A Parable For Jews Who Reject Israel

http://www.thejc.com/blogpost/who-rejects-who-0The following story is from Who Rejects Who?--a post by Avraham Reiss that appeared in The Jewish Chronicle.

The teller of the story below, Rabbi Zvi Yehudah HaCohen Kook, was the son of the famous Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, first Chief Rabbi of Eretz Yisrael. Read the original article for more background.

The story was told by Rav Zvi Yehuda once at a shabat meal in his house. It was told after Rav Zvi Yehudah heard that some Jewish tourists had returned to their country of origin and foul-mouthed the Land of Israel. The story was originally told by Rabbi Shmuel Mohilever, a 19th century founder of Religious Zionism and of the Mizrachi movement.

In a certain village there lived a young man who was very rich - and was as uncouth as he was rich. In the same village lived a very poor family, one of whose daughters was a very beautiful girl, who was also possessed of exceptionally good personality traits.

The young man was very attracted to the young lady, but despite his sending a few shadchanim (match-makers) to arrange a meeting between them, the lady was not interested and refused every suggestion. One day her father asked to for his sake to meet with the young man just once, so that he would stop pestering her and the family. She agreed, and he was invited for shabat lunch.


When he arrived, the young lady appeared in an old, not-too-clean dress, no make-up, her hair disheveled, and in general showed him no affection whatsoever.

The young man left, telling everyone he knew that the stories about her beauty and character were a lie, that she was in fact ugly and ill-mannered.

This, said Rav Zvi Yehudah, is Eretz Yisrael. This is a holy land with special qualities, which will not accept people who's spiritual qualities are not suited for it. In such cases it makes itself appear to them in an unappealing fashion, so while they are going around saying how much the Land of Israel is not worthy of them, in fact it is they who are not worthy of living in the Land of Israel, which has in effect rejected them.

This is how one should react to Israel-haters; they are in fact rejects.

I truly believe that reading what such people say and write about Israel--and the way they express themselves--proves the truth of this parable.

Technorati Tag: Rabbi Zvi Yehudah HaCohen Kook.