6715 —האחריות וההזדמנות להטות את החיים בארץ ישראל לתורה ולמצוות, שבה הדת הכרחית עוד יותר מבחו"ל

B"H, 9 Adar I, 5719
Brooklyn, N.Y.

To Mr. David Ben-Gurion, may he live long^[1],
Prime Minister

Shalom u'Vrachah!

Yesterday I sent my official reply to the question, the question of registration, and with it many apologies for the delay in the reply until now^[2], for several reasons. What follows is written unofficially – not even semi-officially.

I therefore hope that you^[3] will forgive me for writing without diplomacy, and perhaps also that the style does not suit protocol^[4]; and also for my opening with a few lines of ideas that are seemingly simple.

Since in our world nothing is abstract but everything is bound up with persons and circumstances, I am using this opportunity to come with the following lines to you, as the one who stands at the head of the registration problem, and more than that – as one whose influence is great on the whole background of life in our Holy Land^[5], of which the above problem is only one detail.

There is surely no need to elaborate on the point that this era of ours is an era "pregnant with the world"^[6], especially in the life of our people, the Children of Israel, wherever they are, both materially and spiritually. And as has always been the case in the history of our people, spiritual matters influence material matters far more than the reverse. (It has not escaped me that this view does not go hand in hand with the doctrine of materialism^[7] and the like, but this is not so relevant to what follows.)

It is understood that at such a time the responsibility resting on every single individual is weightier and greater many times over than in ordinary years – especially the responsibility resting on those who have great influence in several areas of the life of our people; and it is perhaps even greater than the person of influence himself imagines.

In every matter and thing, responsibility is bound up with privilege: the greater a person's responsibility, the greater also his privilege, when he bears the responsibility and fulfills his task in it. Not every person merits responsibility – a great and public privilege; and even one who merits it does not find every hour an opportune time for fulfilling the task and the responsibility.

I mean here your influence: however the situation may be defined officially, in actual fact in Eretz Yisrael at present your decision is decisive in the most important areas of public life in the Land, and with that also in several matters in the spiritual sphere.

I have no concern here with the question whether the regime is democratic or not, for I have not come to argue; and, as said above, my letter is unofficial and concerns only reality as it actually is. And the reality I see is that you have the greatest influence in shaping the situation in our Land, though at times you can act directly and at times only indirectly.

In former years there was a saying current in certain circles that ordinary Jews living outside the Land need the Jewish religion and its practices as a shield against assimilation among the nations, etc.; but those who would devise another "shield" in place of religion – and especially all those who would settle in Eretz Yisrael within a framework of their own, whatever it may be, where the atmosphere, the language, the framework, etc., are (seemingly) an exemplary shield – can dispense with the Jewish religion^[8]; or, in a more consistent formulation: what have they to do with this "burden" in their lives, a daily burden, in matters great and small?

But the course and development of events in Eretz Yisrael over the last seven or eight years bring out more and more the point that however great the necessity of religion and its practices may be for Jews abroad, they are even more necessary and vital for Jews in Eretz Yisrael. One of the basic reasons: precisely in Eretz Yisrael there is a visible danger that the second generation will produce a new type, one who will bear the banner of the name of the Children of Israel but will be a stranger to the past of our people with all its eternal and essential values, and even opposed to it – in his world view, in his culture and in the content of his daily life. Opposed – although he will speak Hebrew, live in the land of the Patriarchs, and even be stirred on hearing the Tanach.

I do not wish to elaborate at all on this painful point, for understandable reasons (especially as I see no need to elaborate). One of the reasons is that I wish to hope that "trouble will not rise up twice"^[9], and that in the end, from among that very generation, there will be those who sound a loud alarm about this danger, and the voice will be heard and will have its effect in forestalling the harm in good time. Indeed, precisely in recent years a strong ferment is felt, abroad and in Eretz Yisrael, seeking and demanding spiritual content in life; and if one looks into it deeply, the longing is for something above human intellect.

