Responsa zu Jirmejahu 2:42
Teshuvot Maharam
Q. What constitutes the merit of emigrating to the Holy Land?
A. My knowledge on this subject does not go beyond the talmudic statement (Ket. 111a) that a person who emigrates to the Holy Land is absolved from sin. This applies to a person who commits no sins in the Holy Land proper, and who fulfils all the commandments appertaining to the Holy Land. However, the punishment for a sin committed there is more severe than that for a sin committed elsewhere; for the Lord watches over the Holy Land more diligently, and the land itself can bear no sinners. For this reason the Holy Land is now desolate and contains no walled cities. Therefore, it is to those who go to the Holy Land and intend to be reckless in their behavior and particularly to quarrel there that the verse applies: "But when ye entered ye defiled My land (Jer. 2, 7)." When, however, a person emigrates to the Holy Land with sincere intentions and conducts himself there in piety and saintliness, his reward is unlimited; provided, of course, that he possess sufficient means of support there.
Q. Does a person buried in Palestine escape the hibbut hakkever (agonies of the grave)?
A. I do not know.
Q. Why did the Amoraim fail to move to the Holy Land?
A. Such an act would have seriously interferred with their studies, since in the Holy Land they would have to spend much time in finding means of support. A person is permitted even to leave the Holy Land in order to study with his teacher (Erub. 47a); therefore, one is surely not enjoined to break off his uninterrupted studies in the Diaspora and emigrate to the Holy Land where he would find his means of support with great difficulty.
Q. What is the meaning of the talmudic statement (Ket. 110b): A person who dwells in the Diaspora is as one who has no God?
A. God's presence is primarily concentrated in the Holy Land. Therefore, a person's prayers there ascend directly to His throne.
SOURCES: P. 14–5; Tashbetz, 561–5; Kol Bo, 127; Mordecai Hagadol p. 183d; Orhot Hayyim II, pp. 611–12. Cf. Moses Minz, Responsa 79.
A. My knowledge on this subject does not go beyond the talmudic statement (Ket. 111a) that a person who emigrates to the Holy Land is absolved from sin. This applies to a person who commits no sins in the Holy Land proper, and who fulfils all the commandments appertaining to the Holy Land. However, the punishment for a sin committed there is more severe than that for a sin committed elsewhere; for the Lord watches over the Holy Land more diligently, and the land itself can bear no sinners. For this reason the Holy Land is now desolate and contains no walled cities. Therefore, it is to those who go to the Holy Land and intend to be reckless in their behavior and particularly to quarrel there that the verse applies: "But when ye entered ye defiled My land (Jer. 2, 7)." When, however, a person emigrates to the Holy Land with sincere intentions and conducts himself there in piety and saintliness, his reward is unlimited; provided, of course, that he possess sufficient means of support there.
Q. Does a person buried in Palestine escape the hibbut hakkever (agonies of the grave)?
A. I do not know.
Q. Why did the Amoraim fail to move to the Holy Land?
A. Such an act would have seriously interferred with their studies, since in the Holy Land they would have to spend much time in finding means of support. A person is permitted even to leave the Holy Land in order to study with his teacher (Erub. 47a); therefore, one is surely not enjoined to break off his uninterrupted studies in the Diaspora and emigrate to the Holy Land where he would find his means of support with great difficulty.
Q. What is the meaning of the talmudic statement (Ket. 110b): A person who dwells in the Diaspora is as one who has no God?
A. God's presence is primarily concentrated in the Holy Land. Therefore, a person's prayers there ascend directly to His throne.
SOURCES: P. 14–5; Tashbetz, 561–5; Kol Bo, 127; Mordecai Hagadol p. 183d; Orhot Hayyim II, pp. 611–12. Cf. Moses Minz, Responsa 79.
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Teshuvot Maharam
Q. What constitutes the merit of emigrating to the Holy Land?
A. My knowledge on this subject does not go beyond the talmudic statement (Ket. 111a) that a person who emigrates to the Holy Land is absolved from sin. This applies to a person who commits no sins in the Holy Land proper, and who fulfils all the commandments appertaining to the Holy Land. However, the punishment for a sin committed there is more severe than that for a sin committed elsewhere; for the Lord watches over the Holy Land more diligently, and the land itself can bear no sinners. For this reason the Holy Land is now desolate and contains no walled cities. Therefore, it is to those who go to the Holy Land and intend to be reckless in their behavior and particularly to quarrel there that the verse applies: "But when ye entered ye defiled My land (Jer. 2, 7)." When, however, a person emigrates to the Holy Land with sincere intentions and conducts himself there in piety and saintliness, his reward is unlimited; provided, of course, that he possess sufficient means of support there.
