What was our reaction to the beckoning of the voice of the Beloved, to the munificence of ‎His ‎loving-kindness and miracles? Did we get out of our beds and immediately open the door, or ‎did ‎we continue to rest like the Lover [in the story of the Song of Songs], and were we too lazy to ‎get ‎out of our beds? “I have washed my feet, how shall I soil them?” (Song of Songs 5:3).‎

All the trembling and fear for the geographical integrity of the State of Israel, all the suggestions ‎of ‎our enemies which are directed at territorial concessions by the State of Israel, and all of ‎the ‎brazen demands of the Arabs for boundary changes are based on only one fact: the Jews have ‎not ‎populated the Negev and established hundreds of settlements there. Had the Negev been ‎settled ‎with hundreds of thousands of Jews, even Nasser would never have dreamed of the ‎possibility of ‎rending it from the State of Israel. Wide and unpopulated expanses constantly and ‎perpetually ‎endanger the tranquility of the State. The Torah has already emphasized this notion ‎when it states, ‎‎“You shall not be allowed to quickly destroy them, so that the wild animals will not ‎over whelm ‎you” (Exodus 23:29). The fact that the Jews have conquered the Negev is not enough, ‎its ‎settlement is what is important. The great sage Maimonides ruled that the first sanctification of ‎the ‎Land of Israel was not a lasting one because it was the result of a military conquest, which ‎was ‎annulled by the violent attack of an enemy whose army was vast and armaments numerous, ‎who ‎conquered the Land and took it from us. The second sanctification of the land, which was ‎carried ‎out through occupation and settlement by Divine sanction, through toil and sweat, was ‎never ‎annulled.8 The sanctity that is based on the settlement of the Land is, simply stated, for now ‎and for ‎all time! We are terribly guilty for this gross negligence. American Jewry could have ‎certainly ‎accelerated the process of colonization. Yet, why should we examine the faults of others ‎and place ‎the responsibility on the shoulders of nonobservant Jews? Let us admit our own faults ‎and confess ‎to our own derelictions. Among the Jews of America, Orthodox Jews bear the most ‎blame for the ‎slow pace of the conquest of the Land through settlement. It was for us, the loyalists ‎of Judaism, ‎to heed the call of the Beloved more acutely, and to respond to it immediately with ‎extraordinary ‎effort. In commenting on the verse “And I shall lay desolate the land” (Leviticus ‎‎26:32), Rashi states ‎in the name of Midrash Torat Kohanim: “This is a boon to Israel, that its ‎enemies will not ‎find tranquility in its land when it shall be bereft of its true inhabitants.” The Land ‎of Israel cannot ‎be built by any other nation or people. Only the Jewish people have it within their ‎power to settle ‎the Land and make its desolation blossom. The Creator’s promise was turned into a ‎wondrous ‎reality in different periods in the annals of the history of the Land of Israel. We cannot ‎forget even ‎for a moment, that the Land of Israel, like a magnet, attracted the nations of the world ‎‎— both ‎Christians and Muslims. The Crusades in the Middle Ages were undertaken with the ‎purpose of ‎conquering the Land of Israel and populating it with Christians. All the toil of the ‎Crusaders was for ‎naught. They did not strike roots in the Land. Even the indigenous Muslims did ‎not succeed in ‎properly settling the Land. It remained a barren desert, as is said, “And your land ‎shall become a ‎desolation” (Leviticus 26:33). Even in modern times, when European nations, in the ‎seventeenth ‎and eighteenth centuries, settled and populated entire continents, the Land of Israel ‎remained ‎desolate and in a more primitive state than its neighboring Arab lands: Egypt, Syria, and ‎the ‎Lebanon. Had the Land been settled by an industrious, successful, and cultured people, had ‎the ‎Land been properly populated and developed, our attachment to it would have been eroded ‎by ‎the course of events, and no Jewish foot would have trod upon it. Strangers would have eaten ‎its ‎bounty and its fruit, and our rights would have become null and void. However, the Land of ‎Israel ‎did not betray the Jewish people. It was loyal to them, awaiting redemption throughout ‎the ‎years. Logic dictates, then, that when the Jewish community was given the opportunity to ‎return ‎to its Land — which had withheld its treasures from foreigners and stored them for us — ‎Orthodox ‎Jews should have hastened to perform so great a mitzvah, to plunge with joy and ‎enthusiasm into ‎the very midst of this holy work: the building and settling of the Land. However, to ‎our regret, we ‎have not reacted that way. When the “desolate one,” which longingly waited for us ‎from era to ‎era, invited us to come and redeem her from her desolation, and when the Beloved ‎who watched ‎over the desolation for almost nineteen hundred years, and decreed that during this ‎time no tree ‎should grow, and no wells should fructify the Land, beckoned at the door of the ‎Lover, we the ‎Orthodox Jews — the Lover — did not bestir ourselves from our beds to open the ‎door for our ‎Beloved. If we had contiguous settlements throughout the Land from Eilat to Dan, our ‎situation ‎would be very different.‎

