Interview with Rabbi Yisroel Fridman - 22/07/2024 (scholarly souce)

Questions

1. What do the Tanakh and other holy texts say about the Land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael)?

2. What do the Tanakh and other holy texts say about the Jewish right/entitlement to live in Israel?

3. What do the Tanakh and other holy texts say about Israel’s (Jacob’s) grandchildren?

4. What do the Tanakh and other holy texts say about (the concept of) Zionism and the State of Israel?

5. What do the Tanakh and other holy texts say about the first inhabitants of the Land of Israel?

6. Who was the first Jew in Israel/How long have Jews lived in Israel?

7. What religion was practiced in ancient Israel before the arrival of Jews?

8. What language was spoken in ancient Israel before and after the arrival of Jews?

9. What can Judaism tell about the conflict in Israel today?

Answers

1. Land of israel is a land a land that has been promised and given to the patriarchs, we are connected to israel and it will always

2. There is no right or entitlement to live there, we are connected to Israel through G-d. We are all connected, we cannot sell, it is a gift from G-d from the very beginning. Even if we don’t live in the land, or are expelled that doesn’t mean that land changes ownership. The land of Israel belongs to us and will always belong to us. Losing Israel will be like G-d forbid losing a limb

3.  All of the Jews come from Jacobs children, Jacob had 12 children, they became the 12 tribes of Israel, they were all righteous people, and we all come from them

a) What about people who convert to Judaism? - A lot of the time, people convert to Judaism because of a not serious thing, because they benefit, whether they want to marry a Jewish woman. If they take upon themselves to convert to Judaism they must also live in the ways of G-d, go to synagogue, keep kosher, observe shabbat.

b) What about people who are Jewish ethnically? - They're all children of Israel, were all children of Israel, someone is Jewish because they are born from a jewish mother. Regardless of allegiance to G-d we are all children of Israel. Unfortunately some Jews don’t follow Hashem, or dont care too much. we must have compassion for them. If only they could have interest in Torah and G-d’s will, it would be very beneficial to them and the life that they live. You can never abandon your Judaism, if a jew becomes christian they still have some jew inside them, whereas a gentile who converts to Judaism they must follow the Torah. We as Jews have a responsibility to guide the world. We are a light. When a Jew studies Torah, they become a light, a candle to the people around them.

4. We must separate from the Land of Israel and Zionism. The state of Israel  that was founded in 1948, was founded by secular Zionists. Their motive was Jews should have a country a Jewish leader. Their point was to become like the other nations in the hope of less anti semitism. But we are not this way, the other nations see us and they are confused because they know that we are a special nation, that we are chosen by G-d. As much as we want to assimilate with everybody else, we cannot be like them, we are different from them. We must separate the land of Israel, which is holy, from Zionism, which is not necessarily holy. Even in the Israel Hamas War, we are not telling them that we want to be a separate nation from all the other countries, we tell them that Israel is a holy land.

5. They were not even Jewish, they were Canaan. It is only when the Jews came through the desert that the land became the Land of Israel.

6. The Torah was given in the year 2335, so about 2400 after creation, that makes it about 3,500 years ago. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, they were the first Jews before the Torah, and it’s true that they were in Israel, but then, the definition being Jewish was different before the Torah.

7. They worshiped pagan gods, idols. One of the commandments was that we would destroy all of the idols, all of the pagan gods. In general a person who worships pagan gods can’t even live in the land of Israel, because the land is so holy, that that can’t even be allowed.

8. We're not sure what language was spoken before the Jews entered Israel, but I’d imagine a language that the nations that the nations spoke between themselves. When the Jews came, they spoke the holy language, lishon hakodesh. This was an ancestor of modern Hebrew, only later they spoke Aramaic during the exile when we were sent to babylon.

9. Judaism will tell us that we have to defeat our enemies, not to make any peace treaty with our enemy, not to give away the land of Israel, to retake Gaza and develop it and let the Jewish people live in Gaza, part of the land of Israel. This is our land and we made a big mistake giving it away. Now we can just pray for the coming of the Messiah, because then everything will be resolved.