And the subject this week, actually as it was announced Shabbos in shul, is something connected to current events a little bit. And that is the peace process in Eretz Yisrael, the peace process in Israel, and as I will call it, the prohibition of giving back any territories to the Arabs. Now this class basically is a Torah class. It's not a class on politics, and it's not a class on current events, but I will discuss this from the Torah perspective, obviously. The reason I chose this topic for this week is because this week is Parashat Chayei Sarah. In Parashat Chayei Sarah we learn that Avraham Avinu bought the Me'arat HaMachpelah in Chevron. He bought it for a lot of money and paid hard cash for it, and it became his. This is the first that we find in the Torah the ownership of Jews over a portion of Eretz Yisrael, the physical ownership of Jews over a portion of Eretz Yisrael, over the Me'arat HaMachpelah, which is in Chevron. Actually, the Midrash says that there are three places in Eretz Yisrael that no goy with his wildest complaints could complain that the Jews took it illegally. And the three places are: Chevron, the Me'arat HaMachpelah of Chevron, and the place of the Beit HaMikdash, and the burial place, the grave of Yosef in Shechem. And the reason is because these are three places that were bought actually for money. Chevron, as we find in today's parashah, that Avraham Avinu paid money, ארבע מאות שקל כסף, 400 שקלים, עובר לסוחר, the best שקלים possible at that time, he paid for it. So he bought it legally, without any question. Not that I'm saying, chas veshalom, the rest of Eretz Yisrael is not ours legally, but I'm saying here everyone sees it pashut from the fact that he paid money for it. The place of the Beit HaMikdash we learn in Tanach that David HaMelech paid money for it to Aravna or Aravna, whichever he's called in Tanach, paid money for it to have that place of the Beit HaMikdash, the Har HaMoriah, and the burial place, the grave of Yosef, which is in Shechem, we learn in Chumash that Yaakov Avinu bought the land in Shechem, in the area of Shechem. So these are three places which no one could complain. But the first one of the three is Chevron, which we learn about today. That's why I thought to talk about it. Even though, as we will see, the real reason for the prohibition of giving back territory is not because, not mainly because of our ownership of Eretz Yisrael. It is not because we own Eretz Yisrael, therefore we should not give it back. That is part of it, but that is not the main reason, as we will see soon. Nevertheless, it is connected also to the fact that we own Eretz Yisrael and it's ours, and therefore I felt that its parsha, which talks about the ownership of Avraham Avinu over a שטח, over a an area, territory in Eretz Yisrael, is appropriate to discuss this subject. And as I said, I will not be discussing it from a political point of view, because this is a Torah class, not a politic class, but from a Torah point of view. And the truth is, Torah has a say in every subject. And therefore, whenever we have a question of what is right and what is wrong, we always have to look in the Torah, and we will find it. Sometimes it's more obvious, and it's a clear halacha, sometimes it's not so obvious. Very seldom that we will not find in the Torah any opinion on a certain problem or question that we have. It is possible. Let's say, if I go out for a walk, and I don't know, should I walk to the right, or walk to the left, sometimes Torah has something to say about that, too. Well, it depends which people are going to be standing there. Maybe the people there I shouldn't walk by. It's not good for me to be with them. So then the Torah says, go this side. But let's say they're both the same, so I don't know if there's anything in the Torah that tells us. But in most situations, the Torah has something to say, and therefore we have to look into the Torah. It says in פרקי אבות, הפוך בה והפוך בה דכולא בה, look into it, look into it, everything is there, you'll find everything in the Torah, and the Torah has a say about everything in the world. And the truth is, it must be that way, because we know that Hashem created the world based on the Torah. It says, אסתכל באורייתא וברא עלמא, השם looked into the Torah and created the world. So the Torah, it says in the Midrash, is the blueprint of the world, so everything that's in the world is there in the Torah, and therefore Torah has a say. But some things, as I said, are more obvious. This happens to be from the ones that are very obvious that the Torah has what to say, give an opinion of what we're supposed to do in a situation like this. And when we look up what the Torah Torah says, then we know that this is a hundred percent true and right. When we talk about right and wrong, if it's not based on the Torah, then we're never a hundred percent sure that this is really right, because there is no absolute right in the world. What's right for one is not right for another, and even when we think something is right, well, we're not so sure. Maybe it's not so right. Or even good, when we say something is good, we're never sure that this is really good, and we see many things which we consider good, other people consider bad. The only thing that's absolutely true and absolutely good is the Torah. And therefore, when the Torah says a halacha, then we know that that is right. And if the Torah says this is the way you're supposed to behave, we know this is the right way to do, and we know this is the best way to go about it. Torah