From: sethr@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (seth.r.rosenthal)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: Should a Jew settle in Israel?
Summary: How expedient
Date: 31 Aug 92 15:30:44 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories

Michael makes some interesting comments here, to which
I add my own half light-hearted ones, and one serious
one about Cordoba and Grenada.

In article <199208301440.AA08844@das.wang.com>, MASH@WEIZMANN.WEIZMANN.AC.IL (Michael Shimshoni) writes:
> In: <1992Aug17.211651.16598@cbnews.cb.att.com>
> ask@cbnews.cb.att.com (Arthur S. Kamlet) asks:
> 
> >In article <1992Aug17.114829.13516@discus.technion.ac.il> silvrbrg@discus.tech
> >>The question is not whether Jews should live in Israel, rather why should
> >>a Jew live outside of Israel. According to Rambam, living in Israel is a
> >>postive commandment for which there are only three exceptions: finding a
> >>wife, to study with an outstanding rabbi, or for short-term business needs.
> >
> >And, as Rambam was not living in Israel at the time, the fourth reason?
> 
> May I suggest a few possible answers:
> 
> 1.   As polygamy  was allowed,  the RAMBAM  was still  looking for  an
> additional perfect wife.
> 

Was this true in Christian Spain, Maimonides origin?
I can believe it was true in North Africa pre-1492 but
was it still true with the Sephardic refugees arrival?

> 2.   As he was every day with Maimonides, this  could be considered as
> "to  study   with  an  outstanding   Rabbi",  even  if  some   of  his
> contemporaries did not think so highly of that Rabbi.
> 

What kind of outstanding rabbi would not perform the mitzvah
of living in Israel? -:)

> 3.   He had thought that this business  of writing up all  the laws of
> the Torah would be  a short-term affair, but it dragged  on and on and
> on.
> 

This somehow seems to be an issue of expediency that I am surprised
an authority such as Maimonides would make.  I also would
like to violate sabbath for business reasons.  Does this mean
Maimonides would approve?  Perhaps marry a Christian woman for
business reasons (does the name Sarnoff sound familiar here?)?

> If someone would  like some even more serious reasons  than the above,
> one might consider that living in Eretz Yisrael was a dangerous affair
> at that  time, and thus  the consideration of Pikuah  Nefesh (avoiding
> life  threatening  conditions)  might  have  played  a  role  in  that
> decision.  The RAMBAM was a fugitive  from his native Cordoba, and had
> to leave  some other places  before he settled  in Cairo, he  may thus
> have judged living in Israel as being specially dangerous.
> 

It wasn't so great for him all the time in Cairo either.
Maimonides was the target of plots against him by the
Sanaa of Cairo (did I spell that right?), and according
to Abraham Herschel's biography of Maimonides, had some
very difficult times there.

Also, for our pro-Islamic friends out there, Cordoba's and Granada's
Jewish communities were not destroyed by Christians or the
Inquisition, they were destroyed by Islamic Fundamentalists
who destroyed the synagogues, burned the books and offered
a convert, die, or leave alternative to the Jews.
Things were only marginally better in Morrocco at the time,
that is at least partially why Maimonides wound up in Cairo.
The first signs of Marranism are Islamic-Judeo and
come from this period, not the later Christian persecutions.


	Seth Rosenthal

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own not my employers'.