The following talk was given by the Rebbe in response to the government of Israel forbidding Jewish people from restoring the Abraham the Patriarch Synagogue in Hebron. This was after Professor Ben-Zion Tavgar together with members of the Jewish community of Hebron were searching for the synagogue buried under a goat shed. Through the trials endured by the professor and his helpers to expose the synagogue, they were evacuated time and time again by instruction of the Government of Israel.]
The entire land of Israel was given (by G-d) to the Jewish People as an everlasting inheritance. No one has the right to cede any area of the Land of Israel. The question arises: this is a matter which is so obvious, why then do we have to review this repeatedly? The reason is: the exile is so dark that there are Jews who point a finger of accusation at the Jewish People: “You are thieves”. We need to conduct ourselves with righteousness and return the territories of the Land of Israel. They misinterpret the Torah, may G-d protect us, by saying we must confiscate land owned by Jews and give it the to gentiles to avert life threatening danger. In actual fact, the opposite is true!As we saw, after the signing of the unfortunate Camp David Accords, security experts stated that the signing was a severe blow: if they will return Judea and Samaria, it will be a cause of severe danger to every Jew in the Holy Land.
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| The beautiful Synagogue of Avraham Avinu in Hebron after Renovation |
The legal ruling in Shulchan Aruch 329.6 states: ‘even gentiles who argue that they are approaching merely for stubble and straw, it is forbidden to open the borders to them because the entire land will thereby be at risk’. Nevertheless, regardless of serious danger, the government is determined to return Judea and Samaria, but dress this in various façades such as autonomy, self-rule etc, which are concepts of no real content. One should not think that they will be satisfied with this. In this great darkness a shocking event occurred.
All agree that Arabs may purchase land in Hebron, as may Jews. Certainly the Arabs agree that the synagogue of Abraham the Patriarch is rightfully a Jewish place. [It is irrelevant whether or not this was in fact the synagogue of Abraham]. If an Arab may renovate his own house, Jews should be permitted to renovate their synagogue. In actuality however, the government conducts itself in accordance with the words of our sages, ‘one sin leads to another’.
The government wants to give self rule to the Arabs of Judea and Samaria regardless of the fact that this poses great danger, as attested to by all military experts. More so, they do not permit Jews to renovate the synagogue of Abraham the Patriarch because they are afraid of the Arabs, and have no shame in stating so.Similarly they do not want to interfere with the internal affairs of the Arabs. Only the Arabs benefit from this. The government of Israel comes and pats the Arab on his back and says to him: “You are our brother! Choose for yourself a leader and no one will mix into your affairs!” One sees the direct clash of these two issues– the synagogue of our Patriarch Abraham and the internal affairs of the Arabs, and no one utters a word of protest on this shocking situation!
And as if this is not enough, they take soldiers who sacrifice themselves to protect our Holy Land and our Holy People, and make use of their self sacrifice to throw out Jews from the synagogue of Abraham our Patriarch in Hebron! Nevertheless, everyone is silent.
Public talk Simchas Torah 1979
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