is called תורת אמת, the Torah of truth. Torah is called תורת חסד, the Torah of kindness, which is good. The Torah is the wisdom of Hashem, and the Rambam says that Hashem and his wisdom are one, and therefore if Hashem is good, the Torah is good. If Hashem is true, as the pasuk says, השם אלקים אמת, השם is true, then the Torah is true. So this is the truth, and this is the way we are supposed to behave. Unfortunately, there are people who don't know that, or even if they do know that, but try to ignore it, and therefore they do not behave according to the Torah, like in this situation that we are in and what we're talking about, that even though the Jews who are running the government do not listen to what the Torah has to say, it's unfortunate, but it doesn't take away from the fact that when the Torah says something, it's true, and that is the way we're supposed to do it. And therefore we're supposed to try to impress upon them that they should listen to what it says in the Torah. But this is definitely true and good and right. And we also have to remember that some people think that when we say whatever it says in the Torah is good, might mean good spiritually, good in some higher world. It is not so. When the Torah says something, it's good in this physical world. It's the best for us in this physical world. We say כי הם חיינו ואורך ימינו, this is our life, and this is our long days, this is what gives us life, and this is the best way for a human being down here in this physical world is from the Torah. This is all an introduction to say that therefore, when it comes to a question, any question, certainly a question like this, if we would only follow what the Torah says, then everything would turn out to the best. In this case, we know that we look into the Torah, and we will see what the Torah says. The Rebbe, who was from the—the greatest sage of Torah, is definitely the one that's able to understand what it says in the Torah, and in this subject, the Rebbe spoke so many times and so much about it and explained it so well, now I'm just going to go into just very small details and just feel in short, so well to explain the position that we're supposed to have, that the government is supposed to have, and therefore it's our obligation to make sure to see what we can, that the government follow this position, because this is the right way and the best way that is supposed to be done. Again, we shouldn't forget the subject, and that is the returning territories as an exchange for peace. Now, this touches two points in halachah: number one, are we allowed to give any part of Eretz Yisrael to a non-Jew? That's a shailah, that's a question. Not a shailah, shailah means we don't know. We know the answer, but this is the question, one question: are we allowed to, halachadik, is a Jew allowed to give any portion of Eretz Yisrael to a non-Jew? And it has nothing to do with giving back big territory, small territory, even a person who owns a little piece of land in Eretz Yisrael, is he allowed to give it or sell it to a goy? That's one question that we deal with. The second question that we deal with is the question of pikuach nefesh, the question of security, the question of the safety of a Jew or of Jews. And both of these questions are connected to this issue, the subject that we're discussing now. And I'll start.

There is a pasuk in the Torah that says, לא תחנם. לא תחנם. One of the meanings of the word לא תחנם, the Gemara says, and the Rambam brings it and it's a הלכה, לא תתן להם חניה בארץ. You are not allowed to give them an inheritance in the land of Eretz Yisrael. It is forbidden, forbidden for a Jew to give any part of Eretz Yisrael to a goy. That's an issur. It's an aveirah if you do it, just like you're not allowed to be מחלל שבת, and you're not allowed to eat chametz on Pesach, and other issurim. I'm not telling saying which level of issur it is. There are some issurim, some prohibitions that the punishment is death penalty, some is less, some is just a lav, and this is just a lav, but a lav means it's a prohibition, it's a negative commandment that we're not allowed to give a goy any part of ארץ ישראל. That is a halacha. But we have another halacha, which some would claim, in this situation, would allow giving part of Eretz Yisrael to a goy. And that is the halacha of pikuach nefesh. Pikuach nefesh means the safety of one's life. So, the halacha is פיקוח נפש דוחה כל התורה כולה. Pikuach nefesh, if it means the safety of a Jew, it pushes away the whole Torah. And therefore, if it's a question of doing an aveirah versus the safety of the Jew, the life of the Jew, we have to transgress in order to save the Jew. Except the three major big aveirot, which is עבודה זרה, גילוי עריות, and שפיכות דמים, which is adultery, idol worship, and murder. But otherwise, anything, whether it's Shabbos, or Yom Kippur, or Pesach, we have to transgress if it means saving a Jewish life. And therefore, this prohibition of not being allowed to give any part of Eretz Yisrael to a goy would be pushed away if it would mean saving Jewish lives. In other words, if giving back, giving up territory to a goy, in this case, the Arabs, would mean helping save Jewish lives, then this prohibition goes off. This prohibition falls off, because the din is just like the prohibition of not eating on Yom Kippur falls off, the prohibition of not eating chametz on Pesach falls off, this would also fall off. But if not for that, the prohibition is there. I'm going to mention this by the way, that's one of the big discussions in