The Daily Strengthening from our teacher, the holy Gaon and Tzaddik, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a – The letter of the Or Sameach regarding the San Remo Conference

Tuesday, 23rd of Kislev 5785 – "If 10 secular Jews come to the Land, 20 commandment-observant Jews must immigrate to the Land"

These are his holy words:

I just read the words of the Or Sameach (Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk zt"l) regarding the San Remo Declaration. The San Remo Conference took place after the Balfour Declaration; Austria, Canada, and France attended the conference and declared—this country belongs to the Jews.

There was a declaration there by all the nations except for the Arabs. It was said there that if the Arabs do not agree, it doesn't count; they claimed we need the Arabs to agree, that Arafat should agree, that Sadat should agree. But all the nations had already agreed immediately after the Balfour Declaration, which was on the 7th of Cheshvan, the second of November 1917, 5678.

This was before they conquered Jerusalem; Jerusalem was conquered on the eve of Chanukah. This was because they had already divided the entire East—this part to this Sheikh, this to Abdullah, this to the Alawites, and this to the Sunnis—they divided the entire Middle East and gave the Jews nothing. The division took place in 5676 (1916), and now in 5678 (1917) on the 17th of Cheshvan, the second of November.

Balfour was one of the Lords in the English Parliament, and several Lords acted there, arguing that the Jews also needed to be given something. They had divided it only among the Arabs, but in Jerusalem, there were already 50,000 Jews. Only 25,000 remained because there was cholera, typhus, and everything else; out of 50,000, only 25,000 remained. Read the book of Rabbi Chaim Sonnenfeld zt"l; everything is described there.

So the English government decided that they would give to the Jews as well; Jews also need to receive something. So they marked out what belongs to the Jews, and then all the nations gathered in San Remo—this is what the Or Sameach says. In San Remo, Italy, the whole world gathered, all the enlightened kingdoms, and a decree was issued that the Land of Israel shall belong to the People of Israel. All the nations decided, "and with the permission of the kings, the fear of the oaths has departed"—the oath (not to immigrate en masse before the Geulah) was nullified.

In San Remo they said, no, if Arafat hasn't agreed yet, then the oath hasn't been nullified; we need Arafat to agree. Why doesn't Arafat agree?

Someone from the Shin Bet (Israeli Security Agency) traveled to Arafat. Arafat said, let him come and I will explain to him why I don't agree. He said, look, from Morocco to Adel, it's all Arabs—why did you enter here in the middle? Go to Johannesburg, take some island in the Pacific Ocean; why are you entering here in the middle?

Arafat explains to the head of the Shin Bet who came to meet him there in Beirut: it's all Muslims here. I have nothing against you, he says, but why live here? Go somewhere else. Why did you choose to live exactly here, where from Morocco to Adel, until Saudi Arabia, it's all Arabs?

In San Remo they said that until Arafat agrees, it is forbidden to come to the Land of Israel; one must go to Auschwitz, to the ovens there. The Or Sameach spoke about all of this, and he says it is all "with the permission of the kings"—the fear of the oaths has departed and now we are under the permission of the kings. The mitzvah (commandment) of settling the Land of Israel was established, and everyone signed on it, all the Admors (Chassidic Rebbes), including the Gerrer Rebbe (the Imrei Emes zt"l). He was here in the year 5698 (1938); in total, he was in the Land 5 times (1921, 1924, 1929, 1935, 1938). After that, after the war, he returned for the sixth time.

He was here during Pesach and he said, "I am observing only one day of Yom Tov (as a resident), I am already part of the Land of Israel." And then he said, "Now I am traveling to bring 500 families," because those who were brought here previously threw away their Tefillin immediately; they were all secular, only secular people immigrated. Because the moment the Zionist Congress took place in 5657 (1897), people said, "If the secular are taking over here, we aren't coming"—but it should be the opposite! If they bring 10, you bring 20; if they bring a thousand, you bring two thousand. People wanted to come to the Land; there was no problem bringing two thousand, but in the meantime, the decrees of the White Paper (British restrictions on Jewish immigration) began.

So already now it has become "with the permission of the kings"; all the kings gathered for the San Remo Conference—Canada and America, France and England. And with the permission of the kings, the mitzvah of settling the Land of Israel was established, which is equal to all the mitzvos in the Torah, and they did not give up on it.

It is written in the Sifrei (Midrash) that they should dwell in the Land of Israel; that when it is possible to live there, they should not live anywhere else. It is forbidden to live outside the Land; that is why people are sick. "How long will you hesitate (Jeremiah 31:21)," and if Hashem grants that the matter expands and grows and blossoms like a rose, just as they grew in the days of the Tirshatha (Nehemiah) when they were subject to Persia—even then, in the days of the Second Temple, it is written that not everyone came, and therefore five things were missing from the Second Holy Temple.