Surely the thirst of the youth and young people of our eternal people will not be quenched by the explanations and systems that are man's handiwork of today, whose fate will be like the fate of the systems newly made yesterday that are no longer to be found among the living. And here is the place for the religion of Moshe and Israel^[10], Written and Oral, our essential values from the day the people of Israel stood before G‑d our L‑rd at Chorev^[11] and the great voice was heard, which did not cease^[12]: "I am G‑d your L‑rd... You shall have no other gods..."^[13]

A command and an instruction – but in a style whose meaning is also a promise^[14].

It is understood that what is meant is not at all a theoretical religiosity, a merely speculative world view and a subject for lectures on festivals and holy days, but a way of life in actual practice and deed, on weekdays too, and in matters that people call secular as well. For our religion is essentially practical^[15].

Now is an opportune time like no other to turn and change the whole background of life in Eretz Yisrael, in all its details, in the direction stated; and this opportunity knocks at your door, for in your hands lie the possibility and the privilege to use it in the most effective way – a privilege and a possibility not every person merits, and whose like has not existed for decades.

It is plausible that the above lines will arouse wonder in your heart: do I really think that with my letter I can change and influence a world view decades old,

and especially the world view of a man who has seen the fruit of his labor?

But since, in my opinion, the situation in Eretz Yisrael^[16] is as described above, it is the situation itself, the very truth of the idea itself, and the most wonderful and unique possibility that has been given to you, sir – these are what speak, request and demand. And surely, even without my letter, you have considered all this many times.

Only, I did not consider myself permitted to pass over all this in silence at the very time that I am writing on the problem of registration, which is a part of that whole background; and I found it my duty to raise this – at least in a private letter to you.

On this occasion, and asking forgiveness for the delay in this too, I would express my thanks for your having sent me your booklet at the time; and I would draw support for what I say in this letter from what you inscribed on the booklet, where, mentioning the Land, you used the expression "the Holy Land"^[17]. Now the term "holy", like the term "Jew", had its content defined and consecrated by the generations of our people, beginning from the Giving of the Torah –

when we were given the title "a kingdom of kohanim and a holy nation"^[18], and there the holy Land was given to the people of Israel within its borders, "the land of the Canaanites and the Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates River"^[19] –

down to these days of ours, inclusive.

With respect and with blessing,

Menachem Mendel Schneerson

Publisher's notes

The question of registration (שאלת הרישום): See also above, letter 6624 (to the London Beth Din, 4 Teves 5719, that the registration question must be answered rather than left unanswered).

Notes

1. Mr. David Ben-Gurion (מר דוד שי' בן גוריון): David Ben-Gurion, Prime Minister of Israel. The day before, 8 Adar I, the Rebbe had sent him his formal reply on registering children of mixed marriages (letter 6714; the background and the course of the affair are in note 1 there). This is a personal letter written the next day, on the wider question of which registration is only one detail: the character of life in Eretz Yisrael.

2. The delay in the reply (עיכוב המענה): Ben-Gurion's letter is dated 27 October 1958; the Rebbe's reply was sent on 8 Adar I 5719 (16 February 1959). He does not spell out the reasons for the delay.

3. You (כ'): כ' = כבודו, "his honor"; so too below.

4. Protocol (הפרטי כל): פרטיכל, "protocol": the accepted etiquette of letters to a head of government.

5. Our Holy Land (ארצנו הק'): הק' = הקדושה, "holy".

6. An era "pregnant with the world" (תקופת הרת עולם): After the Rosh Hashanah prayer היום הרת עולם, "Today the world was conceived", said after the shofar blasts (Shulchan Aruch HaRav, Orach Chayim 592:6: "it is the custom to say each time the shofar is blown, 'Today the world was conceived', etc."). That is, a fateful era in which the future of the world is determined, like Rosh Hashanah.

7. The doctrine of materialism (שיטת החמרניות): The materialist view, by which material and economic factors determine the spiritual, and not the reverse.

