Page 13 - HaMizrachi #14 2019 Chayei Sarah USA

Rabbi Zev Leff Rabbi Berel Wein

Hebron:

Indisputably Ours

he city of Hebron is very prom- All three locations were purchased The entire thrust of the book of
inent in our world and in the by the leaders of Israel – Avraham, Bereishit is that the world and its
Tdaily news reports. The news Ya’akov, David – for good and valuable lands and properties belong not to
from Hebron is not always encourag- consideration and for full, if not more man but to the Creator. The claim of
ing. It is a tough place, this Hebron of than full, market value. The purchases the Jewish people to the Land of Israel
ours. A tough place to live and a tough and the details of those purchases is not based on contracts and deeds.
place to leave. are all recorded in the Bible. Yet, over Indeed, it is not based even on Balfour
our long history, even till this very Declarations and United Nations
In the Torah we read of the purchase moment, our title to all three locations resolutions. It is based upon the
of the Cave of Machpela by our is in dispute. G-dly promise to our ancestors that
father Avraham. This purchase was the Land of Israel belongs, by right of
supposed to eternally establish that The insight into this paradoxical G-dly fiat, to their descendants.
holy place as being the property of the situation may be that the very reason
people of Israel. But it has not worked that these properties are contested Those Jews who, for various personal
out that way. is that our claim to them is based on and faith reasons, deny this G-dly
man-made law and contracts and promise, are very hard-pressed to
Over the long centuries, Yishmael deeds and not on Divine promise. justify the existence of the State
and his descendants and Eisav and All contracts, even all purchases of Israel and the Jewish claim to
his descendants have successfully in this world of ours, are always Jerusalem. Without this justification
contested Israel for these premises subject to review, revision and of belief and Jewish tradition, the
innumerable times. For over a cancellation. Governments rise and claim of the nations of the world that
millennium Jews were not allowed to fall, circumstances and situations “you are thieves” sounds plausible and
change, the definition of “rights” is
enter the building which supposedly altered by fiat or common consent. In correct.
rests on the top of that burial cave. short, nothing ever remains the same.
The right of Jews to live in Hebron Nothing in man’s own created world The faith of Israel is based upon the
is and has always been contested far is permanent. Therefore, the general revelation and will of our eternal
more bitterly than even the right of world, and certainly the Arab world, Creator. We certainly have to do our
Jews to live in Jerusalem. contest our claim of ownership to part, for G-d certainly helps those
who help themselves. But, in the final
Why? these parcels of land in Israel. analysis, it is obvious that we derive
Our deed is outdated and no longer our rights and claims not merely from
What is the secret of Hebron that valid, they say. We abandoned our current behavior, but rather from
makes it so dangerous and contested claim long ago by not being present on rights based upon ancient faith and
a place for Jewish settlement and those properties for long centuries. religious tenets and beliefs.
security?
The Indian tribes in America also had Rabbi Saadia Gaon stated that “our
The Talmud mentions that there are signed and legal government deeds to nationhood is based solely on the
three locations in the Land of Israel large sections of the United States, but Torah.” Hebron and the Cave of
which are indisputably the legal when the circumstances “changed,” Machpela prove how right he is.
property of the Jewish people. They the deeds were abrogated and the
are the Cave of Machpela in Hebron, Indian tribes’ claim to the land was
the field outside Shechem/Nablus in disallowed. Claims to land are not Rabbi Berel Wein is Senior Rabbi of Beit
Samaria, and the Temple Mount in very secure if they are based only upon Knesset HaNassi in Jerusalem and Director
Jerusalem. legalities, purchases and contracts. of the Destiny Foundation

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