Hot answers tagged eretz-yisrael
13
Mechilta Drav Yishmael - Yisro - Parsha 5 says that it was not given in Eretz Yisroel in order that the non Jews would not to be able to say that they did not accept it since it was given in the Jewish land. Another reason was to avoid a dispute between the Shevatim.
ומפני מה לא ניתנה תורה בארץ ישראל? שלא ליתן פתחון פה לאומות העולם, לומר: לפי שנתנה תורה ...
9
No, and I'll explain why:
First, as per this list, only 42.5% of world Jewry was in Israel in 2010, so "most" of the Jews are not in Israel.
Second, the exile is a function of lost spirituality, not just physical presence. The return to Zion will end the exile when god decides we are on the spiritual level for the proper return. Simply moving there, while ...
9
There is a concept from the Gemara (Pesachim 8a) known as שלוחי מצוה אינן ניזוקין - mitzva messengers are not harmed. When one is going on a trip that involves potential risks, some are of the custom is to give them a small amount of money to give to charity at their place of destination, so that they are effectively turned into "mitzva messengers" until ...
7
Just to add to @DovF's answer. It would seem that making the person your emissary to do any mitzvah would accomplish the same thing, since the main thing is that, as your emissary, he is protected from harm. (see my answer here)
However, Tzedakah has an added benefit of "saving one from death", as the Talmud (Shabbat 156B) tells us.
So you get the double ...
6
Additionally, it was given in the desert (no-man's land) so that no people would be able to claim that they have no share in the Torah.
(See English comments in the Stone Chumash; I can't give a more specific reference because I don't have the book on my lap ATM, sorry).
edit:
Mekhilta De-Rabbi Ishmael (Exodus 19:2).
6
The division of the land included, among other steps:
sending out commissioners to survey it (Josh. 18:4ff)
...and to evaluate the worth of the individual regions and plots of land, to make sure that the division would be equitable (Rashi to Num. 26:54)
designating which roads would be private vs. public, depending on their grade (Eruvin 22b)
assigning a ...
5
The source for the custom to say "על מחייתה" on grain from Eretz Yisroel is brought in Birkey Yosef (OC 208:10) from the Kaftor Veferach (chapter 10) and the Agudah. See here and here for more details.
It's also brought in Tosfos R"i Chosid (printed in the sefer Bracha Meshuleshes pg. 44), Shu"t Haleket (vol. 2 Siman 55), and quoted in Yad Efrayim (OC ...
5
When one picks fruits owned by a Jew in Israel, he is allowed to snack on them (אכילת עראי) until they become designated for maaser (נקבע למעשר), or, if he is planning on selling them, until he finishes his work on the harvest (גמר מלאכה). After that, he cannot eat from them at all until properly tithing them.
The most common ways of designating for maaser ...
5
Yirmiyahu Hanavi (Jeremiah the prophet) calls The Land of Israel "tzvi": (Jer. 3:19)
וְאֶתֶּן-לָךְ אֶרֶץ חֶמְדָּה, נַחֲלַת צְבִי
I give thee a pleasant land, the goodliest (tzvi) heritage...
Since the word tzvi also means a deer, the gemara asks (Kesubos 112a):
R. Hisda stated: What [was meant] by the Scriptural text, I give thee a pleasant land, ...
4
The gemara (Gitin 57a) explains that just like a deer's skin can expand, Israel can also expand to fit as many residents as it needs. The pasuk is from Daniel 11:41.
4
Rashi on the verse (Bereshit 12:6) tells us that Israel was part of the portion of Shem. At that time, the Canaanites (descendants of Cham) were conquering the land from them.
However, Rashi in Bamidbar 13:22 (and Devarim 11:10) says that Cham built Chevron for his son Canaan, which would seem to indicate that the land of Canaan was part of Cham's portion.
...
4
Check out the Nefesh B'Nefesh Community Database which lets you search according to a number of criteria.
Off the top of my head (and if you're sure Ramat Beit Shemesh is out), from the information you give you might want to look into Yad Binyamin, Modiin, Moshav Matisyahu, Nof Ayalon, Efrat/Alon Shvut/Neve Daniel
4
It was HaRav Avraham Yosef. It was initially posted on his website in the Ask the Rav section. It caused quite the stir and wound up being carried by the YNet news organization. From there it spread to other news outlets.
4
Speaking as a convert whose great-great-great-great-great grandfather was born a Sephardi Jew (America's first Jewish governor, David Emanuel (Georgia 1801)), one might have thought I should have adopted Sephardi practices. The rabbi who was m'geiur me, Rabbi Bertram Leff, shlita, never accepted that. Someone who converts is considered like a new-born ...
4
There are no explicit biblical proofs for this. However, there is a fairly famous statement in the גמרא in .כתובות קיא:
רבי יוסי ברבי חנינא דאמר ג' שבועות הללו למה אחת שלא יעלו ישראל בחומה ואחת שהשביע הקדוש ברוך הוא את ישראל שלא ימרדו באומות העולם ואחת שהשביע הקדוש ברוך הוא את העובדי כוכבים שלא ישתעבדו בהן בישראל יותר מדאי
This דרשא from a פסוק in ...
