Dear Shalom,
I must point out that while I admire greatly the developing future of the Israel centric Jewish people, including Rabbinic olim, my heart breaks on a daily basis seeing the rampant loss of Jewish souls in chutz laaretz to assimilation. As much as I would love to live in Israel someday, I just can't turn my back on my students. I wish this was hubris. The hard facts are I am a good and perhaps very good American educator and I would probably be a less impactful immigrant educator in Israel.
I therefore must somewhat disagree with the stated opinions that one can not be a credible Zionist educator if one doesn't make Aliyah. One of the most Zionistic activities a Rabbi can do is remain in the diaspora to teach Torah to others ala Rav Soloveitcik and the Lubavitcher Rebbi and not move to Israel.
Hundreds and thousands of students and followers have been encouraged to make Aliyah by these diaspora luminaries. This is not to criticize those rabbis who have through great sacrifice moved to Israel, but merely to point out that subtle nuances are usually better than all or nothing views of these type of issues.
Rav Herschel Schacter,shlita has stated that when his teacher the Rav ob"m was asked why he didn't follow the example of his son-in-law and disciple Rav Aharon Lichtenstein ob"m and make Aliyah, he replied that the captain must go down with the ship. This according to Rav Schacter is based on a teshuvah of the Maharam Shick about the obligation of Rabbis staying in the diaspora even when lay leaders have valid reasons to make Aliyah.
I have often said,only slightly tongue in cheek, that I wish more laymen were more Mizrachi and more Rabbis were more Satmar in their Hashkafic views. We are shepherding the passengers onto lifeboats, or perhaps the survivors of the flood of assimilation onto the Ark. It could be argued that this is just as much of a rabbinic duty as moving to Israel is.
The live in Israel only view of Zionism is what in my opinion gutted the 20th Century American Modern Orthodox community of leadership and ceded the ideological Orthodox high ground to Chasidic and Yeshivish world views.
I believe that this hybrid two way highway between the diaspora and Israel view of Zionism was espoused by Rav Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg in his collected writings of the Sridei Eish edited by Rabbi Marc Shapiro.
I know in golden hindsight many people wish more Rabbinic leaders before the physical Holocaust in Europe would have encouraged others as well as themselves to move to Israel prior to the Holocaust. I must say I wonder if during today's spiritual Holocaust going on outside of Israel if we should wish more Rabbis stay in the diaspora to save more Jewish souls from assimilation.
Shalom,
Elisha Paul
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/2016 05:16PM by mlb.
