7/29/2005

Religious Zionism from an Unexpected Source

See if you can identify the source:

In my humble opinion, R' Yishmael [in his dispute w/ R' Shimon b. Yochai on Brachot 35b regarding the permissibility of setting aside Torah study in order to engage in the pursuit of 'gathering grain', i.e., earning a living - AR] only invoked the verse of 'you shall gather your grain' regarding the land of Israel when the majority of Israel is on thier land, when working the land is itself a mitzvah of 'yishuv eretz yisra'el' and to bring forth its holy fruits. Regarding this, the Torah commanded 'and you shall gather your grain'...and as it's absurd to say "I will not put on tefillin because I'm busy studying Torah", so, too one can't say "I will not harvest my grain because I'm busy studying Torah". And it's possible that even other trades which improve the world are all included in this mitzvah...
Anyone care to guess who penned these words?

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