the whole שטר מכירה of Shemittah. I don't want to get into the details, a different subject, but just to mention, we know that once in seven years we have Shemittah. The year of Shemittah, in Eretz Yisrael, they're not allowed to work on the fields if it belongs to a Jew. If it's Eretz Yisrael, if the land belongs to a goy, then you're allowed to. But so many people work on Shemittah. So someone came up with an idea, let's sell Eretz Yisrael for that year to an Arab, to a goy. And if we sell Eretz Yisrael to a goy, the whole land belongs to a goy, which is similar to the שטר מכירת חמץ. Pesach, we keep chametz in our house, but it's not ours, because we have that document and we sell it to a goy and now the goy owns the chametz. After Pesach, we buy it back. But during Pesach, we sell it. So the same thing, we sell Eretz Yisrael to the goy, so it belongs to one goy, and therefore you're allowed to work, and then after shemitah, you buy it back. Now, it's something that's done and it's encouraged by many rabbanim to do, because there are people who would work on shemitah and this way it takes away some of the prohibition. The real religious Jews do not rely on this at all and they shouldn't, but for those who work anyway, but the question, one of the main questions that comes up on this this idea is, are you allowed to sell Eretz Yisrael to a goy? You're not allowed to. So how could you even make such a שטר, selling Eretz Yisrael to a goy? And the discussion goes whether this is it's a sale, but we know we're going to buy it back, so it's not permanent, etc., etc. I'm just bringing it up as an example of the issur of selling. But again, let's go back. This prohibition of selling or giving up any anything, part of Eretz Yisrael to a goy is only if there is it doesn't if But if it would mean saving Jewish lives, then you have to do it. But we have to remember, in order to save Jewish lives, we have to we are have to transgress this aveirah doesn't apply to only to the territories of what we call nowadays, the conquered territories. This applies to Jerusalem too. This applies to every This applies to Tel Aviv. If the If it means saving Jewish lives, you have to give up Tel Aviv. Because holding territory is nothing compared to saving a Jewish life, which is the top of everything. So if the din would be, if the case would be, that to save Jewish lives, which means to make peace and save Jewish lives, it means giving up territory, you have to give it up. The question is, is it true? Will giving up the territories to the Arabs save Jewish lives? Now there are some that say, and this was what the Rebbe kept on saying, just the opposite. Giving territories will put Jewish lives in danger. The only way you could secure the Jews of Eretz Yisrael is by not giving up any territories. And we'll go to the details more. And therefore, not only is it pikuach nefesh that for the sake of saving lives you should give up, on the contrary, by giving up territory, you are putting Jewish lives in danger! And automatically it is, according to this, forbidden to give up any territory על פי הלכה, because you are doing something that puts a Jewish life in danger. And that is above all. The moment we say that it is forbidden to give back the territories because it puts Jewish lives in danger, automatically, the other prohibition is there too. Automatically, the prohibition of לא תחנם, which means you're not allowed to give a goy any part of Eretz Yisrael back, because the prohibition is there. The only reason we say that maybe the prohibition should not be there is if giving territory would save Jewish lives. The moment we say it doesn't save, even if it wouldn't put Jewish lives in danger, but let's say it doesn't do anything, it doesn't save and it doesn't it doesn't bring danger, you're not allowed to give up territory! Certainly if this itself is pikuach nefesh. So automatically, according to this, that giving territory back will bring will bring danger to the Jews, the halacha says that you are not allowed to give the territories back, give the territory I don't say back, give the territory of course to goyim, because this, you're over on an issur of pikuach nefesh. And this is the worst aveirah. You know what it means? If a person transgresses an issur, a prohibition, that puts a person in danger, he borders with the aveirah of שפיכות דמים, of murder. And to avoid murder, you have to go on mesirat nefesh, you have to give up your life, as we say, it's one of the three aveirot. You have to give up your life to avoid murder, and here, it's encouraging murder, according to this opinion it's encouraging murder, encouraging bringing more chance of losing Jewish lives. So you have to go on mesirat nefesh, you have to give up your life in order not to give back territories, because you have to give up your life to save another Jew. You know, this give up like to save, but if it would be a question of my own life versus that, you have to give up your life. That's how important it is. And therefore, according to this, according to halacha, you're not allowed. Now the question comes up, which way is it? Some say that you should give back, because if you give back, you'll make peace with the Arabs, and that will save Jewish lives. And therefore, there is no prohibition of לא תחנם, which means not you're not allowed to give Eretz Yisrael to a goy, and you will be saving Jewish lives. On the other hand, some say not. Now, which way how do you go about this? So there is a halacha. Everything has a halacha. There is a halacha.

