This Seder Night Teach Your Children the Truth

by Rav Tzvi Fishman

One of the central mitzvot of Seder night is to recount the story of the Exodus to our children, as the Torah commands: “And you shall tell your son on that day, saying, It is because of this which the L-rd did for me when I went out of Egypt” (Shemot, 13:8). To help us carry out the all-important mitzvah of passing on our heritage to our children, our Sages composed the Haggadah, which we joyously recite on Pesach night. We are commanded not only to relate to our children the wondrous events that G-d brought to pass in liberating us from bondage and making us His chosen Nation, but also to incorporate the lessons of the story into our lives.

Galut & Geula, Part 7

The Surest Sign of Redemption

by Rav Tzvi Fishman, bringthemhome.org.il

[To read Part 6, click here.]

In the Gemara, in tractate Sanhedrin, there is a teaching concerning the end of the exile:

“Rabbi Abba states: There is no greater sign of the revealed end of the exile than this, as it says, ‘And you O mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to My People, for they will soon be coming.’”

Rabbi Abba informs us that the end of the exile will be revealed in a way that everyone will see it – “There is no greater sign of the end of the exile than this.” What is this sign?  “And you O mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to My People.” Rashi explains: “When Eretz Yisrael gives forth her fruits in abundance, then the end of exile is near, and there is no sign more revealed than this” (Sanhedrin 98A).

This teaching of Rabbi Abba needs some explanation. In describing the visible sign which marks the end of the exile, Rabbi Abba cites a verse without explaining anything further. Why did Rabbi Abba choose a verse about the fruit trees of Israel, and not something more spiritual? Why not say that everyone will recognize the end of the exile when the world is finally perfected; or when everyone will follow the Torah and its commandments; or when the Beit HaMikdash will be rebuilt; or when there will be peace in Israel?

Galut & Geula, Part 6 of 8

 The Holiness of Medinat Yisrael

by Rav Tzvi Fishman, bringthemhome.org.il

[To read Part 5, click here.]

At the time of the Torah giant, the Gaon of Vilna, the Jewish People had managed to survive 1,500 years of exile without the living Soul of the Nation shining in our midst. Except for the great Torah giants of each generation, the Jewish People in exile don’t recognize this living Clalli soul, or experience its powerful influence, and the life of the exiled Jew revolves around the private side of life and one’s family and personal affairs. How then, in this moribund, truncated state, is it possible to encounter the highly energized level of national life infused with Divine vitality that more truly characterizes Am Yisrael in its Land? How is it possible to identify the sparks of Geula if one is totally alienated and disconnected from this transcendental level of existence?

Galut & Geula, Part 5 of 8

The Holy Soul of Zionism

by Rav Tzvi Fishman, bringthemhome.org.il

[To read Part 4, click here.]

Our last few essays have dealt with the vast difference between Jewish life in the exile and Jewish life in the Land of Israel, as the Jewish People rise from the “dry bones” of Galut to mega-powered nationhood in the Promised Land. The ideas we have presented are indeed very deep, requiring a penetrating understanding of Torah, which the great Sages of Israel have illuminated for us throughout history, reminding us that the Torah is far broader than the “four cubits of halacha” which exist in the exile. True Judaism, the Torah of Eretz Yisrael, is a national Torah. At the time of Redemption, our learning demands deeper insights, and the realization that Judaism is far more than performing individual commandments like kashrut, tefillin, and Shabbat in alien, gentile lands.

In the light of the matters we have explained, let’s return and examine the history of Zionism beginning with the period of the “Enlightenment.” Once again, we will quote freely from Rabbi Moshe Bleicher’s book, “Binyan Emunah.”

Galut & Geula, Part 4 of 8

Are you Yearning for Salvation?

by Rav Tzvi Fishman, bringthemhome.org.il

 [To read Part 3, click here.]

In our last few essays concerning the difference between Galut and Geula, we learned that when Am Yisrael is exiled, its national, Clalli soul is drawn up to Heaven by G-d, so that it won’t become polluted by the impure forces and husks (kleipot) that hold sway outside of the Land of Israel. Not only are the Jewish People in exile, the Shekinah (Divine Presence) is in exile as well. In this situation of exile and national destruction, the Divine National Soul which invigorates the life of the Nation no longer pulses within us, and, according to the Prophets and Sages of Israel, we become like corpses in a graveyard, like dry bones lacking life.

Galut & Geula, Part 3 of 8

Why Mourn About Exile?

by Rav Tzvi Fishman, bringthemhome.org.il

 [To read Part 1, click here.]

The Maharal of Prague is universally recognized as one of our greatest Sages. In his famous book, “Netzach Yisrael,” he explains that Jewish life outside of the Land of Israel is a temporary and unnatural situation of exile that has no value in and of itself, but which is rather only a state of waiting, anticipation, and preparation to return to the Land of Israel (“Netzach Yisrael,” Ch.1).