4
The source is Megila 29.
תניא ר"א הקפר אומר עתידין בתי כנסיות ובתי מדרשות שבבבל שיקבעו בא"י
שנאמר כי כתבור בהרים וככרמל בים יבוא, והלא דברים ק"ו ומה תבור וכרמל
שלא באו אלא לפי שעה ללמוד תורה נקבעים בארץ ישראל, בתי כנסיות ובתי
מדרשות שקורין ומרביצין בהן תורה עאכו"כ
4
This question is based entirely on an assumption that "anyone living in Israel is in grave danger," but it cites no source to back this statement of fact up.
On the contrary, here is a source that indicates that people living in Israel, in general, are not in grave danger. The US State Department issues Travel Warnings "when long-term, protracted conditions ...
3
No. See the following list from the Rambam of what Mashiach will/must do:
In the future, the Messianic king will arise and renew the Davidic dynasty, restoring it to its initial sovereignty. He will build the Temple and gather the dispersed of Israel.
Then, in his days, the observance of all the statutes will return to their previous state. We will ...
3
It's not considered at all.
There is some DNA that is indicative of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage, but it's possible to have it and not be Jewish, and it's possible to not have it and be Jewish. (i.e. it's a clue, but it's not definitive in either direction.)
It's a marker of ancestry, not of religious status.
Now your friend can check his history and see if ...
3
Rabbi Eli'ezer Melamed rules in Peninei Halachah that one must say Halel.
He says elsewhere that Rabbi Shlomoh Goren (and Rabbi Gershoni, quoted in the footnote) ruled to say it with a blessing, and this is how Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah Kook acted. He also quotes Rabbi Meshulam Rata (Kol Mevaser 1:21) to say it with a blessing. Rabbi Sharki (quoted in Sidur Beis ...
3
Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Aurbach rules this way in a responsum (Minchat Shlomo 1:19:7). After reading it I'm not sure if he also requires that they own a permanent dwelling in Israel to live in during Chag or not; CYLOR for a final ruling (as usual).
3
The Mishnah in Kiddushin states that most land-dependent mitzvos only apply in Israel. The gemara quotes a beraysa to show that
Non-land Mitzvos (חובת הגוף) apply outside Israel.
Land-based mitzvos only apply in Israel.
Halachically, Shabbos applies everywhere since it is חובת הגוף. Shemitah is a shabbos for land, so it just applies in Israel. ...
3
The land in question is indeed part of the land promised to Avraham (and hence of halachic Eretz Yisrael). We see this from the fact that the Torah describes this area as "the land of the Rephaim" (Deut. 3:13, see Rashi there) - where the Rephaim are one of the nations listed in the covenant that Hashem made with Avraham (Gen. 15:20). Indeed, the very reason ...
2
The first place to start is the shita of the Ramban, who writes in parshas Masei (33:53) that it is a mitzvas aseh. He also asks why the Rambam does not count this as one of the 613, which is something that the acharonim debate.
The Megillas Esther holds that according to the Rambam there is no mitzvah bizman hazeh, while The Avner Nezer says that there is ...
2
Ramban (to Yisro 20:8):
Gentiles count days of the week by the days' names themselves, calling each day by its own name, whether after the heavenly bodies, as Christians do, or by whatever other names. Jews count all the days by the name of Shabas: "echad bashabas", "sheni bashabas", because that's part of the command that we were commanded, to remember ...
2
I can't fully answer the question, but I do remember a story:
A Jew who was driving once stopped a great Rav (I'm sorry that I don't remember who) walking to shul on Shabbos, and asked for directions. The people walking with the Rav expected him to berate or at least ignore the driver, but instead the Rav gave him very exact and detailed directions.
After ...
2
Just to throw in some more names, Kaf HaChayim (OC 208:10), Mishneh Halachot (6:41), Yabia Omer (OC 7:30), Sefer Eretz Yisrael (3:1) all vouch for making the change. Igrot Moshe (YD 3:129:4) rules against changing.
It's worth noting that you should really also be asking your question about the second blessing in Bentching too, which ends parallel to the ...
2
One option is Ramat Bet Shemesh. It might also be quite expensive by now, but the newer projects might be in your ballpark. It is very diverse and has TONS of English-speaking people. There is also an English-speaking community in Moshav Matityahu.
There are also more "Modern Orthodox" English-speaking communities in Efrat, Maale Adumim, and to a lesser ...
2
Spinoza in his Theological-Political Treatise argued that the legislation of Judaism was political legislation, necessary for the conduct of a state. According to Spinoza, the end of Jewish sovereignty made the law of Judaism irrelevant. The Torah was given before the people entered the land because Spinoza is wrong--the Jewish people are bound by the Torah ...
2
As far as conquest, see Exodus 23:29–30 (JPS translation):
I will not drive them [=the inhabitants] out from before thee in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the beasts of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.
I guess conquest took ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