Q. Does a person buried in Palestine escape the hibbut hakkever (agonies of the grave)?
A. I do not know.
Q. Why did the Amoraim fail to move to the Holy Land?
A. Such an act would have seriously interferred with their studies, since in the Holy Land they would have to spend much time in finding means of support. A person is permitted even to leave the Holy Land in order to study with his teacher (Erub. 47a); therefore, one is surely not enjoined to break off his uninterrupted studies in the Diaspora and emigrate to the Holy Land where he would find his means of support with great difficulty.
Q. What is the meaning of the talmudic statement (Ket. 110b): A person who dwells in the Diaspora is as one who has no God?
A. God's presence is primarily concentrated in the Holy Land. Therefore, a person's prayers there ascend directly to His throne.
SOURCES: P. 14–5; Tashbetz, 561–5; Kol Bo, 127; Mordecai Hagadol p. 183d; Orhot Hayyim II, pp. 611–12. Cf. Moses Minz, Responsa 79.
A. My knowledge on this subject does not go beyond the talmudic statement (Ket. 111a) that a person who emigrates to the Holy Land is absolved from sin. This applies to a person who commits no sins in the Holy Land proper, and who fulfils all the commandments appertaining to the Holy Land. However, the punishment for a sin committed there is more severe than that for a sin committed elsewhere; for the Lord watches over the Holy Land more diligently, and the land itself can bear no sinners. For this reason the Holy Land is now desolate and contains no walled cities. Therefore, it is to those who go to the Holy Land and intend to be reckless in their behavior and particularly to quarrel there that the verse applies: "But when ye entered ye defiled My land (Jer. 2, 7)." When, however, a person emigrates to the Holy Land with sincere intentions and conducts himself there in piety and saintliness, his reward is unlimited; provided, of course, that he possess sufficient means of support there.
Q. Does a person buried in Palestine escape the hibbut hakkever (agonies of the grave)?
A. I do not know.
Q. Why did the Amoraim fail to move to the Holy Land?
A. Such an act would have seriously interferred with their studies, since in the Holy Land they would have to spend much time in finding means of support. A person is permitted even to leave the Holy Land in order to study with his teacher (Erub. 47a); therefore, one is surely not enjoined to break off his uninterrupted studies in the Diaspora and emigrate to the Holy Land where he would find his means of support with great difficulty.
Q. What is the meaning of the talmudic statement (Ket. 110b): A person who dwells in the Diaspora is as one who has no God?
A. God's presence is primarily concentrated in the Holy Land. Therefore, a person's prayers there ascend directly to His throne.
SOURCES: P. 14–5; Tashbetz, 561–5; Kol Bo, 127; Mordecai Hagadol p. 183d; Orhot Hayyim II, pp. 611–12. Cf. Moses Minz, Responsa 79.
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Shut min haShamayim
They responded: "O Generation! See the word of God!" "Why do you argue about Me? You have all sinned before me!" (Jeremiah 2:29-31) They explained their words as follows: "O Generation" - are you as the generation who crossed the desert, which argued about the techelet dye?3See Midrash Tanchuma, Korach 2, quoted by Rashi on Numbers 16:1 Why then do you argue then about wool and linen? "You have all sinned before me!" - for neither will wool nor with linen [techelet threads] do you come. "See the word of God!" - See what is written in the Torah. Does is not say "see... and recall... and perform" (Numbers 15:39)? The time of performing this commandment of tzitzit is the entire day 4i.e, throughout the daylight hours, when one can 'see'., yet you rid yourself of this obligation after a single hour. The early pious ones are testimony to the habit of not walking even one moment without wearing tzitzit. All this they truly responded to me, and my heart was disturbed over this response. I gathered my strength and asked again before the King, that he might instruct them to inform me whether a woolen tallit is more acceptable than a linen one, or whether they are equal, or whether linen is invalid. They responded: the halacha is well-established among us that wool and linen are equal, and for each one, the threads are valid for the garment of that type. The reason comes from what is written (Numbers 15:38) "They shall make for themselves tzitzit on the corners of their garments." Why does it specify 'for themselves'? It means that any garment that is common among them. For the Torah does not want to be oppressive and require something that not everybody has. Rather, it allows whichever of these two materials their garment is made of, wool or linen. Some time later they responded again: "It is because of the anger replaced in our bags, to make us roll and to condemn us." (cf. Genesis 43:18) They were precise about this word 'anger', spelling it out to me 4The original verse has the word 'kessef', money, while here they say 'ketsef', anger. They explained that the Great King is angry with us on this matter of tzitzit, that we should have paid attention to and have worn it on the corners of our garments. Now we are being brought to the Day of Judgement, 'to make us roll and condemn us'.
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