5743

Greeting and Blessing: 

I am in receipt of your letter, in which you write that you are concerned and puzzled, and urgently request a reply - as to why I do not go to Eretz Yisrael. 

With all due respect, I do not understand at all what you will gain by having an answer to this paramount question. 

Moreover, inasmuch as Hashem created everything according to His design, and knowing that nothing is superfluous, it would be a waste of one's time and effort if it were not used productively to the fullest extent. 

On the other hand, a Jew's primary mission in life is, as our Rabbis express it, "I was created to serve my Master,"¹ and this service is carried out by strengthening and spreading Yiddishkeit, first of all in one's own life, and then in one's surroundings, bearing in mind that the mitzvah of v'ahavta I're'acha kamocha is the Great Principle of the Torah². Thus, if one should squander one's time and energy on extraneous matters, instead of using them in the fulfillment of one's life's task, it would be an obvious waste and a disruption of the whole Divine order. 

According to my information, the city in which you live is one where there is a great deal of room to work for the strengthening of Yiddishkeit, insofar as Jews are concerned, as well as for the promotion of the so-called Seven Moral Laws with all their ramifications, insofar as Gentiles are concerned, for they were given by G-d to the children of Noah, i.e. all Humanity. This is why I am all the more surprised at your question. 

Inasmuch as you write that you are very puzzled, and do request an answer, I will not evade giving you one - all the more so since the answer is quite simple. Indeed, it is already implicit in what was said above about the first duty of a Jew, and of any human being, to fulfill his mission in the place where he lives, and only after he has done everything expected of him locally, to consider whether he should go to another place to carry on his mission there. Obviously, one should not abandon the “Front" before making sure that everything is in order.

I am using the expression “the Front" advisedly. You surely know what is happening around you - the very same thing that is happening wherever Jews live, especially where they are a small minority - in terms of alienation from Yiddishkeit, loss of Jewish identity, intermarriage, and outright assimilation. It is the duty of every Jew to do his or her very utmost to combat the forces that are threatening the very foundations of our people - first and foremost where he finds them in his immediate surroundings. 

With blessing,