Lekh Lekha: Get Thee Forth To America!

by Rav Tzvi Fishman, bringthemhome.org.il

Isn’t it interesting that the very first words that G-d says to Avraham, the father of the Jewish People, is to go to the Land of Israel?

What are we supposed to learn from this? Can there be any question at all? One plus one is two, and two plus two is four. You don’t have to be a genius to figure out a simple equation like that. In Hashem’s Great Plan of Existence, the Jews and the Land of Israel were created for one another.

Galut & Geula, Part 2 of 8

Scattered Limbs Without a Soul

by Rav Tzvi Fishman, bringthemhome.org.il 

[To read Part 1, click here.]

In our previous article, we began to explain the need for a deeper comprehension of Emunah (Faith) and Torah, in order to understand the rebirth of the Nation of Israel in our time. This deeper learning has the power to lift ourselves up to a higher level of existence – the transition from Galut to Geula, from a grave-like existence of dry scattered bones in gentile lands, to our full revitalized life of being a united body and sovereign Nation in our own Land.

Galut & Geula, Part 1 of 8

The Exile is the Valley of Dry Bones

by Rav Tzvi Fishman, bringthemhome.org.il

In order to understand the centrality of the Land of Israel to a full Jewish life, it is necessary to recognize the very real differences between life in Israel and life in the Diaspora. This subject was not explored in depth during our nearly two-thousand years of exile, during which Jewish learning focused primarily on the commandments and laws which could be practiced in the Diaspora. Therefore, we will try in this eight-part series, “Galut and Geula,” to shed light on the very real differences between Exile and Redemption (Galut and Geula), as illuminated in the writings of the Prophets of Israel and Sages versed in the inner secrets of Torah. In doing so, we will rely heavily on the explanations found in the book, “Binyan Emunah,” by Rabbi Moshe Bleicher, a longtime student at the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem, and the founder and spiritual leader of the Shavei Hevron Yeshiva in the City of the Patriarchs.

Days of Mashiach: A Short Story

[Revised Corona-version taken from the book of short stories, “Days of Mashiach” by Tzvi Fishman.] 

by Rav Tzvi Fishman, bringthemhome.org.il

Even before the jumbo jet came to a stop on the runway, Dr. Elliot Miller unfastened his seat belt and jumped up from his seat.

“Where are you going?” his wife, Sandra, asked.

“I want to be the first one off the plane,” he replied, pulling his carry-on down from the overhead rack.

“Please remain seated until the aircraft comes to a complete stop,” the voice over the loudspeaker commanded.

Though the doctor normally respected regulations and rules, his excitement overcame him completely. He pushed forward down the aisle like a sprinter determined to win the race. To please his wife, they had remained in America as long as they could, miraculously surviving the Corona plague and pogroms against the Jews. But now the ingathering of the exiles was ending, and they were among the last Jews to come home.

“The Land of Israel!” he thought to himself. “Thank God, I finally made it!”

Using his elbows and shoulders, he fought his way to the front of the cabin.

“I’m a doctor,” he said, when other passengers protested.

In truth, there were over one-hundred doctors on the planeload of affluent Jews, but the other new immigrants bought the excuse, figuring there must be some kind of emergency.

The *State* of Israel is a Torah Commandment!

by Rav Tzvi Fishman, bringthemhome.org.il

The Torah states again and again and again that G-d wants the Jews to live in Israel. So how can it be that some confused Jews think the very opposite, believing they are following the Torah by living in gentile lands, and that Medinat Yisrael is the worst exile ever?

Leaving the Land of Israel

 by Rav Tzvi Fishman, https://bringthemhome.org.il

One way of understanding the vital importance of Eretz Yisrael to Jewish life is through the prohibition to leave it. When a Jew leaves the Land of Israel, it is as if he or she is turning their backs on the Shechinah and the Holy One Himself, as our Sages have stated: “A person who lives in Eretz Yisrael is like someone who has a G-d, and a person who lives outside of the Land is like someone who has no G-d, and is considered like someone who worships idols,” (Ketubot 110B).

Eretz Yisrael & the Secrets of Torah

 By Rav Tzvi Fishman, bringthemhome.org.il

If it is so obvious from a simple, straightforward reading of the Torah that G-d wants the Jewish People to live in the Land of Israel, why are so many Jews still living in foreign lands? Rabbi Chaim Vital, the foremost student of the Arizal, writes in his preface to “Etz HaChaim,” that the prolongation of the exile and its tribulations stem from the sorrowful fact that the secrets of Torah have been neglected from our learning.  In a similar light, Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaCohen Kook writes that due to an alienation from the secrets of Torah, the supreme importance of a Jew’s connection to Eretz Yisrael is not properly understood. In his classic treatise, “Orot,” he bases his deep insights into the renaissance of the Jewish nation in Eretz Yisrael on the esoteric teachings of the Arizal and the holy Zohar, dressing up concepts of Kabbalah in the language of Israel’s gradually developing nationhood and rebirth. He writes: