I just got this email from my son in law, Harav Avram Lawrence. I had sent him a link to the weekly Aleh Zayis, where Rav Moshe Yehuda Kaufmain wrote
הפטרת אחרי-קדושים: אף שבדרך כלל מפטירין בהפטרת הפרשה השניה, מכל מקום באחרי-קדושים מפטירין בהפטרת אחרי 'הלא כבני כושיים' (רמ"א סוף סימן תכח). והטעם כי לכתחילה אין מפטירין בתועבות ירושלים, רק מן ההכרח כשאין לנו הפטרה אחרת. ולכן גם כשהוא פרשת קדושים לבד [היינו בשנה מעוברת] ומאיזה טעם לא הפטירו עדיין ב'הלא כבני כושיים' [כגון שפרשת אחרי היתה שבת הגדול או מחר חודש] מפטירין לקדושים ב'הלא כבני כושיים' (משנ"ב בשם הגרעק"א). וכל זה דלא כהלבוש שחולק על הרמ"א וסובר שלעולם מפטירין באחרונה, ובפרט שבהפטרת אחרי (יחזקאל כב) לא נזכר תועבות ירושלים בהדיא.
and he wrote back
... to share with you a quick story that I heard from the Muzhayer Rav who told me that in all his years of knowing his uncle the Divrei Yoel of Satmar he never found him at a loss for words except on one occasion. A rebbe had come to visit from Eretz Yisroel, an einekel of the Rizhiner Rebbe, who had a shul in Tel Aviv, and was openly supportive of the Jewish state. He was a guest of the Satmar Rav at shalosh seudos and the Satmar Rav spoke strongly against Zionism and the State of Israel. After the Rav finished speaking he turned to his guest from Eretz Yisroel and asked, "Nu how did you enjoy my speech against Tziyonis and the Medina?" This rebbe answered him that by us in Rizhin we were taught that the rebbe which is ר ב י is roshei teivos ראה בטוב ירושלים.
Like I said the Muzhayer Rav told me that it was the only location on which he saw his uncle the Satmar Rav at a loss for words.
Nice story; the tzorich iyun is obvious. The Rebbe should have responded that adderaba, ראה בטוב ירושלים is mechayeiv to hate the Medina! Love for Yerushalayim does not mean that you have to say good things about the horrible people would cause tzaar to the Ribono shel Olam and are metamei and mehareis beyadayim the whole kedusha of Eretz Yisroel.
I don't know if I'm reading too much into this, but the mashma'us is that ראה בטוב ירושלים is mechayeiv to find good things to say, no matter the circumstances. It is kedai to avoid talking about תועבות ירושלים, even if it is true and important to know it is true. Even if you have to say mussar, you should tone it down- הלוא כבני כשיים אתם לי is also not a compliment, but it's not as bad as תועבות ירושלים. Like the Gemara in Megilla 25b says,
מעשה באדם אחד שהיה קורא למעלה מרבי אליעזר ״הודע את ירושלם את תועבותיה״. אמר לו: עד שאתה בודק בתועבות ירושלים צא ובדוק בתועבות אמך. בדקו אחריו ומצאו בו שמץ פסול.
Chazal discuss how bad is is to talk against Eretz Yisrael. For example, Kesuvos 112a-b, Bamidbar Rabbah 16:4, Berachot 5a, Sifrei Devarim 1:26
ReplyDelete, and Sanhedrin 94b why meraglim were punished so harshly.
On a more Hashkafic level, similar to ראה בטוב ירושלים, pesukim such as שאלו שלום ירושלם and כי נדחה קראו לך ציון היא דרש אין לה imply that if people talk against EY (as meraglim did - some people might not be clear enough they are criticizing the government and not the land itself), it will reduce other people's desire to love EY (and some might misunderstand the distinction between the land and the government)
Kesuvos 112 talks about the land, not the people.
DeleteBamidbar Rabbah 16:4 talks about the land and דבה על הארץ, not the people.
Brachos 5a talks about ארץ טובה.
Sifrei Devarim 1:26, like the Medrash Rabbah in Bamidbar, talks only about the land, not the people.
Adderabba, talking about how the people don't deserve the land is a shevach to the land, as the RBSO emphasized, that it is a holy land, and, davka because it is uniquely holy, unworthy people deserve to be thrown out.
I do not believe it is possible that anyone would misunderstand the Satmarer shittah to be a denigration of the land itself. Even the filthy NK maniacs make it absolutely clear that it is their belief that only when the RBSO states unequivocally that we deserve the land may we take possession of it.