What did the Arab kings say to Rabbi Chaim Sonnenfeld zt”l about the Land of Israel?

The Daily Chizzuk by Moreinu HaRav Eliezer Berland Shlit”a – Monday 16 Tammuz 5784

It’s possible to travel to the graves of the Tzaddikim that we have here.  We have here 613 graves of Tzaddikim like in Morocco.

They asked the Baal Shem Tov, “Are there people on your level in this generation?”

He answered, “Yes, the Tzaddikim in Morocco are on my level!”

All the Tzaddikim in Morocco have a complete sanctuary built on each grave, like Rabbi Amram ben Diwan, who is buried in the village of Ouazzane. Rabbi Amram ben Diwan was Ashkenazi.  He was a Shadar [rabbinic emissary from the Hevron community to Morocco].  He had one son who was very ill.  The son was so sick that it’s impossible to describe it.  He was dying.  In the end, he was told in a dream to bring him into the Cave of the Patriarchs. Rabbi Amram answered, “It is impossible to enter the Cave of the Patriarchs.  It belongs to Arabs.  It is permitted [to go] only until the seventh step.”  In the end, he bribed the Arab guard, giving him several coffers of gold coins so that he would allow him to enter. After he received the money, the Arab began shouting, “Jews are in the cave!”  When Rabbi Amram and his son entered the cave, the Arab betrayed them.  All the Arabs are traitors.  Don’t believe them! It is forbidden to enter the large hall of the Cave of the Patriarchs. Only three times a year is it permitted to enter the large hall.  They don’t allow access to the large hall.  We used to enter freely, but little-by-little, they closed it on us.  They wanted to close off the entire Cave of the Patriarchs.  They said that the Cave of the Patriarchs belongs to the Arabs, and also the Kotel belongs to the Arabs. They said that everything belongs to the Arabs, because Muhammed tied his horse, Al-Buraq, to the Kotel, and then he ascended to heaven.  When the English conquered the Land of Israel, they asked who the Kotel belongs to, and they say that it belongs to the Arabs.  Just as they closed off the Cave of the Patriarchs, now they have closed off Meron. In short, the Arabs came to the English and said, “Everything is ours, because here Muhammed tied his horse.”  But the Jews said: “Ask Rabbi Chaim Sonnenfeld [the first rabbi of the Eda HaChareidit in Jerusalem].  All the claims of the Arabs are fabricated.  They call the horse Al-Buraq and it is all fabricated.  Muhammed was never in Jerusalem.  He didn’t come with the horse to Jerusalem.  He didn’t ascend to heaven at the Kotel.  Everything is fabricated.”

Then, the Arabs claimed that the Kotel was theirs, the Cave of the Patriarchs was theirs, and the Land of Israel was theirs, because the English conquered it from the Turks. Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld travelled with Yaakov de Haan [a Dutch-born Jew, who was a jurist, journalist, poet and writer in Dutch, a Zionist activist who after immigrating to the Land of Israel, became aligned with the Haredim and later acted against the Zionist movement.  He was murdered by the Haganah in what was considered the first political assassination in the Land of Israel in modern times] to Amman.  King Saud of Saudi Arabia came, as well as the sheikhs of Syrian and Lebanon.  They said to Rabbi Chaim Sonnenfeld, “We will give the Land of Israel as a gift if there are only Haredim there.”

Because there was the Balfour Declaration, but they were waiting for the agreement of the Arabs.  Then Rabbi Yaakov de Haan travelled together with Rabbi Chaim Sonnenfeld, and they met with the kings.  The kings came to give the Land of Israel to the Jews if there were only Haredim there. This was the Balfour Declaration.  The Or Sameach says that this was like the declaration of Cyrus, a sign of the redemption.  And all the Arabs agreed to give the Land of Israel only to Haredim, not to Zionists.  [In their view,] Zionists are not Jews; they are not called Jews at all. They had already signed that there is an agreement from Abdullah, King of Jordan, the King of Saudi Arabia, the King of Syria, the King of Lebanon and Egypt – all of them signed that they are giving it to the Jews if Rabbi Chaim Sonnenfeld would stand as the leader of the Jewish people.  If he will be Rosh Yeshiva, he will be the leader, then they are giving to the Jews everything. Then in the month of Adar, Yaakov de Haan left Shaarei Tzedek Hospital after the Maariv prayer, and three Haganah members were waiting for him there and shot him.  This was Golomb, after whom Golomb Street is named. There is his note and signature in the Haganah’s safe to this day, that he gave the order to murder Yaakov de Haan. So they already wanted to give the Land of Israel to the Haredi Jews.  Rabbi Yisrael said that we missed out; they wanted to give us everything.