#08 Israel is now the center of world Jewry

We are witnessing a migration from the USA, Canada, France, UK and smaller Jewish communities around the world, greatly increasing Israel’s population, making Israel once again, to be the center of world Jewry.

During the Holocaust, Rav Yisachar Shlomo Teichtal wrote in Eim Habanim Semeichah:

Now, [even though all of Israel will not return right away], it seems to me that the Land will become a universal center for the entire Jewish nation, by the very fact that there will be an assembly of Jews in Jerusalem and Eretz Yisrael. Even those who remain in the Diaspora will keep their eyes and hearts on the Land. They will be bound and connected with all their souls to the universal center which will be established in Eretz Yisrael. It will unite them even in the Diaspora, and they will not be considered dispersed at all …

Today, on the other hand, the people of Israel are like lost and scattered sheep among the nations. No Jew associates with his fellow Jew. Wherever they live, they are like dangling limbs without any connection to the individual, and certainly not to the community as a whole. This is true and utter dispersion (may the Merciful One save us). We have all been abandoned like fish of the sea. In these recent, difficult years, despots subjugate us and do with us as they please. They degrade and murder us without limit and without any liability for their actions. These scoundrels have no one to answer to for their deeds.

However, if we establish a universal center in Eretz Yisrael (with God’s help), our pride and glory will rise among the nations and we will be considered a dignified and important nation. ·Then, even the individual who remains in exile will not be forsaken, because anyone who wants to cause him harm will know that there is someone who will demand a reckoning of his actions. He will know that he is liable for his deeds and will, therefore, refrain from doing anything improper.

Thus, the ingathering to the Land will free us from the state of absolute evil even in the Diaspora. It will also cause all of Israel, even the Diaspora Jews, to unite and live in peace. Then, we will reach the bright and hopeful future leading to the complete redemption, speedily in our days. Amen.

Eim Habanim Semeichah

On Eretz Yisrael, Redemption, And Unity

By HaRav Yisachar Shlomo Teichtal Av Beit Din and Rosh Yeshiva in Pishtian

Translated by Moshe Lichtman