Bar-Ilan University
Parshat Hashavua Study Center
Parshat Nitzavim-Veyelech 5774/
September 20, 2014
This series of faculty lectures on the weekly Parsha is made possible by the Department of Basic Jewish
Studies, the Paul and Helene Shulman Basic Jewish Studies Center, the Office of the Campus Rabbi,
Bar-Ilan University's International Center for Jewish Identity and the Computer Center Staff at Bar-Ilan
University. For inquiries, please contact Avi Woolf at: opdycke1861@yahoo.com.
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Rabbi Alkalai on Returning to Zion and Returning to the Lord
By Yitzhak Kraus*
The main theme of parashat Nitzavim is repentance. This short weekly reading has enjoyed
extensive interpretation. Rabbi Yehudah Solomon Alkalai (1798-1878), whose yahrzeit falls
on the 4th of Tishre, had a unique and innovative way of interpreting this parashah.1
Nevertheless, this exceptional figure has received little recognition even in our times. Thus
this article serves to commemorate him and give fresh life to his teachings.
The pamphlet, Petah ke-Hudo shel Mahat ("An Opening Like the Eye of a Needle"), devoted
to the theme of general teshuvah in the teachings of Rabbi Alkalai, presents a classic
question regarding Maimonides' definition of the commandment of teshuvah, that "This
confession [when a person repents and returns from sin] is a positive command" (Hilkhot
*
Prof. Kraus is president of Herzog College.
1
On his approach to Bible commentary, see Rabbi Yoel Ben-Nun, "Ha-Mahapekhah be-Musag ha-
Teshuvah be-Tefisato ha-Hilkhatit ve-ha-Historit shel ha-Rav Yehudah Alkalai," in Ze'ev Harvey et al.,
Zion ve-Ziyyonut be-Kereb Yehudei Sefarad ve-ha-Mizrah, Jerusalem 2002, pp. 143-153.
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Teshuvah 1.1).
This assertion prompted Rabbi Alkalai to remark:
"I find it hard to
understand why Maimonides listed the commandment of teshuvah (= repentance or return)
in such an offhand way, that when a person repents he must confess…He should have said
that it is a positive command for a person to return unto the Lord."2
Maimonides' resolution of this issue, as Nahmanides has explained, was that the
commandment of teshuvah that appears in the Torah four times (three in this week's
reading and once in Parashat Va-Etchanan) in the context of the End of Days, applies only to
that time. The commandment that applies to our time is that of confessing. Rabbi Alkalai,
however, persisted in asking why "Scripture made teshuvah dependent on the End of Days,"
when a person ought to do teshuvah every day.
Rabbi Alkalai's innovative idea was that "there are two sorts of teshuvah: individual teshuvah
and general teshuvah." Individual teshuvah refers to a person repenting according to the
established ways of repentance, each at his own level, "but general teshuvah refers to all
Israel returning to the Lord our G-d, to the land promised to our ancestors. Whoever lives
outside the land of Israel is like a person who has no G-d" (loc. cit., p. 324).
In the above-mentioned work, Rabbi Alkalai substantiated his views at length using quotes
from various sources, thus clarifying the etymological significance of the concept of
teshuvah:
Be aware that the first meaning of the word teshuvah is that a person return
to the place whence he came, as in "u-teshuvato ha-Ramatah (= Then he
would return to Ramah), for his home was there" (I Sam. 7:17)…and general
teshuvah follows the first meaning, that we return to the land whence we
came, for it is our home and life (loc. cit., p. 326).
"Surely, this Instruction…is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach"
Rabbi Alkalai had a practical program and practiced what he preached. He noted that the
twenty-four things that forestall teshuvah, as Maimonides listed them, have to do with
individual repentance, "but general teshuvah is forestalled only by two things: a permit from
the rulers and the expense of the journey" (loc. cit., p. 329). In several places in his writings
Rabbi Alkalai set forth a practical diplomatic program for obtaining a permit from the
2
Kitvei ha-Rav Yehudah Alkalai, Rav Kook Institute, Jerusalem, 1975 (subsequent references pertain
to this edition), Vol. 2, p. 323.
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nations, a program that preceded Herzl's and may even have provided the basis for Herzl's
diplomatic Zionist program.
Rabbi Alkalai noted that the act of general teshuvah begins with diplomatic endeavors, as he
put it: "[The Israelites]…will seek the Lord (Hos. 3:5)—this refers to the kingdom of heaven;
that is to say, the act of teshuvah that will be done by Israel at the End of Days will begin
with them seeking amnesty from kings on earth" (Goral 34, p. 530). According to him,
human activism is not incompatible with faith in the Holy One, blessed be He, as the antiZionist ultra-Orthodox might argue. Quite the contrary:
Israel's Redemption will be brought about by kings on earth,…for Salvation is
the Lord's alone, and He will cause it to be realized by human beings, just as
He caused salvation from the exile in Babylonia to be brought about by
Cyrus and in the future will cause Israel's Redemption to be brought about
by the kings of the gentiles, for the Lord will awaken their spirit to let them
go…for the leaders of Israel will establish an opening like the eye of a
needle…and the Holy One, blessed be He, will make that opening as broad
as the entrance to a hall and will incline their hearts to do their behest. (loc.
cit., p. 532)
Rabbi Alkalai called for founding an association to deal with the matter, knowing that the
Jewish community would not respond in large numbers. He noted: "When our land, the
inheritance of our ancestors, is given the name of Israel, the heart of every Jew will be
stirred to help in body and with monetary support, and though the beginnings may be small,
yet the end will greatly increase" (ibid.).