Let us publicly and frankly confess: we complain about certain Israeli leaders and their ‎attitude ‎toward the values of our tradition and religious practice. The complaints are justified. We ‎have ‎serious charges against the secular leadership of the Land of Israel. However, are only they to ‎be ‎blamed, and are we as faultless and pure as the heavenly angels? Such an assumption is ‎without ‎foundation. We could have extended our influence and done something to shape the ‎spiritual ‎character of the Land if we had but hurried to awaken from our slumber and open the ‎door for the ‎Beloved who is knocking. I fear that we Orthodox Jews are still enveloped in sweet ‎slumber. If we ‎were to establish more religious kibbutzim, if we were to build more housing for ‎religious ‎immigrants, if we were to establish an extensive system of schools, our situation would ‎be ‎completely different. Then there would be no need to come forward with complaints against ‎the ‎leaders of other movements. We Orthodox Jews suffer from a unique illness that is not found ‎in ‎nonreligious Jews (with some rare exceptions). We are all miserly. We do not excel when it ‎comes ‎to giving generously, in comparison with the rest of American Jewry. We are satisfied to ‎part with a ‎couple of pennies, and we demand, in recompense for our piddling donation, our ‎reward in this ‎world and a share in the first allocations. Thus, our dignity has reached its nadir, and ‎we do not ‎exercise appropriate influence on Jewish life here in America and on the course of ‎events in Israel. ‎Great and free America is a land of charity. The government itself, in the years ‎‎1945 to 1956, ‎disbursed $55 billion, $350 million in foreign aid projects (the numbers are truly ‎beyond our ‎comprehension), and philanthropists are truly respected in this land that knows how ‎to give and ‎help in such proportions. Accordingly, we Orthodox Jews are not entitled to the ‎greatness that ‎others possess. Lately, we have become experts at criticism and fault-finding. (“And ‎the priest shall ‎look on him, and pronounce him unclean” [Leviticus 13:3]). We know well how to ‎criticize, to look ‎for blemishes and to express opinions as self-styled experts. One thing, however, ‎escapes us, and ‎that is that the priest who pronounces defilement must leave the encampment to ‎be with the ‎afflicted sufferer so as to purify him. “And the priest shall leave the encampment ... ‎and the priest ‎shall command” (Leviticus 14:3–4). We must build not just a few small nooks, whose ‎impact is ‎unfelt, but central institutions throughout the length and breadth of America and the ‎Land of ‎Israel. We have an obligation to purify those who are “outside the encampment,” who are ‎situated ‎in the huge camp of ignorance. To this end, there is a need for vast sums; and we, the ‎Orthodox ‎Jews, are far from being generous and charitable. For this reason, our institutions here ‎and in Israel ‎suffer from want. The Religious Zionist movement especially has to content itself with ‎paltry sums. ‎Due to lack of funds, the movement cannot function appropriately. Indeed, the loyal ‎Lover is quite ‎splendid, her eyes are like twin doves and her face radiates a beautiful charm (Song ‎of Songs 1:15, ‎‎4:1). She is much fairer than the nonreligious lover. However, beauty is vain and ‎grace is deceptive‎‎ (Proverbs 31:30) if this Lover is stingy and very lazy. “I have removed my cloak, ‎how shall I put it on ‎again?” (Song of Songs 5:3). When one calls a rich Jew and asks him to give to a ‎just cause, he ‎answers, “I am going to Florida, and this year I have decided to stay in a luxury hotel, ‎and I don’t ‎have the wherewithal to give you what you requested.” What did the scholar tell the ‎King of the ‎Khazars? “You have embarrassed me, King of Khazars! … And our saying ‘worship at His ‎holy hill’ ‎‎[Psalms 99:9] is but the chirping of a starling” (HaKuzari 2:24). Do we not hear in ‎our ‎trembling over the safety and tranquility of the Land of Israel in our day, the beckoning of ‎the ‎Beloved who begs the Lover to let Him in? He has already been beckoning for eight years, and ‎still ‎He has not been properly responded to. Nonetheless, He continues to beckon. To our ‎good ‎fortune, our inherited Land has become more beautiful. The Beloved has not shown the ‎Lover any ‎favoritism, but He has compassion for her. The Beloved beckoned for only a short ‎moment that ‎night and disappeared, yet with us He has exhibited extraordinary patience. It is ‎eight years that ‎He has continued to beckon. Hopefully, we will not miss the opportunity!!‎