8. Can dispense with the Jewish religion (יכולים לוותר על דת ישראל): Ben-Gurion himself wrote in his letter (point 3): "Here we are not a minority subject to the pressure of a foreign culture, and there is no fear that the Jews will become assimilated among the non-Jews as there is in several prosperous free states" (see letter 6714, note 11). So too the Rebbe below (letter 6733): שלא כדעת הטועים שענין הדת הוא נוגע לשמירת הקיום דווקא בתפוצות, משא"כ המשתקעים בארץ ישראל די להם בשפה, תרבות והארץ וכו'. ולדעתי אדרבה ואדרבה, שההכרח בדת בארץ ישראל עוד גדול מזה שבתפוצות, "contrary to the view of those who err, that religion matters for survival only in the Diaspora, whereas for those who settle in Eretz Yisrael the language, culture, the Land, etc., suffice. In my opinion it is quite the opposite: the necessity of religion in Eretz Yisrael is even greater than in the Diaspora."

9. "Trouble will not rise up twice" (לא תקום פעמיים צרה): Nachum 1:9: "What do you devise against G‑d? He makes an end; trouble will not rise up twice." Rashi there: "To Nineveh and the kings of Ashur He will not repeat it another time." The Rebbe uses the words as a hope and prayer that the danger described will not come about.

10. The religion of Moshe and Israel (דת משה וישראל): After the formula of kiddushin, "Behold you are betrothed to me... according to the law of Moshe and Israel" (Shulchan Aruch, Even HaEzer 27:1, Rema: וי"א שי"ל לה כדת משה וישראל... וכן נוהגין לכתחלה, "some say he should say to her 'according to the law of Moshe and Israel'... and this is the custom"): the faith as handed down by Moshe and by the people of Israel.

11. Stood before G‑d our L‑rd at Chorev (עמוד עם ישראל לפני ה' אלקינו בחורב): After Devarim 4:10: "the day that you stood before G‑d your L‑rd at Chorev".

12. The great voice... which did not cease (קול הגדול ולא יסף): Devarim 5:19: "These words G‑d spoke to all your assembly on the mountain, out of the fire, the cloud and the thick darkness, a great voice, and it did not cease." Rashi there: "We translate it 'and it did not cease', for His voice is strong and endures forever." The voice of Sinai has not ceased, and its values are eternal – unlike the systems "newly made yesterday that are no longer to be found among the living".

13. "I am G‑d your L‑rd... You shall have no other gods..." (אנכי ה' אלקיך גו' לא יהי' לך אלקים אחרים גו'): Shemos 20:2–3: "I am G‑d your L‑rd, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me."

14. Also a promise (בסגנון שפירושו גם הבטחה): "You shall have no other gods" is phrased in the future tense, so it is not only a command and instruction but also a promise: you will not have other gods.

15. Our religion is essentially practical (דתנו - בעיקרה מעשית היא): After Avos 1:17: "Not study is the main thing, but deed."

16. Eretz Yisrael (א"י): א"י = ארץ ישראל.

17. "The Holy Land" (ארץ הקדש): See letter 6714, which also ended with the hope that the Land would conform more and more "to its name, the name by which it is called in the mouth of all the peoples of the world: the Holy Land". Here the Rebbe adds that Ben-Gurion himself used this expression; and as the content of the term "Jew" was defined by tradition, so was the content of the term "holy".

18. "A kingdom of kohanim and a holy nation" (ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש): Shemos 19:6: "And you shall be to Me a kingdom of kohanim and a holy nation; these are the words you shall speak to the Children of Israel."

19. "The land of the Canaanites and the Lebanon..." (ארץ הכנעני והלבנון עד הנהר הגדול נהר פרת): Devarim 1:7: "Turn and journey, and come to the mountain of the Emorites and to all its neighbors, in the plain, in the mountain, in the lowland, in the south and by the seashore, the land of the Canaanites and the Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates River." The holiness of the Land and its borders too were set by the Torah, not by human definition.

Summary

The day after his formal reply on registration, the Rebbe writes Ben-Gurion a personal letter: at this fateful time the one whose decisions shape life in Eretz Yisrael bears a unique responsibility and opportunity. Contrary to the notion that religion is needed only abroad as a shield against assimilation, in Israel the danger is a generation estranged from its people's eternal values, and only the Torah given at Sinai, lived in practice, can answer the youth's thirst. As "Jew" was defined by tradition, so was "holy" in "the Holy Land".