Surprisingly, this was written in 1864. He claimed that the spirit of the times made the
prospects among the kings of Europe look good, because they "are sovereigns of loving
kindness more than the kings of yore" and will issue the longed for permit. He noted
further, "Britain will be the first of all the House of Joseph to look out for us, and we should
be grateful to them…for they will be emissaries of the Almighty, and next after them the
rulers of France will be helpful to us" (Sefer Hayyim, pp. 446-447).
His political philosophy was written in this light, that this idea encapsulated the
commandment of teshuvah in parashat Nitzavim, expressed in "religious" terms: "This
commandment is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach." He supported his
argument with an analysis of the political situation at the time, which in his view offered a
propitiable moment for requesting a permit to settle the land of Israel.
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What is not accomplished by good sense will be accomplished by time
The rabbis of Jerusalem opposed the practical program advanced by Rabbi Alkalai, who
maintained that Jerusalem should be built up in the natural way by practical endeavor
alongside Torah study and worship of the Lord. In response to their view that, "Jerusalem
was created solely for occupying oneself with Torah" (Kol Koreh, p. 7), Rabbi Alkalai said: "In
this world one cannot behave as in the World to Come, where there is neither eating nor
drinking" (loc. cit.).
Jerusalem's rabbis ignored his words, and in several of his writings Rabbi Alkalai called for
halakhic negotiation with them on the matter, explaining why they were ruling out his
opinion without relating to its substance. In his bitterness he wrote:
For twenty-five years now the beloved country of our sacred patriarchs has
burned in my blood, and I call ardently for settling the land…and although I
have heard it said that there are some rabbis who are not inclined to look
favorably on settling the land, I have not retreated from my position, for I
say: may this be written down for a coming generation; and what is not
accomplished by good sense will be accomplished by time.
(Raglei
Mevasser, p. 635)
Rabbi Alkalai acted in the awareness that since 1840 the times offered a window of
opportunity for returning to the land of Israel, and argued that those were the days of the
Messiah. He feared lest the "days of the Messiah be lost" and therefore acted with vigor to
spread his theory of teshuvah and to embark on practical steps. In his introduction to the
pamphlet "Shelom Yerushalayim" he asserted that 1840, the Year of Redemption, was not a
single year, but "a century, from this day until 1939, for afterwards comes the year tav-shin
(1940), Heaven forfend."
What did he fear and why did he say, "Heaven forfend"?
In 1860 he wrote truly prophetic words, foreseeing the bitter future but also the rebirth that
would follow:
If, Heaven forfend, the Lord spread over us a spirit of slumber and we not
awaken and gather as a united body to see to the matter of ingathering, the
days of the Messiah son of Joseph will be lost, for they are in the sixth
millennium (i.e., 1840-1939), and at the end of the sixth millennium will
come the descendant of David with a strong hand and an outstretched arm,
and with an outpouring of wrath will gather our dispersed, by ones from the
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city and twos from the home, a poor impoverished people, smitten and
tortured, aghast at the evil and consumed by troubles, for not having
respected the G-d of Israel to return and huddle under His cover in the land
of Israel. (Sefer Hayyim, p. 399)
He went on, pressing the rabbis and men of action (who were not heeding him):
The Jews should have thus gathered at the beginning of the sixth
millennium, because the exile was decreed for a thousand years: "He has
left me forlorn, in constant misery" (Lament. 1:13). Since the Jews did not
awaken to thus come together, hard times of trouble, expulsion and
extermination set in. As Rabbi Joshua wrote in Perek Helek, "But the Holy
One, blessed be He, will set up a king over them, whose decrees shall be as
cruel as Haman's whereby Israel shall engage in repentance, and he will thus
bring them back to the right path" (Sanh. 97b); meaning, that if they do not
return to the land of Israel, the Holy One, blessed be He, will set up a king
over them whose decrees shall be cruel and harsh, and thus cause them to
return against their will and not to their advantage, "for by a strong hand he
shall let them go and by a strong hand he shall drive them from his land,"
naked and lacking all, as happened to our ancestors who were expelled from
Spain and the like (loc. cit., p. 400).
We were not so fortunate as to have Rabbi Alkalai's teachings of teshuvah prevent the
Holocaust. At the end of his pamphlet, "Petah ke-Hudo shel Mahat," he noted in near
despair that his words were being so ignored, "I will carry on in my naiveté. For the paths of
the Lord are smooth; the righteous can walk on them, while sinners stumble on them, and
the zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall bring this to pass. This shall be my consolation, for His
ways point to the truth, and what is not accomplished by good sense, will be accomplished
by time" (p. 352). We have, however, had the good fortune to return to the land of our
forefathers, and we pray that we all be blessed with seeing the return of the generality of
Israel, as in Rabbi Alkalai's commentary, bringing to pass the words of the prophet, "and
they shall be called, 'The Holy People, the Redeemed of the Lord'" (Isaiah 62:12).
Translated by Rachel Rowen
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