10:35 PM
Gil Student
Do Not Ascend Like A Wall
by Rabbi Shlomo Aviner
Rabbi of Beit El and Rosh Yeshiva of Ateret Cohanim, Yerushalayim
translated by Rabbi Mordechai Friedfertig
printed with permission
(continued from here)
3. Violation of the Nations of the World of their oath, nullified all of the Oaths
In the Talmud in Ketubot, among the Oaths, "The Holy One, Blessed be He, made the idol worshippers swear not to subjugate Israel excessively." And it is written in the Shulchan Aruch: "Two who swore to do something, and one of them violates the oath, the other one is exempt and does not require a release [from the oath],"[125] and since the non-Jews violated their oath, we are exempt from our oath.
1. Thus wrote the students of the Rashba that if the non-Jews subjugate Israel excessively, this causes that Hashem awakens His love for Israel much earlier on account of His love for us.[*125]
2. Similarly wrote Rabbi Shlomo Kluger.[126]
3. And Ha-Rav Hillel Kolomeir: "Two who swore...and if the king and the government violated the oath and pursues Israel and subjugates them, then Israel is also permitted to violate their oath."[127]
4. And Ha-Rav Natan Tzvi Friedman.[128]
4. Ascending in stages is not like a wall
Rashi explained "'Do not ascend like a wall' - together by force." If everyone therefore does not ascend together[129] but rather in stages, there is no wall.
1. Rabbi Avraham Yellin: "For as a wall is only all of Israel together, and not when hundreds or even thousands ascend each time, since in the return from Babylonia when many tens of thousands ascended together, and we say in Yoma 9b that they did not ascend like a wall."[130]
2. And similarly Ha-Rav Blumberg that like a wall is only all of Israel and everyone together.[131]
3. And Ha-Rav Meir Blumenfeld[132] wrote that "'as a wall' means the ascending of the Nation at one time and certainly more than half," based on the words of the Talmud in Yoma 9b and Rashi ibid.[133]
*[But the ascending of ten thousand is already considered a [Divine] remembrance,[134] and then there is no wall as explained above section 2C].
5. The wall only surrounds Babylonia
Ba'al Ha-Hafla'ah wrote[135] that the Tanach was strict that they should be in Babylonia in particular as it is written "They are brought to Babylonia and there they will be until the day of My remembering," and not regarding other lands since the honor of the Divine Presence and the Torah are there and not in other lands,[136] and similarly what was written "I made you swear," this is do not leave the holiness that dwells in Babylonia.[137]
6. The wall stands for only a thousand years
Rabbenu Chaim Vital wrote: "'I made you swear, daughters of Jerusalem...', this great oath to God was that they should not arouse the Redemption until that love will be desired and with good will, as it is written 'until I desire,' and our Sages already said that the time of this oath is a thousand years, as it is written in the Baraita of Rabbi Yishmael in Pirkei Heichalot..., and similarly in the Zohar Va-yeira pg. 117...that it is one day of the Exile of the Community of Israel..."[138]
And Rav Mordechai Attiah: "Since from this it is close to nine hundred years, the decree of Exile[139] is ending but we are continuing it."[140]
Notes to be posted at the end of the series.
