Q:
What does it mean אין אומתינו אומה אלא בתורה, that we are a nation only as a Torah nation (Rav Saadia Gaon Sefer Emunos V’dayos 3:7)?
A:
That’s poshut, that’s very simple. “Our nation is only a nation because of the Torah.” It means the following: We have no right to exist. We should have long ago disappeared. Where is Edom? They disappeared! Where is Amon? They disappeared! It’s all gone! Where is Ancient Mitzrayim? All gone! Ancient Greece is all gone.
So why are we still here? We’re also one of the ancient nations that should have disappeared along with all the others. And the answer is that we are only here because of the Torah. We are existing only because of the Torah. Hashem gave us the Torah, and we still keep the Torah to this day. The frum Jews keep the Torah to this day, and we are the reason that there is still an עם ישראל. And that’s אין אומתינו אומה אלא בתורה. We are a Torah-nation. That’s the cause of our existence. We accepted the Torah which is forever, and that’s why we are forever. Hashem is forever, His Torah is forever, and we who accepted His Torah will be forever. We are forever!
And that’s the only reason that the עם ישראל has a right to exist. Those people who want to make a new עם ישראל, and speak Hebrew, and be in Eretz Yisroel, and they want to forget about the Torah – the end will be that they will become all goyim. They will go lost entirely. Nothing will remain of them at all.
It’s only בזכות the frum Jews there, who are clinging to the Torah, that they exist. And boruch Hashem they are increasing and multiplying now. In their merit, the merit of those who keep the Torah forever, the עם ישראל will exist forever.
TAPE # E-170 (March 1999)
