In “On Torah Values” (March 6, 2025), Rabbi Jeremy Wieder’s dismissal of Rav Elie Mischel’s article, “When Did Torah Values Become Extreme?” (Feb. 27, 2025), about Torah-based advocacy of expulsion of hostile populations and the prohibition of surrendering the land of Israel at first reminded me of an old rabbinic joke. A fellow asks his rebbe for advice on how to build a sukkah and is directed to a particular daf in the Gemara. He dutifully obeys these instructions but returns to his rebbe a week later because his sukkah collapsed. When he explained to his rebbe what he did and what resulted, the rebbe replied: “Ah, yes, Tosafot ask that question on the next daf.”
Rabbi Wieder’s contention that “the majority of Gedolei Yisrael (including Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik) saw no halachic issues with ceding land for genuine peace…” does not bring them honor. Confronted with reality, that sukkah has repeatedly collapsed. But note the linguistic legerdemain: the hoary shibboleth “land for peace” in his formulation has suddenly become “land for genuine peace,” which is obviously speculative, unknowable and therefore useless. Indeed, reductio ad absurdum, if “land for genuine peace” was legitimate because it saved lives, Israel would have to surrender land any time an enemy requests it, just to save lives, even to the point of repudiating the existence of the State of Israel, which — as Satmar and (as the Rav himself noted) Brisker ideology asserted — itself endangers Jewish life.
Yet, as the Minchat Chinuch (425:3) noted, the conquest and defense of the land of Israel by definition presupposes the loss of Jewish life and yet the Torah obligates it. Settlement of the land of Israel thus supersedes the preservation of life, except perhaps when the alternative would be a total massacre of every Jewish resident. That circumstance has fortunately never confronted us.
Blithely stating that “the majority of Gedolei Yisroel” opined something does not make it so. Rav Shlomo Aviner has repeatedly stated that more than 95% of Religious Zionist rabbis (certainly, gedolim, however defined, among them) have always opposed “land for peace” on halachic, philosophical and common-sense bases. In truth, Haredi rabbis have effectively removed themselves from this discussion as their rejection of military conscription for their constituents taints their halachic analysis. They have generally supported any peace deal because they are not doing the fighting if the peace (literally) blows up. Similarly, rabbis who do not perceive any spiritual or eschatological significance to the State of Israel would be disinclined to maintain the integrity of the land of Israel. Lacking skin in the game, their opinions do carry less weight.
Reliance on the “professional opinions” of the generals and politicians is also illusory. To cite one infamous example, Ariel Sharon in 2003 announced his disengagement plan from Gaza and the expulsion of its Jewish residents without consulting the military leadership or intelligence services, both of which subsequently warned that this folly would create a Hamas enclave on Israel’s border. Sharon persisted anyway, and that sukkah of political genius also disintegrated on October 7, 2023. Correct me if I am wrong but many of those who supported the expulsion of faithful Jews from their homes become apoplectic at the thought of expelling murderous Arabs from their homes. Curious, to say the least.
“Genuine peace” is impossible to predict. That is why I am hard-pressed to think of another country in world history that is repeatedly attacked, conquers the land from which it was attacked, and then surrenders that land to the aggressor who can then attack again. It is why we are fighting over Gaza for the seventh time. Certainly, the loss of our soldiers’ lives fighting repetitively over the same land should weigh a little more heavily on advocates of “land for genuine peace” than is apparent.
The Torah –—in its halachic and hashkafic spheres — guides us how to deal with enemies in our midst. The enemy who will be “needles in your eyes and thorns in your sides” (Bamidbar 33:55) –—constantly harassing and bleeding us and thus needs to be banished — is not limited to the seven nations. That is why Rav Mischel’s arguments are rational, reasonable, and grounded in halachic and political reality. Perhaps the time has come for supporters of the Oslo Accords and the Gaza Expulsion, rabbis among them, to publicly apologize. The day of reckoning has long passed. We do not need the collapse of more sukkot on our heads. Rather, we pray for the rebuilding of the “falling Sukkah of David,” speedily and in our days.
