC's ideas on how he wanted his apartment laid out.

The filthy book doesn't mention the fact that the Chofetz Chayim's very own son R' Aryeh Leib (who went by the name Pupkah and sometimes Epstein) was a fervent Zionist and one of the founders of the "Chovevei Zion" movement. Chovevei Tzion held that "Mitzvas Yishuv Eretz Yisroel is a mitzvah of here and now and advocated the settlement of Eretz Yisroel regardless of who was running the government. R' Aryeh Leib was very close to his father and was the editor of the Mishna Berurah. Some write that R' Aryeh Leib was actually the author of complete chapters of the Mishna Berurah!

Rabbi Shapiro, the "empty brain"  is actively involved with the anti-Israel website modestly called True Torah Jews, which advocates for the State of Israel to be dissolved, Chas Ve'Shalom!

Please note that the leftists in Israel, constantly quote from this capo, and he is their hero....

If you read Haaretz and other leftist newspapers you will notice that there isn't any daylight between them and the "frum" anti-Zionists' view..... 

Hashem Yishmor!

In the Oct 11, 2018 edition of Mordy Mehlman's Newspaper FJJ, a "letter to the editor" took Shapiro to task pointing out that Shapiro's work was a work of distorted trash and fiction. 

In this week's edition, Meek Mordy, like the coward that he is, folded like a cheap cardboard box and apologized for printing the brave, sane and rational letter of one of his readers ....

Then to add to the huge Chillul Hashem, Mordy Mehlman, that must have had too many Chulapchis this past Yom Tov had this JEW-NAZI respond to the letter, who, K'darko Be'Koidesh  responded with half truths and whole lies!

Mordy Mehlman, the "Spineless Tuchis Lekker,"  has been caught in the web of Israel bashing Jew Haters .... 

 Jews in Brooklyn who want to read Loshon Hara about Israel have Der Yid, Der Blatt, Dee Tzeitung, Der Sturmer, CNN, Reuters, The New York Times .. and now the FJJ!

I will not post Shapiro's disgusting response that reeks of hate and filth against his brothers and sisters residing in Israel, but will post Mordy's embarrassing apology! 

Notice that Mehlman, the naive fool, calls this self-hating Jew, "a Rov and Scholar."

The Meraglim were also "Rabbanim and Scholars!" In fact if you read all the commentaries on Parshas Shlach, the parsha of the meraglim, all state that the meraglim were "Rabbis and Scholars."

"Rabbis and Scholars" and the Sanhedrin were also followers of Korach!

Mordy.... the State of Israel is a fact ,,, a miracle .... a country with the largest Jewish population; a country that has the most Torah learning .... 

and is surrounded by wolves that are ready to pounce and destroy her .... 

yet, here you are a Jew a self righteous Yeshivash publisher of a popular newspaper publishing an "apology" because someone stood up to this lying rat Shapiro!!

Mordy, afraid of a wall of backlash against his sick "apology" adds that he "will not print any of the numerous response letters received" because of "L'maan hasholom"😃

First he takes a "crap" on his loyal readers, and then runs like a coward because he cannot stand his own stench!

Excuse me but I gota go throw up!!

Why are Jews still going to Poland and other parts of anti-Semitic Europe???

In this week's FJJ, Mordy Mehlman, the publisher, writes a message to his readers about an experience he had in Poland, while visiting the grave of the Tosfos Yom Tov. 

The Tosfos Yom Tov, Harav Yom Tov Lipmann Heller, lived in the late 1500's and early 1600's and wrote a commentary on the Mishnah known as the "Tosfos Yom Tov." 

He was a talmud of the Maharal and what is little known was that he also studied books authored by non-Jews.

 In fact in one of his drashas, (you won't see this in Artscroll) the Tosfos Yom Tov alludes to the "new astronomy" of Copernicus and Tyche Brahe. His drashas also show that he was interested in questions of arithmetic, astronomy, and natural science. His notes on the Giv'at Ha'Moreh prove that he occupied himself with philosophy.

Be that as it may, the Tosfos Yom Tov authored a "Mi Shebeirach" for those people that don't talk in shul, and most siddurim have it .... he claimed that the Chmielnicki slaughter took place because of Jews talking in shul!

Now, that this is now the new "craze, "not talking in Shul" and the remedy of all of Klall Yisroel's ills, Mordy Mehlman took a trip to Jewish blood-soaked Poland to pour hard earned Jewish money into the hands of the descendants of those who murdered and raped our ancestors and to visit the grave of the Tosfos Yom Tov. 

He now describes the "vicious" anti-semitism he and his group experienced in Poland!

It is ironic that the Tosfos Yom Tov himself suffered untold horrors and torture in Europe! Harav Heller was the chief rabbi of Krakow during the above mentioned Chmielnicki slaughter of innocent Jewish men, women and children ....

and I am sure that if one had asked the Tosfos Yom Tov if Jews should visit his grave, thereby enriching blood-thirsty goyim, descendants of Chmielnicki, he would have vehemently protested and responded in the negative!

So this Mehlman takes a group of Jews to tour Poland!!

There are Jews in Yerushalyim throwing out other Jews from Shul, because they are in uniform protecting other Jewish lives .....

yet instead of screaming "Lo zu ha'derech," Jews spend money so they can fill the coffers of Jew hating Goyim...

Mehlman, writes about his bad experience in a Polish Coffee Shop!

Now guys take a deep breath and read the following:

This experience with a Polish goy that refused to serve him coffee, reminded him "of the Holocaust"!!!!!!

You know what reminds me of the Holocaust????? 

A Jew sitting in a shul davening, "not talking in shul" and sits quietly while other Jews are throwing out another Jew in IDF uniform  .... 

that Mr. Mehlman reminds me of the Holocaust .....