imaginary family values presents
yesh omrim
a blog that reclines to the left
Maybe if I wrote it in Hebrew...?
1 May 2007
My wife, who is frum and supports the State of Israel but is in no way a “religious Zionist”, gets her dander up every time she sees a bumper sticker saying “The Bible Says the Land of Israel Belongs to the Jews” and such-like. So I had an idea the other day for a bumper sticker:
GOD GAVE THE LAND OF ISRAEL TO
(insert current occupants here)
From a Torah point of view, I think this statement is unassailable. As Yeshiahu Leibowitz ztz”l pointed out, just as God took the land from the Canaanites and gave it to us (cf. Rashi s.v. Genesis 1:1), He took it from us and gave it to the Assyrians, took it from the Assyrians and gave it to the Persians, etc., etc.
But from a “not getting our tires slashed in the parking lot next to the kosher grocery store” point of view, I’m not sure I’d want that sentiment on our car.