Day 30 of the Omer
Sometimes when I see this sign at the entrance to my community, I feel like I have to pinch myself to be sure I'm not dreaming. I tell myself, "Think about where you are, by the grace of HKB"H." It's so easy to take it all for granted.
Theodore Herzl famously said: "If you will it, it is no dream; and if you don't, a dream it is and a dream it will stay." On this point, he was 100% right. But, remember this. It all begins with the dream.
Bs''d
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With all due respect, hertzel was even 100% wrong on this too.....it has NOTHING to do with our will, it's all up to Hashem's Will.
ReplyDeleteרבות מחשבות בלב איש, ועצת ה'היא תקום
With equal respect, if we have no free will, then it would be unjust of HKB"H to punish us for wrongdoing. However, since He does (belief in reward and punishment is one of the Rambam's Thirteen Principles of Faith), then our will figures into it somehow.
DeleteGranted, if HKB"H is against something that we have the will to do, we will not be successful. But, in this case, we are talking about performing one of the greatest of the mitzvot - fulfilling the purpose for why HKBH took us out of Egypt. Our Sages said when a person comes to do good, Heaven helps him. That presupposes that the person first has the will or desire to do good, does it not?
Who had a greater will to enter Eretz Yisroel, than Moshe Rabeinu? And his will and motives were completely pure, all לשם שמים.
ReplyDeleteOur "free will" is limited to whether we decide to keep the Mitzvohs or not. Whether to have Yirat Shamayim or not.
That is completely up to us. And the Torah gives us advice on that matter...ובחרת בחיים.
However, the result and outcome of our will, is 100% out of our hands and exclusively up to Hashem's will.
Hertzl y's, was telling us the EXACT opposite....and that's why he said אם תירצו, he was sending Jews a message that it's entirely in our hands. That was the m/o of the zionsts...to remove Heaven from our hearts and minds , חלילה וחס.
I grew up going to a modern orthodox elementary school, where they taught us, really....drilled into our heads one mitzvah only....living in Israel. No question it's an extremely important one, and it gets more and more important every day. BUT...there 612 others that are also important. And yes, we should keep them in our land and not in galus.
Hashem took us out of mitzrayim, in order to bring us to Har Sinai to give us the Torah. Period.
We left Har Sinai for one reason...to enter and remain in Eretz Yisroel.
p.s. my feeling is we are not in disagreement, rather it boils down to semamtics. I originally posted the first post because I cringe (to say the least) when I hear that rasha's name or hear ANYTHING he said or wrote. NOTHING good comes from avodah zara....nothing
Agreed. :-)
DeleteBeautifully said, "unknown"!!!
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