Torah Jews/Torah on Zionism

The Three Oaths.

The Talmud (Kesubos 111a) records three oaths placed upon the world for the duration of the exile. They are the foundation of a patient faith — and the reason a Jewish political state, before the redemption, is a contradiction in terms. This is the line Zionism crosses: it takes belief in God — that redemption comes in His time, by His hand alone — and recasts it as nationalism, an end seized by army, parliament, and flag.

i. The Torah position

Three oaths, one exile.

Recorded in tractate Kesubos 111a — two laid upon the Jewish people, one upon the nations — for the whole duration of the exile.

01
Oath the first

Not to ascend as a wall.

Israel shall not return to the Land en masse, by force of arms or organized political conquest. The return is not a project to be engineered.

Talmud · Kesubos 111a
02
Oath the second

Not to rebel against the nations.

Exile is a condition to be borne with humility — not the premise of a nationalist uprising against the peoples among whom we live.

Talmud · Kesubos 111a
03
Oath the third

Not to force the end.

The redemption belongs to Hashem, in His time. It is not to be hastened by human hand — and not by a parliament, an army, or a flag.

Talmud · Kesubos 111a

ii. In the sources

In the words of the Talmud.

The Biblical book Song of Songs says: “I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the deer of the field, not to arouse or awaken the love before it is desired.” This oath occurs three times in the Song of Songs (2:7, 3:5 and 8:4). The Talmud interprets this metaphorical language to mean as follows: the speaker here is G-d, and the “daughters of Jerusalem” are the Jewish people and the nations of the world. During the Jewish exile, which began with the destruction of the Temple in the year 70 CE, G-d placed three oaths upon the world, two upon the Jewish people and one upon the nations. The Jewish people were foresworn not to immigrate as a wall (i.e. en masse) to the Holy Land, and not to rebel against the other nations. The nations were foresworn not to afflict the Jews too much.

"Three oaths did the Holy One, blessed be He, impose: that Israel shall not go up to the Land as a wall; that Israel shall not rebel against the nations of the world; and that the nations of the world shall not oppress Israel excessively."Talmud Bavli · Tractate Kesubos 111a

Midrash Rabbah on Song of Songs 2:7 — explanation of the oaths. The reason for the oath against mass immigration is that if the Jews were to do this on their own, why would the messiah have to come to gather in the exiles of Israel?

Tractate Shabbos 63a — no Jewish sovereignty before the messiah. The difference between the present era and the days of messiah is that in the present era Jews are in exile under the nations and in the days of the messiah they will be independent.

iii. Eight centuries of agreement

From Rashi to Hirsch.

The prayer “G-d of salvations, in the four oaths” is a reference to the oaths of the Song of Songs. We ask G-d: Save us, for You have made us swear not to rebel against the nations, and we are keeping your oath in exile and bearing the yoke of exile.Rashi (1040-1105) · Commentary to the Prayerbook
The messiah will gather in the Jews from exile. Whoever does not believe in him is denying the Torah, which says (Deuteronomy 30:3), “The L-rd your G-d will restore your exiles and have mercy on you.”Maimonides (1135-1204) · Laws of Kings 11:1
When King Solomon, peace be upon him, made known with his holy inspiration that this nation, when it is sunk into exile, will try to arouse itself not at its proper time, he warned against this, and made an oath against this in an allegorical way, and said (Song of Songs 2:7), ‘I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem…’Maimonides (1135-1204) · Letter to the Jews of Yemen
Living in the Holy Land is a meritorious act; nevertheless, the Jewish people must not all go up together with a strong hand, in an act similar to the ingathering of the exiles, for they are not permitted to hasten the end, until the Creator hastens our redemption.Rabbi Yishaya ben Eliyahu Di Trani (c. 1300) · Piskei Riaz, Kesubos 13:8
We must follow in the footsteps of the Patriarchs and prepare ourselves to approach the gentiles with gifts, with soft speech and with prayer before G-d. But war is impossible, for G-d made the Jewish people swear not to wage wars against the nations.Rabbi Bachya ben Asher (d. 1340) · Commentary to Genesis 32:3
There is no doubt that traveling to the Holy Land is a meritorious act…but now, one of the Three Oaths G-d made the Jewish people swear is not to go up as a wall.Rabbi Yitzchak ben Sheishes (1326-1408) · Responsa of the Rivash, Chapter 101
During exile, living in the Holy Land is not a general commandment for all Jews, but on the contrary it is forbidden, as the Talmud says in the last chapter of Kesubos, that this is one of the oaths that G-d made the Jews swear: that they not hurry the end and not go up as a wall.Rabbi Shlomo ben Shimon Duran (1400-1467) · Responsa of the Rashbash, Chapter 2
Abraham feared that his descendants would rise up to leave the exile before the time set by G-d...we must bear the yoke of the exile and live under the nations until the time of the End.Rabbi Isaac Abarbanel (1437-1508) · Yeshuos Meshicho v. 1, p. 11b
G-d made the Jewish people swear by the heavens and the earth not to leave exile before the time. For just as the heavens and the earth keep to the order of nature decreed by G-d, never changing, in the same way the Jewish people must keep the order of exile decreed by G-d. Therefore they must not violate the decree.The Maharal of Prague (1520-1609) · Netzach Yisroel, Chapter 24
The verse “I will scatter you among the nations” refers to the first oath, which mandates that the Jews remain scattered and not immigrate as a wall, with a strong hand, to resettle the Holy Land.Rabbi Chaim Ben Attar (1696-1743) · Ohr Hachaim Commentary to Leviticus 26:32-33
The Jewish people cries out to the nations, "Do not awaken an early ingathering of Israel! Even if all the Jews are ready to go to Jerusalem, and all the nations agree, still, G-d forbid that I should go there!”Rabbi Yonasan Eybeschutz (1690-1764) · Ahavas Yonasan
When the uprising led by Bar Kochba proved a disastrous error, it became essential that the Jewish people be reminded for all times of an important fact; namely, that they must never again attempt to restore their national independence by their own power; they were to entrust their future as a nation solely to Divine Providence.Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888) · Commentary on the Prayerbook, p. 703

iv. Objections, answered

Answering the counterarguments.

Vayoel Moshe: The Gemara begins with the story of Rabbi Zeira and Rav Yehuda. Rabbi Zeira did not want Rav Yehudah to know he was moving to Eretz Yisroel, because Rav Yehuda held, based on the Three Oaths, that it was halachically forbidden even for an individual to move to Eretz Yisroel. Rabbi Zeira countered that the Oaths apply only to the Jewish people as a whole, not to individuals. This was clearly a halachic dispute.

True, the Rambam and Shulchan Aruch don’t bring the oaths, but we never reject something as halacha simply because it is not brought down in those two works. The commentaries on the Rambam and Shulchan Aruch are full of halachos that these poskim didn’t bring down, and explanations are sought and found as to why they didn’t bring them down. The law is included in another law, contradicted by another law, etc. Every yeshiva student knows this.

In this case, the Rambam makes it clear in his Letter to Yemen that he did in fact view the oaths as binding law. The Megillas Esther in Sefer Hamitzvos (end of Mitzvos Aseh, responding to the Ramban’s argument that the Rambam should have counted living in Eretz Yisroel as a positive commandment) also makes clear that the Rambam viewed the oaths as binding law.

1) One of the oaths is that the Jewish people must not go up to Eretz Yisroel as a wall. There is a disagreement among the commentators as to whether this oath applies to any mass immigration, or only to armed conquest. Even those (such as the Avnei Nezer and the Ohr Somayach) who say that only conquest is prohibited, but mass immigration with permission from the ruling power, such as the Turks or the British, is permitted, never discussed the idea of founding a sovereign state. Founding a sovereign state means effectively ending the exile, and is a violation of the oath against “forcing the end,” one of the additional oaths listed in the Gemara.

2) The nation that permits immigration has to be the nation ruling the land, not other nations. The two-thirds majority of the UN who voted for a Jewish state in November 1947 did not include Britain, who ruled the land at that time. So according to the Avnei Nezer and Ohr Somayach, the UN resolution would have been halachically ineffective even to permit immigration, much less a state.

3) The State of Israel conquered many areas not allotted to them by the UN. The partition plan called for a Jewish state in 55% of Palestine but at the end of the war in 1949, the Israelis controlled 78%, including Jerusalem, which was supposed to have been an international city. In 1967 they conquered the remaining 22% and much more.

Vayoel Moshe: Prior to 1948, no posek or commentator ever suggested that the oath not to go up to Eretz Yisroel “as a wall” was part of a contract with the nations, because they never viewed that oath as being for the nations’ benefit. It is for the Jews’ own benefit, to keep us in exile until the messiah comes so that our kaparah can be complete.

It is also a fact that prior to the Holocaust, throughout Jewish history, there were, unfortunately, many other times when the nations violated their oath, and yet we never find any of the poskim and commentators saying that the Jewish oaths no longer apply.

Archival portrait of Grand Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, the Satmar RebbeYT
Grand Rabbi Yoel TeitelbaumThe Satmar Rebbe · 1887 – 1979
"The existence of the Zionist State of Israel is preventing the Messiah from coming."Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum · Satmar Rebbe · 1887–1979