MK Meir Porush delivered a comprehensive and scathing speech today (Sunday) in the Knesset plenary session against the persecution of the Torah world in the Land of Israel. He addressed the "selection" that seeks to condition Jewish rights in violation of the essence of the Law of Return, and reminded that the Torah is the true and most ancient "Kushan" on the land.
Porush said in his speech: "We do not need laws, or decisions, or agreements to assert our right to be here in the Land of Israel and to study Torah. Our right to this land is not a 'civil right' created on a single bright day in 1958. It is not the fruit of negotiations nor the result of some compromise. This land belongs to the Jewish people. The promise given in the Torah to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the true and only 'Kushan' on this land.
""Anyone who thinks that our Torah study needs the 'kosher' of the Book of Laws is simply mistaken. We are here in this country because it is our home by virtue of our ancestors, and we study Torah because it is the highest thing, the essence for which we 'brought the place near for its service.' The Torah is air to breathe, and no person asks for permission or waits for the law in order to breathe. This right is not conditioned by the signature of this or that official. Not by the signature of a treasury official, not by the decision of a judge or legal advisor.
""Today, the 'HaMevasser' newspaper published news that, personally, really moves me. The news announces the discovery of the burial place of the late Rabbi Moshe Magid Meishram on the Mount of Olives - the rabbi Moshe Magid Rivlin, the father of the illustrious Rivlin family in the Land of Israel, of whom I am also one of his descendants.
""Rabbi Moshe Magid, who was born in Sheklov and was a student of the Gra, was known by his nickname 'the Magid who seeks Zion.' He not only preached about Zion, he lived Zion. In 1801, over 180 years ago, he left everything and immigrated to the Land of Israel. On his way, he met with Moshe Montefiore to discuss ways to strengthen the Jewish settlement, and arrived in Jerusalem together with his Marna Rabbi Shmuel Salant zt"l to set up a Torah tabernacle here.
""Almost 200 years ago, my grandfather's great-grandfather immigrated to the Land of Israel. He immigrated here to study Torah! He immigrated here because he knew that this was our land by virtue of the promise to our forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. As Maran HaGreitz Dushinsky said when he appeared before a UN committee, he immigrated to the Land because a significant portion of the commandments written in the Torah can only be fulfilled in the Land of Israel.
""Those whose roots are planted 200 years deep beneath the rocks of the Mount of Olives are not afraid of threats of sanctions for a year or two or arrests for a month or two. We are here to stay and study Torah, just like we have always been here.".
""My great-grandfather, the late Rabbi Moshe Magid, immigrated to Jerusalem in 1941. He trained his feet on the roads on his way to Eretz Israel, collected funds to fortify the settlement, and established a Torah ulema here - almost twenty years before Benjamin Ze'ev Herzl was even born and dreamed of establishing the World Zionist Organization. He had already built Jerusalem over thirty years before Chaim Weizmann was born and dreamed of becoming president of the state, and long before Ze'ev Jabotinsky was born and dreamed of establishing Beitar.
""When the leaders of secular Zionism were not even a thought, in the Haredi families the foundations of the Jewish settlement in Jerusalem and the Land of Israel were already being dug. When the various movements did not yet dream of establishing a state, my grandfather had already given his life to studying Torah within the walls. He did not wait for Herzl, he did not wait for the Zionist Congress, and he certainly did not wait for Ben Gurion and Ben Zvi. He came here because he wanted to fulfill the commandments of the Torah in the Land of Israel, and he lives here because this is the land of his ancestors.
""It is impossible for the establishment of the state in 1788 to be used as a tool for persecuting the world of the Torah. After all, the very establishment of the Jewish state - and not the State of Israel - was solely out of recognition of the right of the Jewish people to this land - a right whose roots are deeply rooted in the Torah. The entire justification for the existence of the state here, in the face of the nations of the world, is that same divine promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.".
""In order to justify its existence as a state that constitutes a 'national home for the Jewish people' as defined in the Balfour Declaration, the state enacted the Law of Return in its early years. A law that has other holes that we are not going to deal with right now, but the essence of the law was clear - every Jew has the right to immigrate to the land and live in it.".
""No conditions were written there, and no reservations were set there. It does not say in the Law of Return that a Jew is entitled to immigrate to the Land only if he promises to serve in the army, and it does not say that his rights as a citizen expire if he chooses to dedicate his life to studying Torah. In those years, the state would not have dared to enact such a law. Why? Because everyone understood that a Jew's right to the Land of Israel is an existential right, a right that stems from the very fact of being Jewish, and not a 'reward' for some service or another.
""But today they are trying to invent a new order here. They are trying to pass through judicial decisions and documents lacking the authority of attorneys, a selection among Jews. A Jew who does not study Torah - he receives all the rights, he is 'loyal.' But a Jew who studies Torah? He is marked. They want to impose sanctions on him, they want to take him outside the fence.
""Don't be confused - if someone dares to say that we are not human beings with rights, or tries to settle scores with us and close our accounts - we will not sit idly by. If you try to steal our right to study Torah, know that we have our own priorities. There are many other things we will close before we have to close the Gemara. We will not hesitate to turn to the whole world, to cry out against this persecution.
""I appeal to you, those who, even in the midst of a war with Iran, are engaged in persecuting Torah scholars, some through public incitement, and some through detached legal decisions - stop. You are waging a battle against yourselves. You are trying to cut down the branch on which we are all sitting.
""Make no mistake about our determination. Anyone who thinks that sanctions or arrests will subdue those who have given their lives for generations to study Torah - simply has not studied history. We are not broken. We are only strengthened in the face of persecution.".
""I call upon you from here: Do not be those who will be remembered in history as those who tried to close the gaps in the Land of Israel. Stop the persecution. Let us live as Jews in our land. Do not test our determination, because the Torah is eternal, and you - you are only passing through this eternity.".
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