I also think you are mischaracterizing Rabbi Kahane and Rabbi Teichtal on the issue of going to Israel. They did not hold that it was the solution because it was 'safe.' Rabbi Kahane did not claim that Israel was safer than America. He did say that America COULD BECOME unsafe, as any place could, if the economy failed or what have you, but in no way was he saying that people are *physically safer in Israel. They were surrounded by arabs. Of course not. But he was saying that spiritually we are safer their as opposed to gentile nations.
He did not explicitly say that israel was safer than america.
But telling jews to make aliyah because america was physically dangerous. That implies that israel is safer physically.
unless he was being a bit tricky with people..
but he wouldn't have been
rabbi kahane would never have wanted to endanger jewish life. He devoted his life to making jewish people physically and spiritually secure. Physically first, because without that, you'd be dead and have no spiritual security e.g.. no yeshivot.
And Rabbi Teichtal also did not just say oh wow look at this horror, should have gone to Israel and would have escaped it. I haven't read his work but have seen excerpts and seen others discuss it and he specifically makes a point that the rabbis of Europe REJECTED THE LAND and that this was punishment and that if he hadn't rejected the land and made aliyah instead, he would have been spared. It has specifically about his sin of rejecting the land, not just failing to choose to go to britain or usa or somewhere "safe." And he also admitted to the alterior motives that affected many who were opposed to zionism/aliyah. Implying his own guilt in that regard I think. But explaining that positions of authority and nice wealth, status etc played a role in rabbis' opposition to zionism and staying wherever they were rather than embrace the land of Israel. He wrote that work in some sense to atone for what he felt was a grave sin.... Not mistake but sin. And he thought it was pride and other things that mixed people up to oppose aliyah. This is from what I gathered. It's not a mere calculation of "safety." Truth is, at this point, I don't think Jews are particularly safe anywhere, except maybe america, but like the winds, that could change at any time. All it would take is some muzzies to get brave or economy to get worse and people blame israel etc etc you never know. To be safe *spiritually I'd have to choose Israel.
I have read the book, and anyhow, you misunderstood me about rabbi teichtal.
And you misunderstand what rabbi teichtal was trying to do.
rabbi teichtal was not writing the book to atone. The book was so selfless. And also talked about how he went around warning jews desperately, because he wanted to save them. And they were not letting him speak there.
He was convinced that israel was the place to go.
And that the great rabbis of his day were mistaken
He was trying to make jews physically safe, so they not be murdered..
He went travelling like jabotinsky. But religious.
I am sure he would have met with kahane had he survived!
Now, because of his theological views...
(Which were religious zionist but not named that - he would not call himself a zionist, he would not associate another ism with judaism or an ism with torah).
Because of those views. e.g. as you said, that G-d wants religious jews to build up the land and so on. I think it blinded him to the fact that jews could flee to other places for safety. Not just israel.
He was trying desperately to save jews.. Going around warning people. But only mentioning israel.
(He was right. , it was right for its time).
In the end he was murdered on a train , I guess to a death camp.
He stuck up for a jew when a gentile passenger stole his bread.
He wrote in his book that a jew should be like moshe rabbaynu sticking up for his fellow jew. I guess he thought moshe rabbaynu used the divine name
i'm sure he didn't beat the nazi!
Rabbi teichtal was tortured to death, and faithful people held to his request that his work be published and spread.
It is not of negative consequence that he only spoke of israel as the place to go..
If jews had gone there they would have been saved.
It was much safer than poland. The nazis never reaches israel thank G-d.
Where I see the problem though, is if that mentality, that Israel is the safest place, is carried over to today.
I hate to quote rabbi kahane to argue with rabbi kahane, but
Rabbi Kahane at a national press club conference , the 1990 one with the red paint. He said that it is inevitable that the arabs would have better weapons than israel, and as an orthodox rabbi, he believed that only by miracles, does/has israel survived.
(And we know, he and chaim and a newspaper article I saw from the time, have given good examples of those miracles. How in 1948 america abandoned israel, britain helped arm and officered the arabs , and israel got help from stalin of all places, and survived. And of course 1967 - as kahane said "who wins wars in 6 days?")..
My concern is that what if Israel doesn't have those miracles. And G-d gives israel the protection that he gave to Rabbi Kahane. We don't want another holocaust.
We read in ezekiel ch 36 - which kahane used - about "Divine wrath". And as he said he doesn't want divine wrath. Well if G-d forbid there was a nuclear holocaust in israel, what would we say?
We wouldn't be searching for "why why why". We have sinned so badly that I don't think religious jews would be searching for answers. Israel has been steeped in sin from the beginning.
There's alot of good in israel, and alot of bad. And in Germany.. and Poland. You had alot of good, and it was wiped out with the bad, the reform/liberal jews in germany.
We have these same black hat anti zionists in israel today growing. Not open to the threat. Thinking you just learn anothe page of gemara and things will be fine.
The same type of anti religious people, this time with guns. (one anti zionist one told me, the israeli government is like the reform movement, with guns).. In terms of their divine wrath and disobeying the torah, they are.
You have a huge threat, which targets some areas more than others. In this case, Arabs the targetting israel as number 1, and it's a small country, and they are getting better weapons.
In those days, it was Nazis. Targetting germany which they easily got, they had it any. Targetting poland - well, they killed the jews there. Not reaching certain places.
In those days you had anti-zionists stubbornly staying in poland as the threat increased.
In these days you have religious zionists stubbornly staying in israel as the threat increases.
Israelis - they don't have EU passports or american passports, they are trapped.
Jews in poland were trapped, entry and exit points blocked.
common sense says, go where it is safe. That was what to do during the holocaust. And it's fairly obvious that it's the safest thing to do now. Rather than rely on more miracles.. How can we rely on miracles when israel is sinning so badly.. How can we rely on emunah protecting us, if our leader, the man with the most emunah, rabbi kahane, was not protected.
(and if you say we didn't deserve him. Then again. It gets worse because by our sins in israel, are we really deserving? Infact, rabbi kahane thought, "no". But that what we are witnessing was our return , not for our sake, but for the sake of G-d's holy name. It's a theory that as the whole thing drags on, gets less and less likely, because as it drags on, it desecrates G-d's name. So if he was doing it for his name, then he would do it immediately. If this theory is the reason then we are risking millions of jews on this theory. And even then. Ezekiel ch36 tha talks about it, talks about divine wrath, and - from what I remember - it talks about divine wrath being the reason why G-d exiled us, because it is better that we desecrate the exiled land than the holy land).
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