All summaries below are done to the best of my abilities and are for the purpose of informing and not paskening. In all cases, a posek should be consulted.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Living in Israel - Rav Tzvi Yehuda HaKohen Kook

In this brief teshuva, cited in Techumin volume 3, Rav Tzvi Yehuda affirms that there is definitely a mitzva to live in Israel, as per the view of Ramban. He then goes further and notes that just like one is required to give his life for any mitzva in a situation where he is being forced not to do it [my note: specifically in times of religious persecution], even more so in the case of living in Israel, which is a mitzva that is seen as tantamount to all other mitzvot, one must make whatever sacrifices necessary to fulfill it. This mitzva even goes beyond other mitzvot in this regard, in that a person must put himself into a potentially dangerous situation of living in Israel.

No comments: