האם מותר למסוק את הזיתים ומה דעת הגר"מ אליהו זצ"ל | הרב אלישע וולפסון

My teachers and rabbis, the Hasidim, all the rabbis, and all the righteous ones: this Sabbath we are privileged to meet our forefather Abraham. What a merit. "Go to the land that I will show you," and the Holy One, blessed be He, in our Torah portion, promises our holy land to Abraham our father: "And the Lord said to Abraham, after Lot had parted from him, 'Raise your eyes now and look from the place where you are, northward, southward, and eastward, and westward, for all the land that you see ...'"" >> To you I will give it, and to your descendants forever. Arise, walk about in the land."" >> Arise, walk about in the land, through its length and its breadth, for I will give it to you." And that is how the Holy One, blessed be He, makes the promise to our father Abraham in our portion. And this promise is repeated in the Torah many, many, many times— throughout the entire Torah—that the Holy One, blessed be He, promises the Land of Israel to the people of Israel, all of it. And the emphasis on "all" recurs frequently. Consequently, the people of Israel were also privileged to inherit our holy land with Joshua, and later, King David. >> And we have been privileged, thank God. >> We have been privileged, thank God, even in this generation, after 2,000 years, to return to the Holy Land; we have been privileged. In our generation , to return to the Land of Israel, and truly to have the prophecies fulfilled that the Holy One, blessed be He, promised us through the holy prophets. And now a public question has arisen, which as we see now, is not a question that has only just come up, but now it has hit the headlines even more: the question regarding the olive harvest. The olive harvest in the Holy Land, which the Arabs......have planted many trees here in the land, in the last hundred years, And also, as we see here , even in the place of the Temple, and a big question has arisen: what is the law? Is it permissible to harvest them? Is it forbidden to harvest them? And there is a major question here that touches upon many areas, so naturally ... >> Why should it not be? >> Why should it not be? Why? Why not? Because we know that, according to Jewish law, robbing a non-Jew is forbidden. >> That is to say, if......a non-Jew possesses something that belongs to him , having acquired it lawfully, then it is forbidden to rob him. And so the question arises regarding these olives —what is their status? What is the status of the lands? Yes, this has naturally come up in many discussions regarding the establishment of settlements, and whether one must...it is clear that there is a situation where the people of Israel conquer the land, confiscate everything, and everything is theirs. But the greater complexity is that this is not done in a way where the people of Israel conquer it, but rather they allow...... the Arabs who were here to continue to live here on those same lands. Yes, so the question is how does one relate to this from a halachic perspective? So I, myself, have not delved into this enough, nor at all as required. But I do want to briefly address this with whatever I can read to you from things I have...I remember, I was in Psagot, may the Almighty protect and keep them, and there were trees outside the settlement, and it wasn't like today... It was like, to leave the settlement— it took a certain amount of courage to go a few meters outside the settlement and harvest the trees. And even then I was, I don't know, maybe 16 years old, something like that. This drew, uh, great criticism toward us for doing it, and so I already asked our teacher and rabbi, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, may he live, and he answered me what I will read to you now. I searched a bit and found an article from the year 2002, that is, 5762. Yes, 5762. Uh, right? When it was the time of the whole war with the intifada. There is an article here appearing on the Ynet site by Yinon Magal, Channel 10, saying something in the name of the speaker, etc. In any case, it is written here that Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu came to Gush Katif to strengthen them, and then there is a quote here. According to what they present here as a quote. >> Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, the Chief Rabbi–uh , that was after he was Chief Rabbi, I believe. Yes, it is written in the verse: "Lands and the toil of nations they shall inherit.""The nations shall inherit," what is that? When a person has a field, has land, someone comes and plants a tree there without permission, without the land owner's permission, and the land owner didn't see, didn't notice, or couldn't prevent it. Afterward, he comes with power, so he tells the tree owner: "You planted on my land, and without