well, after thisha be-av, I can reply again on some of these postings. I, and others, will have to agree to disagree with Think BIG, Joseph, and the like on the matter of Eretz Yisroel and its manifestation of Hashem Yisborach’s will.Nonetheless, allow me toanswer one detail in Think BIG’s last posting.I have never, never, impugned that what happened in the Holocaust was our Sages’s fault, G-d forbid, and was a result of their decisions. As a matter of fact, I think it would behoove everyone to remain silent on that terrible event. Sometimes. it is advisable to be “Vajidom Aharon”.However, I also cannot accept the fact that mistakes cannot be made by the biggest Gedolim. Even Moshe Rabbeinu made mistakes.You are certainly right that the Gedolim of that era made those decisions based on what they thought was best. This doesn’t mean that it was not a mistake. There were other Gedolim who had different views and ,for all of us, it is easy to have 20/20 hindsight. Absolutely, I do not fault or -chas vesholom – condemn the Gedolim of that era who made fateful decisions.They made those decisions based on their understanding of the times. I cannot say what I would have done then and, because of that, whatever was decided was decided.However, now that we know what happened, why can’t we say that it was a mistake?I understand that it will not change anything about their greatness but it does teach me that our Gedolim are not necessarly infallible. And this is the conclusion that I draw from the events of the 1930’s. Not-chas veshalom- that I accuse any Godol of being responsible for what happened. This is indeed sacrilegous and stupid because no one has prophetic vision. But I, unlike you, take every Godol’s words with a certain critical approach . I know this is anathema to you and others who believe that “emunas chachomim’ means just that, unquestioned loyalty to a Godol’s words.
I say, with some sadness in my voice, that I cannot accept this rigid view and, as I said before, this approach to “emunas chachomim” is very modern and is not reflected in our own past.
As far as what the Zionist leadership did or did not do, sure they had an agenda but it was an agenda that they thought was for the good of Klal Yisroel. You will disagree and this is OK too,but I prefer to look at the good in every Jew’s actions and to me,at least, there was a lot of good in the Zionist work.