Borrowing the title of Pete Seeger's song to hammer home a message to Diaspora Jewish leaders.
Old timers like me probably still remember the Pete Seeger song “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" The title inspired the title to this article, although the themes differ.
Given the fact that Israel has been in engaged in difficult wars for three years now, one would have expected Diaspora Rabbis to urge their able-bodied congregants to rush to bolster Tzahal’s manpower shortage which has placed a heavy burden on reserve soldiers and on the home front in Zion. In addition, because of the undeniable increase in antisemitism throughout the world, one would have expected Diaspora Rabbis to urge their congregants to pack up their bags and make Aliyah.
Instead, there is a thundering silence. I can’t recall any Diaspora Rabbi of stature rallying his troops to come to the aid of Israel. Nor have I heard any Diaspora Rabbi or Diaspora leader call to the millions of Jews in the exiles of the West to make Aliyah. \
In fact, the Rabbis of Australia vow to preserve Jewish life in the Outback no matter how much the Jews are hated, and Chabad opens giant new centers in Miami and Los Angeles, and new Chabad houses all over the world, giving Diaspora Jews the message that Jewish life will thrive forever amongst the gentiles no matter how much their presence is despised. There was a Rabbi in France who told his congregation that there was no future for French Jews in France, but an immediate backlash from other French Rabbis and Jewish leaders caused him to retract his words the next day.
Is it possible that so many Diaspora Rabbis can err? In the Torah portion of Vayikra we encounter a situation where the Torah Scholars who comprise the Sanhedrin make a mistake in judgment which causes all of the community of Israel to sin (Vayikra 4:13, Rashi). This teaches that even great Torah Scholars are not immune to mistakes.....
HaRav Tzvi Yehuda Kook stated: “After the Holocaust, during which almost his entire Hasidic movement was murdered, when the Rebbe of Belz came on aliyah, he said, ‘We realize now that we erred in our estrangement from Eretz Yisrael.’ Other Gedolim also repented over their shortsightedness. If this repentance had occurred 30 years before, preceding the Holocaust, prompting the mass aliyah of devout God-fearing Jews, the spiritual situation is Israel would be very different today."
“The beginning of the Zionist awakening was filled with uncertainty in the eyes of many Rabbis, but today there aren’t any doubts. We see eye-to-eye the acts of Hashem revealed in the ingathering of the exiles and the incredible rebuilding of the Nation in the Land. And it has become increasingly clear that those who supported the return to Zion were right."
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