The Three Oaths
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The Three Oaths (Hebrew: שלוש השבועות) is an Aggadic Midrash found in the Babylonian Talmud[1] which states that it is forbidden for the Jewish people to immigrate to the Land of Israel in an organized manner, or to rebel against the nations of the world. While Religious Jewish anti-Zionist groups, such as the Neturei Karta, view this Midrash as a binding, most Jewish theologians do not for a variety of reasons.
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[edit] Content of the Midrash
R. Yossi ben R. Hanina: "What are these three oaths? One that Israel not “ascend the wall”: one that the Holy One, Blessed be He, adjured Israel not to rebel against the nations of the world: and one that the Holy One, Blessed be He, adjured the nations of the world not to oppress Israel overmuch."
The Midrash in question is based upon three verses found in the Song of Songs:
Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you
by the gazelles and by the does of the field:
Do not arouse or awaken love
until it so desires (Song of Songs 2:7)
Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you
by the gazelles and by the does of the field:
Do not arouse or awaken love
until it so desires. (Song of Songs 3:5)
Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you
by the gazelles and by the does of the field:
Do not arouse or awaken love
until it so desires. (Song of Songs 8:4)
The Midrash on these verses is based on the traditional interpretation of the song, according to which the Song of Songs is an allegory for the relationship between God and the Jews.
[edit] Use by Religious Anti-Zionists
Haredi thinkers, such as Rebbe Joel Teitelbaum of the Satmar Hassidim, have cited The Three Oaths as proof for their anti-Zionist position which forbids Jewish mass-immigration to the Land of Israel and Jewish rule over it (Haredi Jews who subscribe to this view are known to immigrate to the Land of Israel, but only as individuals and not as part of an organized mass-immigration).[2]
At the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust which took place in Iran in December 2006, the Neturei Karta delegation claimed that the Holocaust was caused by the violation of the first two vows by the Zionist movement, which in turn caused the nations of the world to violate the third vow.[3] This claim was met with determined opposition in the Haredi sector in Israel. The Satmar Rebbe condemned the comments via pashkevil, and Member of the Knesset Moshe Gafni made a speech against them in the Knesset.
[edit] Religious Zionist Responses
There have been several responses to the anti-Zionist claims from the religious Zionist camp, among them:
- Rabbi Hayyim ben Joseph Vital wrote that there was a Baraita from the Beit Midrash of Rabbi Ishmael which restricts the validity of The Three Vows to one thousand years, upon which their validity expired.
- The Three Vows are an Aggadic Midrash, and therefore they are not Halakhically obligatory (based upon the writings of the Rambam, who said that Midrashim are not a valid source of Halakha).
- Although The Three Vows were obligatory in the past, the gentiles violated their vow by excessively persecuting the Jewish people, and therefore the validity of the two other vows has expired. Thus, the ban on mass-immigration to the Holy Land is null and void (based on the teachings of Rabbi Shlomo Kluger).
- The Balfour Declaration, San Remo conference and United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 constitute permission and approval from the nations of the world, and thus Israel cannot be considered to have rebelled against the nations.
[edit] See Also
[edit] References
[edit] Sources
- R. Shlomo Aviner, Kuntres She-Lo Ya'alu Be-Homah
