Aliyah and the
“Three Biblical Oaths”: Is Now the Time for Jews to Return to Israel?
“I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles, and by the
hinds of the field, that ye awaken not, nor stir up love, until it please.” (Song of Songs 2:7)
Though
living in Israel is a mitzvah, a
commandment from the Bible, many religious Jews refrain from moving to Israel citing
“the three oaths” as their source,
which has led to bitter conflict between Jews.
The three
oaths are derived from a section in the Talmud (Ketubot 111a), the book of oral
Jewish law, that comes to explain why the verse “I have bound you in oath, O daughters of Jerusalem” is repeated
three times in Song of Songs (2:7, 3:5, 8:4).
The Talmud
quotes Jewish sage Rabbi Yossi, the son of Rabbi Chanina, who interprets the
repetition to mean that God bound Israel with three oaths:
-
That the Jews would not forcibly re-enter the land of Israel.
-
The Jews should not rebel against the nations.
-
The nations of the world should not oppress the nation of Israel too much over
the course of the exile.
The major
proponent within the Jewish world of the three oaths is the former Satmar Rebbe,
Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum. In 1961, Rabbi Teitelbaum wrote in his book “Vayoel
Moshe” that God brought about the Holocaust because the secular Zionist
movement violated the oath by forcefully resettling the Land of Israel en
masse.
Despite
the shocking import of his statement, the rabbi dedicated 153 pages of
scholarly discourse to arrive at this conclusion. His conclusion was that the
exile of the nation of Israel from the land of Israel was God’s decision and
any attempt to unilaterally obviate the Diaspora goes against the will of God.
While
Rabbi Teitelbaum rules that it is permissible for individual Jews to live in
Israel, adherence to the oaths precludes a mass aliya and a Jewish government or
army until the Messiah comes.
Rabbi
Teitelbaum was a respected scholar and Satmar is the largest Hassidic sect with
over 100,000 followers worldwide. They strictly adhere to his teachings and, to
this day, vehemently oppose the State of Israel.
Venerated
scholar of Jewish history, Professor Chaim Waxman, explained to Breaking
Israel News the more in-depth and nuanced
implications of what has become known as the three oaths divide.
Waxman
noted that the three oaths did not play a significant role in Jewish history
and was rarely invoked due to the practical reality of aliyah not being
feasible. The three oaths were also limited to a prohibition against mass
aliyah, probably invoked to prevent proto-Zionist groups from antagonizing the
non-Jews.
“It was usually invoked against making aliyah for
non-religious reasons, what was viewed as profane and impure reasons.
Regardless of the three oaths, we know of many cases of rabbinically acceptable
aliyah, as in the Rambam and the students of the Gaon of Vilna. The general
consensus was that aliyah for purely religious reasons was acceptable,” he told Breaking
Israel News.
Waxman
explained that aliyah became more of an issue with the rise of modern secular
Zionism in the late 19th century. This religious injunction became politicized,
setting secular against religious. “But
even then, once there was the Balfour Declaration and the League of Nations,
most religious Jews accepted that the three oaths, insofar as rebelling against
the non-Jews, was no longer relevant,” he told Breaking
Israel News.
The
professor noted that in the modern pluralistic reality of the Western world,
the halachic (Jewish legal) issue of the three oaths remained political much
the way it was in the Middle Ages, though not necessarily out of fear of the
non-Jews.
“It was surely motivated in part, especially in the
Middle Ages, out of fear of non-Jewish reprisal against the Jews who remained
behind,” he explained. “Traditionally the sects, Neturei
Karta and Satmar, who still invoke the three oaths do so because they see
Zionism as a Satanic movement.”
Professor
Hillel Weiss, spokesman and secretary of the nascent Sanhedrin, reflected on how a Jewish court of rabbis would
view the invocation of the three oaths in modern times.
“The three oaths as seen in the Gemara in Ketubot
applies while the Jews are in exile,” he told Breaking
Israel News. “When
Israel is dwelling in Jerusalem and throughout the country, and almost seven
million Jews have been gathered from the Diaspora, it is unusual not to
recognize the good that God has done for us and to respond in kind.”
“From the section of Song of Songs referring to the
three oaths, it is written, ‘I have sworn you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the
gazelles, and by the hinds of the field, that ye awaken not, nor stir up love,
until it pleases.’Because it is now clearly God’s will and a desirable thing,
it is time to awaken and come to Israel.”
Related Posts:
Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz
is a features writer for Breaking Israel News. He made Aliyah to Israel in 1991
and served in the IDF as a combat medic. Berkowitz studied Jewish law and
received rabbinical ordination in Israel. He has worked as a freelance writer
and his novel, The Hope Merchant, is available on Amazon. He lives in the Golan
Heights with his wife and their four children.
http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/58716/aliyah-three-biblical-oaths-now-time-jews-return-israel/#lsuHtwYItkeAxoOA.97
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