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| CAMP MESIFTA TORAH VODAATH - SUMMER 1948 |
On Friday, November 29, 1947, the United Nations debated the issue of partitioning the British Mandate for Palestine into two countries, one Arab and one Jewish. Reb Shraga Feivel prayed fervently for partition. He had no radio in his house, but that Friday he borrowed one and set it to the news, leaving it on for Shabbos. He waited with such tense anticipation to hear the outcome of the U.N. vote that he did not come to shalosh seudos. When he heard the U.N.’s decision to establish a Jewish state, he stood up and recited the blessing “Who is good and Who does good”. . .
Four days after the United Nations vote, on 19 Kislev, Reb Shraga Feivel spoke in Bais Medrash Elyon, to present his talmidim with a Torah perspective on the event. He began by emphasizing that in the absence of prophecy no one could interpret the U.N. declaration with any certitude. Nevertheless, the whole tenor of his remarks reflected his hope that the moment was a positive one for the Jewish people. He described three aspects of the final redemption: the redemption of the Land, the ingathering of the exiles, and the return of the Divine Presence to her proper place. The redemption of the Land is the first of the three . . In a similar vein, he also explained why the secular Zionists might have been chosen to play such a fateful role in the history of the Jewish people . . . Divine Providence might have arranged that the secular Zionists play a major role in the redemption of Eretz Yisrael precisely in order to maintain their connection to Klal Yisrael.
He had no radio in his house, but that Friday he borrowed one and set it to the news, leaving it on for Shabbos. He waited with such tense anticipation to hear the outcome of the U.N. vote that he did not come to shalosh seudos. When he heard the U.N.’s decision to establish a Jewish state, he stood up and recited the blessing ‘Who is good and Who does good’ . . . (With The Shem Havaya) "Baruch atah, Ad... Elokeinu Melech ha'olam, hatov v'hameitiv" מֶלֶךְ הַעוֹלָם, הַטוֹב וְהַמֵטִיב׃ בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה 'ה..
In a conversation with the Satmar Rav, shortly after his talk on the U.N. declaration, Reb Shraga Feivel was subjected to the sharpest criticism for his “Zionist leanings.” Later he told his family, “I could have answered him Chazal for Chazal, Midrash for Midrash, but I did not want to incur his wrath, for he is a great man and a tzaddik.” . . . In 1948, after the Arabs attacked the newly declared Jewish state and soldiers were falling on the battlefield, several roshei yeshiva taunted Reb Shraga Feivel for having recited the blessing. Reb Shraga Feivel turned to Rabbi Aharon Kotler, who agreed with him that the favorable U.N. resolution was indeed worthy of the blessing. . . .
Once full-scale war broke out after the State of Israel declared its existence on May 14, 1948, Reb Shraga Feivel’s thoughts were never far from Eretz Yisrael. A group of students saw him outside the Mesivta building one day talking excitedly with Rabbi Gedaliah Schorr and gesticulating rapidly with the newspaper held in his hand. “If I were your age,” he told the students, “I would take a gun and go to Eretz Yisrael.” . . . Just two weeks after the Declaration of Independence, the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, including the Western Wall, fell to the Arabs. Every Jew living there was either killed, taken prisoner, or exiled from the ancient walls of Jerusalem. After the Shabbos-eve meal, as he reached the words “Have mercy, Hashem, on Israel, Your nation, and on Yerushalayim, Your city,” in Bircas HaMazon, Reb Shraga Feivel burst out in violent sobbing, which brought on a massive heart attack. The doctors were immediately summoned and had him carried to his bed with orders that he must remain absolutely still.
. . . Even when he was under the oxygen tent, those attending him saw his fists beating on the side of the bed and heard him repeat over and over again, “Vos vet zein mit Eretz Yisrael? —What will be with Eretz Yisrael?”
(and other rabbis' views - click link)
https://jewishaction.com/cover-story/the-birth-of-the-jewish-state-rabbinic-views-and-perspectives/