Rabbi Yssachar Shlomo Teichtal was born in Hungary in 1885 to a family of well-known Rabbis and Hasidic leaders. At the age of 13, he began his rabbinical studies. When he turned fifteen, he moved to Poland, where he studied with Rabbi Shalom Unger. He returned to Hungary and, at the young age of 21, received rabbinical ordination. In 1921, he became the Chief Rabbi of Pishtian, Czechoslovakia, where he established his own rabbinical academy (Yeshiba).
THE NAZI INVASION
Czechoslovakia was invaded by the Nazis in 1938. Rabbi Teichtal, along with 10 members of his family, hid in a Bet Midrash (Tora study house) and witnessed the atrocities committed by the Nazis and the mass deportations to concentration camps. In 1942, he and his family managed to escape to Hungary and settled precariously in Budapest, where they remained for almost two years. In 1944, when Hungary was invaded by the Nazis, they were captured and transported to Auschwitz. In January 1945, the prisoners of Auschwitz were taken by train to Mauthausen. Rabbi Teichtal was killed by a group of Ukrainians who were on that train when he wanted to defend a Jew whose bread was stolen.
HIS IDEAS
Rabbi Teichtal, like most European Hasidic Rabbis of his time, opposed Zionism, the Jewish movement that sought to establish an independent Jewish State in Israel. Rabbi Teichtal spoke against Zionist emigration to “Palestine” explicitly. In 1936, for example, he wrote that “the Zionist movement was defiling the holy land.”
His opposition to Zionism was based on two fundamental points:
- The new Jewish State should not be the fruit of human effort but exclusively of “Divine Intervention,” which should be part of the messianic redemption.
- The leaders of the Zionist movement, and most of the Jews who were settling in Israel, building the new state, were not religious but secular Jews.
THE MERIT OF THE LAND
However, during the time he was hiding in Czechoslovakia and during the years of seclusion in Hungary, Rabbi Teichtal radically changed his way of thinking. In those years of seclusion, he wrote his reflections in a book called “Em Habanim Semecha,” which reflects his new vision.
The Biblical verse that inspired his new positive way of looking at the efforts of the Zionist movement is found in this week’s Parasha, Behar-Behuqotay, “And then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, with Isaac, and with Abraham, and I will also remember the land” (Vayiqra 26:42).
In this text, the Tora says that when the Jews are persecuted by their numerous enemies in exile, HaShem will finally remember the covenant He made with our ancestors and rescue His People from the hands of their enemies. The persecution that the Tora describes in that text is so terrifying that Rabbi Teichtal could relate this atrocities with the Shoah. This prompted the rabbi to ask himself why God did not remember His covenant and rescue His people from the Holocaust.
Then he realized that there are two unusual elements in this verse.
- First, that our ancestors are usually mentioned in chronological order: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. But in this verse, for some reason, they are mentioned in reversed order.
- This verse mentions the Land of Israel at the end.
Why?
FROM LESS TO MORE
Based on Rashi’s commentary, Rabbi Teichtal explained that for God to listen to us and deliver us from our enemies, perhaps the merit of Jacob, the youngest of the patriarchs, would suffice. However, if that merit were not enough, then God would remember the merit of Isaac, which is greater than that of Jacob. And finally, if the merit of the patriarch Isaac was not enough, God would remember the great merit of Abraham Abinu. But what if, due to the severity of our evil deeds, assimilation and neglect of our Covenant with God, the merit of our patriarchs also would not be sufficient? Then, Rabbi Teichtal explained, we would have left the merit of the Land of Israel. And “the merit of the land” is none other than the Zionist ideal: leaving Europe and coming back to the Land of God, Erets Israel!
A NEW VISION
Rabbi Teichtal concluded that the efforts of the Zionist pioneers who had come to “Palestine” to build a new state were highly significant and spiritual. It was a sacred and religious undertaking, even though these secular Jews, due to their lack of access to a proper Jewish education, did not lead observant lives. Unknowingly or unwittingly, they were part of a Divine Plan. Returning specifically to the land of our ancestors, rather than places like Uganda or Entre Rios, was their own way of “Teshuba,”, returning to God. Why should we take this merit away from them?
Zionism, he finally understood, embodied a prophetic and deeply religious vision, promoting the return to the Land of Israel that began FIFTY YEARS before the Holocaust took place. How many Jews who were killed in Europe could have been saved by returning to the land of Israel before the Holocaust began?
Rabbi Teichtal’s new plan was twofold: first, we must do whatever was possible to inspire a reawakening of Jewish tradition and observance (Kiruv) among the Zionist pioneers, and second, to do whatever possible to influence observant Jews to take part in the Zionist effort. If observant Jews were to return to Israel, they would undoubtedly inspire secular Jews, and the Jewish people would be saved physically and spiritually by living in our land and gradually embracing our Tora.