permission; the tree will stay here, the fruits are mine, you leave from here." So if the gentiles plant trees in our region, plant fruits, plant houses even, and also houses you did not build and trees you did not plant–yes, as the verse says–why? The land is ours, and you built a house on my place, you planted the tree–so the place is mine and the fruits are mine too. So all these things belong to the people of Israel, the only question will be whether one needs to set aside tithes or not set aside tithes. Therefore it says: "And the toil of nations they shall inherit" –if nations do something in the land, they will labor and labor, but they will be inherited; this whole thing belongs to us. Yes, that's what was said. >> Rabbi, that sounds like an accurate quote. Yes, it sounds like an extremely accurate quote. So that is what Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu said back then. And I actually asked Rabbi Shmuel then, and he also told me that in his father's name. Practically speaking, uh, and that is what Rabbi Lior, may he live, may God protect and sustain him, also published now. And there is a big debate about this, every forum of rabbis that I am in, yes–a mitzvah, a desecration of God's name, broad opinions. Uh, I, I am, I am saying, uh, I, I don't, I know, I'm saying: I really won't be a decisor because I'm only saying this as a preliminary, uh, to permit now, uh, in principle, practically speaking. Now, any, uh, land, uh, any fruits, etc., that someone who is not a Jew has in the land, who does not have a deed of ownership that he bought it from a Jew –it's a truly complex matter. There are many debates and rulings about it. Uh, and in this, there is truly much room to discuss. But what has come up for discussion now is, uh, trees that the army does not allow the Arabs to come and harvest at all. That is supposedly what the big debate was about. And there are also places where the struggle over the trees is truly a life-or-death struggle, a matter of life. There are places where the struggle over the trees involves trees near settlements, which really constitutes a life-or-death situation. To anyone who still doesn't understand that, what can we answer and what can we say? May God have mercy. The enemies 'way of conquering the land is by planting trees, coming to harvest them, and being present among them; this is both a matter of conquest and a life-or-death issue, because from there they also plan their moves to harm us, and therefore...They learn the terrain. >> Yes, yes. That is, there is a lot of documentation that they use the harvest as a terrorist organization, with all that entails. Therefore, we come here from this holy place to strengthen and bless all those engaged in the redemption of our holy land, doing so properly and lawfully, in accordance with the will of our Creator. And this thing is a huge matter: to return and reclaim the holiness, to fulfill the prophecy that God promised us, "And you shall eat the spoils of your enemies," which means thanking God and rejoicing in Him. And on the contrary, if we abandon them, we are, as it were, ungrateful for the gift that the Holy One, blessed be He, gave us. The Holy One, blessed be He, gives you a gift, and it is as if the Rebbe gives you a huge gift. Are you saying, "No, it's not for me"? What kind of thing is that ? Master of the Universe, the Holy One, blessed be He, gives you the greatest gift, the most precious place, gives you the Land of Israel, gives you the holy trees, brings you back to them, and you have such dishonest arguments, arguments of exile, of misery, of the thought that we are not yet in the land , that it is not yet ours, and it is not really ours. One must know that the entire Holy Land belongs to the People of Israel. And truly, we are saying here to all the nations, to all our enemies: Know that everything you invest is for us. So either leave or keep investing, and know that it will remain for the People of Israel because this is our holy land. So fortunate, fortunate are all the youth and all the righteous who act. For the sake of our land's redemption, and in doing so, may we also merit to redeem the place of our Temple, and of course, the Temple Mount is no place for trees. As the Torah says, "You shall not set up a pillar for yourself," you shall make yourself an altar. The Sages said that even wooden structures should not be built on the Temple Mount. >> That is the plain meaning. >> Yes, that is the plain meaning, it is from the Torah. >> Yes, and therefore, with God's help, we will also merit to inherit our entire land, including the place of our Temple , and of course, to pour oil for the meal offerings and the Menorah from the holy trees; with God's help, may we merit a complete redemption with mercy, and may it be His will, Amen.