Mem'sheles shel Yisroel lifnei bi'as Hamoshiach, a Jewish government in Eretz Yisroel, is that against the Torah?
My friend, I am not somebody to pasken such sheilos. Some gedolim hold that even though
there is no such thing as a Jewish government, a commonwealth, before Moshiach comes,
nevertheless once there is a kehila, even a kehila of reshoim, we have to try to get along with them and try to utilize them, we should build up Torah. That's what some gedolim say.
So you can't just say that it's nothing, and we ignore them, and we'll kiss Arafat and be his good friend, no! We want to build up Torah in Eretz Yisroel as much as we can. There are a lot of tzadikim in Eretz Yisroel, beautiful kehilos, so do the best you can to get along with these reshoim, that's what some say.
Now I am not saying that you have to love them, or give them too much respect, and when it
comes to voting, some say you should vote in order to get the best benefit. Others say, don't vote to show that you do not support the government. I am not mixing into such a question; I'll leave it to the manhigei Yisroel.
It's not a simple question; it's a complicated question and I'm not trying to persuade anybody to do anything.
The love of kin was a powerful emotion in the holy nation. They always kiss when meeting and on departing (Shmos 4:27, 18:7) and embraced (Breshis 33:4, 48:10), and in no nation was the love of fellowmen (19:18) ever cultivated as in Israel, and especially so for kin. But Aharon here demonstrated that the love of Hashem was the paramount emotion of the Cohen Gadol. Just as Abraham was tested on Mount Moriah (Breshis 22) to demonstrate that his love of Hashem surpassed his love for Yitzchok, so also did Aharon now succeed in this most difficult test.
The old sage of Slabodka, Rabbi Noson Zvi Finkel, when his great son Rabbi Moshe passed away during Yom- Tov, continued calm and cheerful in order to maintain the honor of the holy day; only at nightfall afterward did he break down in his grief. Even when the Romans were combing the flesh off Rabbi Akiva's body, he continued to recite the Shma. And thus the righteous nation, even in moments of the greatest disasters, clung firmly to their trust in Hashem's kindliness and his ultimate reward for their unswerving loyalty.
Important Numbers
