Q:
Why should not all the frum Jews go to Eretz Yisrael, vote out the frieh yidden and we’ll take over the country?
A:
He’s asking a good question. Why shouldn’t we all go to Eretz Yisroel?
Why don’t you go right now and do it? Hmm? Why are you telling us to do it? I don’t hear.
Q:
I asked you once before about it.
A:
Why are you asking? Why don’t you do it? The answer is it’s easy to talk. First of all, if I would go to Eretz Yisroel, who would be saying the lectures here Thursday night? If Rav Kalmanovitch goes to Eretz Yisroel, what would happen to the yeshivah?
Besides, many people have to have ask themselves, what will happen to yourself if you go. You have to make a living. How will you make a living? And you want to serve in the Israeli army? You want to go on shooting expeditions in the Levanon? And therefore it’s not so easy to do that. It’s just a theory.
And therefore it’s a big problem when people contemplate moving there because they’re going to have certain questions that they’ll ask before they move. What’s going to happen to my son or my daughter? The daughters also might be drafted. Sometimes the daughters are not drafted but they go willingly. I know a frum family, the daughter went willingly. She thought she could remain frum. She went into the army. She didn’t become a zonah like most of them do become but she never married. She remained unmarried. Tragedy. Girls of marriageable age go into the army, even though they remain decent girls – which is not easy – but once you pass a certain age, it’s not easy to get married anymore. Now how can you do such a thing?
And boys who have to work part of the time serving in the Israeli forces, it’s not a simple matter. And many have been called up suddenly in emergency instances and they’ve paid with their lives. A very great number of Jewish soldiers have been killed in all these wars.
Now I’m not saying anything, but I’m telling you it’s something to consider. That’s why many people hesitate.
Then you have to have money because you have to buy an apartment. To rent apartments in Eretz Yisrael is not easy at all. And to go there and to live on money sent from America, it’s a problem whether it’s kosher to do such a thing. If a man has to live on charity and his familial life is sometimes jeopardized – he’s not able to live decently and support his wife and children – it’s a big question whether he should go. It’s not easy to answer.
And many people have duties here. You have married children. You have to supervise your married children. You can’t forsake them. You have to see that they go in the derech hayashar. Many obligations.
It’s not easy to do. It’s easy to propose. That’s why I say all those who propose it should go. And you find that most of the proposers don’t go themselves. Most of the preachers who tell others to go are right here. And therefore the first question we’ll ask them is what I asked this gentleman over here when they tell you to go.
(July 1988)
