{"id":1589,"date":"2006-03-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-03-19T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/2006\/03\/19\/supporting-israel-financially-2\/"},"modified":"2017-05-07T18:16:57","modified_gmt":"2017-05-07T18:16:57","slug":"supporting-israel-financially-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/?p=1589","title":{"rendered":"Supporting Israel Financially"},"content":{"rendered":"

To me as a child growing up in a Hasidic family and school, the centrality of <\/span>Israel<\/span> to Judaism was not overly stressed. However, as I grew older and started to learn Hasidic philosophy, I soon realised that love for and support of the <\/span>Land<\/span> of <\/span>Israel<\/span> have a central place in Hasidic thought. In no area is this more eloquently expressed than in relation to donating to charitable causes based in the <\/span>Holy Land<\/span>.   <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The historical context to Hasidic support of the <\/span>Holy Land<\/span> is as follows. In 1777 the leader of the Hasidic fraternity in <\/span>White Russia<\/span>, Rabbi Menachem Mendal of <\/span>Vitebsk<\/span>, together with a group of colleagues and disciples moved to Tiberias. He appointed three of these colleagues\/disciples to be his representatives to his remaining followers in <\/span>White Russia<\/span>. Besides their obvious pastoral role, the representatives were also charged with the responsibility of raising funds to support those who had moved to the <\/span>Land<\/span> of <\/span>Israel<\/span>. One of the representatives was Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the first Habad Rebbe.<\/span><\/p>\n

By 1786, the task of fundraising had, for various reasons, fallen entirely to Rabbi Shneur Zalman. He set up a fund named Kollel – which exists to this day – to channel money to the new Hasidic community in Tiberias. It is intriguing to note that the fourth section of Habad’s principal book, The<\/em> Tanya<\/em>, consists almost entirely of what can only be described as fundraising letters for causes in the <\/span>Land<\/span> of <\/span>Israel<\/span>. In one such letter Rabbi Shneur Zalman writes, ‘It is [support of the <\/span>Land<\/span> of <\/span>Israel<\/span>] that has stood by us to redeem the life of our souls from the counsel of those who seek to repel our steps’ (Iggeret Hakodesh 4). He explains that when one gives charity it is as though one is sowing a seed. Just as the tree that grows from a seed is far bigger than the seed itself, so too the reward for giving charity far outweighs the charity given. He then goes on to say that, ‘This applies most particularly when one sows [charity] in the <\/span>Land<\/span> of <\/span>Israel<\/span>’ (Iggeret Hakodesh: 8).<\/span><\/p>\n

In a letter that could have easily been written for a modern-day charitable appeal for Israel, Rabbi Shneur Zalman writes, ‘[This letter is written] to arouse the old love and fondness for the Holy Land … so that people volunteer to consecrate themselves to G\u00ed\u00a2\u00e4‚\u00e5\u00e4€˜d with a full and generous hand, with one increase after another, from year to year, continually rising and excelling themselves [in their donations to the Land of Israel]’ (Iggeret Hakodesh: 14).<\/span><\/p>\n

The clear message that runs through these letters is that not only does God particularly favour the giving of charity to causes in the <\/span>Land<\/span> of <\/span>Israel<\/span> but also that this kind of charity is the most meritorious possible.  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Other Hasidic leaders also felt this way. Rabbi Nahman of Breslav, the founder of Breslav Hasidism (1772 – 1810), is quoted as saying that, ‘The charity that one gives to those in the Land of Israel is greater and loftier than that given outside the Land’ and that, ‘charity to the Land of Israel is the essential means of nullifying strict judgments, darkness and forgetfulness from the world’ (Likutey Moharan). <\/span><\/p>\n

So, from a Hasidic vantage point the Jewish Diaspora’s support of causes in <\/span>Israel<\/span> should be kept at the top of our agenda, not only for the sake of our brothers and sisters in <\/span>Israel<\/span> <\/span>but for our own sake as well.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To me as a child growing up in a Hasidic family and school, the centrality of Israel to Judaism was not overly stressed. However, as I grew older and started to learn Hasidic philosophy, I soon realised that love for and support of the Land of Israel have a central…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1589"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2375,"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1589\/revisions\/2375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}