“For days are coming,” declares Hashem, “when I will return the fortunes of My people Yisrael and Yehuda from exile,” said Hashem. “And I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.”
The nascent Sanhedrin in Jerusalem has made an official ruling, calling on Jews outside of Israel to come home.
“We are the beis din (rabbinic court) of Yerushalayim (Jerusalem), and we have poskened (officially ruled) that all Jews around the world have an obligation and chiyuv (religious requirement) right now to do whatever is in your power, to come to Eretz Yisrael (the land of Israel), and that is the mitzvah of Torah (Biblical requirement). And that is the mitzvah of today, especially because of what’s happening around the world and the dangers that all the Jews are in around the world. It’s necessary now more than ever to come to Eretz Yisrael, and we as a beis din have poskened that all the Jews have to come as soon as they can back to eretz Yisrael.”
The Sanhedrin’s ruling was intended for Jews worldwide, so it was recorded in English, Hebrew, Yiddish, French, and Spanish.
The Sanhedrin’s pronouncement was succinct, so Israel365 News interviewed Josh Wander, who has received smicha (ordination) from the Sanhedrin, to hear the details and implications of the rabbinic ruling.
As a precursor, Wander explained that since the Torah was given at Mount Sinai, the Sanhedrin, composed of 71 elders, has been the ultimate judicial authority of the Jewish people. Comparable to the Supreme Court in secular matters, the Sanhedrin also had the ultimate authority on religious issues and met in the Temple while it stood in Jerusalem.
While many Jews do not recognize the authority of this current Sanhedrin, it is, in fact, expressly forbidden by Torah law for Jews to accept the authority of a system of law or a legal body that is not based in the Torah.
There have been previous attempts to reestablish the Sanhedrin. The current nasi, or head of the Sanhedrin, is Rabbi Eliyahu Abergel, who served as the head of the Rabbinical Court in Beersheba and later as the head of the Rabbinical Court in Jerusalem.
Wander explained that the halachic ruling by the Sanhedrin was not, in its essence, controversial.
“The mitzvah that commands Jews to live in Israel is explicitly written throughout the Torah,” Wander said. “That is the source. Anyone who disputes that is disputing against the Torah. And there are no recognized halachic authorities who say otherwise. There is a consensus.”
“That being said, individual Jews may choose not to adhere to this rabbinic ruling,” Wander said.
Wander explained that the Sanhedrin makes this announcement every year, but this year, it is of special significance and is garnering more attention than in the past.
“It has to do with what’s happening worldwide,” Wander explained. “Jews worldwide are feeling pressure and are more open to the message. Antisemitism is taking on dimensions and forms that have not been seen since before the Holocaust.”
“My concern is that with the Trump victory, many Jews that are in North America, the majority of Jews, perhaps in the world, are feeling safer,” Wander said. “They are a lot more comfortable with not coming to Israel. I always said that Kamala Harris was the Aliyah candidate. Antisemitism has exploded in recent years, and the Biden administration has done nothing to stop this rising tide. Open antisemitism is accepted in the Democratic party.”
“But even with all this antisemitism, Jews stay there,” Wander said. “The worst exile is the one you don’t realize you’re in.”
Jewish tradition teaches that when the Jews were exiled from Israel, the shechina (divine presence) also went into exile.
“But it is also taught that when the exile is over, the shechina will abandon the exile and return to Israel,” Wander said.
Wander cited a Jewish source titled the Meshech Chochma written by Rabbi Meir Simcha Ha-Kohen in Latvia in the early 20th century.
“It was about a decade before Hitler took power,” Wander said. “The rabbi wrote that because the Jews are making their Berlin into their Jerusalem, God will have to bring a huge storm, which will wipe out Europe. The rabbi stated that God does not allow the Jews to feel too comfortable in the exile. We’ve seen in history over and over again that when the Jews get too comfortable in exile, God needs to shake things up in order to make them a little less comfortable.”
“This is what we are seeing worldwide right now,” Wander said. “God is making it uncomfortable for Jews so that they will come home to Israel.”