The halacha says, not in this specific case, but similar case which applies here, too. When it comes to Yom Kippur, and there is a question if a person should eat on Yom Kippur, because question is if he doesn't eat, his life might be in danger. Well, the Rav will say, you come to a Rav who looks into the halacha and says, 'Yes, you're allowed to eat on Yom Kippur. Not only you're allowed, you have to eat on Yom Kippur, because your life is in danger.' How does that Rav know if his life is in danger or not? Very few Rabbanim learned medicine to be able to say that this person, his life, this sickness that he has, must he must eat, if not, his life is in danger. How does the Rav know? The Rav doesn't know, and the Rav is not required to know. Not every rabbi is a rabbi doctor. Actually, the Frierdiker Rebbe once, when he came to America, it was the first time he heard such a thing as a rabbi doctor. So he says, 'I think all rabbi doctors need doctors themselves.' Very seldom you find legitimate rabbi doctor. So how does the rabbi know, the Rav know how to pasken whether it's pikuach nefesh and he's allowed to eat on Yom Kippur or not? Halacha says like this: the rabbi is not supposed to know, he doesn't have to know. He asks the doctor. And if the doctor says that, 'I diagnose this case, and I'm telling you that he has to eat because otherwise his life is in danger,' then it's the obligation of the Rav to say he should eat. And if the Rav will say, 'Don't eat anyway,' what the Rav is doing, he's putting this life this person's life in danger, and he is committing something close to murder, putting someone's life in danger. They say that Rav Chaim Brisker, when they asked him שאלות about Yom Kippur eating, so in the beginning he used to be machmir, and only in certain cases he would allow. As he got older, he was started being more meikil, more lenient, and in most cases if there's any question, he said you could eat. So someone asked him, 'Why did you start being meikil in halachot Yom Kippur? You start being lenient in the halachot of Yom Kippur?' So he said, 'I started being lenient? I started being machmir in the halacha of pikuach nefesh. I started being more strict in the halacha of one's life, and that's why I allow the person to eat. So a Rav has to pasken according to what the doctor says, he asks the doctor. What happens if you have some doctors say like this, and some doctors say like this? Some doctors say that you should know that this person's life is not in danger if he's going to eat, and some doctors say yes. The halacha is you have to follow rov, the majority, majority of doctors. And that is the halacha. So if the Rav will ask the שאלות, the halacha, in Torah look in Shulchan Aruch and he'll say, \"Well, ten doctors say it's dangerous, two doctors say it's not.\" The halacha says that that the Rav has to pasken yes, his life is in danger and you have to eat. Now the Rav doesn't have to care whether the doctor is Jewish or not. There's no such halacha that only a Jewish doctor is able to diagnose a case, or certainly doesn't have to be religious. I remember once the Rebbe had a whole sicha he said, anyway the Rebbe said by a farbrengen later that he got a letter from Rabbi Zevin, the great rabbanim in Eretz Yisrael, who wrote to him, it was a question about this, a Jewish doctor if he's better, and he said that he was once going for a walk, Rabbi Zevin said, with Velvel the Brisker, the Brisker Rav, who was not a chassid by all means, and he was talking to him, and he said to him, we're talking about a doctor, so he said, \"It never occurred to you to think that it's better to go to a doctor who's frum? You go to the doctor, best doctor, that's the one you go to. Al pi halacha you have to go to because דרך הטבע you have to do everything natural, and you go to the best doctor, that's all. You don't have to go to a doctor that's specifically frum. If he happens to be frum, and he's a good doctor, oh then we feel very comfortable, and then the person believes in Hashem and it's very good. But if you have a choice of a better doctor and a doctor who's not so good, you have to go to the better doctor.\" So it has nothing to do with being Jewish. Has to do with what the doctor says. And the rav has to take in consideration only only paskens according to what the doctor says. Then, another point, the rav is not allowed to take in consideration, the halacha says he's not allowed to take in consideration any other thing but the medical situation. What happens if someone will come who's not a doctor, and he says, \"I don't know whether this person is in danger, but you know, if you're going to allow this person to eat, oh you know, some people are going to say this, some people are going to say that.\" He's not allowed to take that into consideration. You can't take in consideration any, let's call it political reasons, why this person should not eat. You have to take in consideration only the medical situation. And if the doctors medically say, from the medical point of view say that this person is pikuach nefesh, you can't listen to anybody else who will come and say, \"Well, there are other reasons who might have some influence, nothing to do with the situation, but who knows, people are going to say this, maybe someone might not come to shul next week because he heard you allowed someone to eat on Yom Kippur.\" Too bad! And if he listens to what that person will say, and therefore he doesn't allow him to eat, he's putting this person's life in danger and he is responsible! That is the halacha. This is just an example of an halacha of eating on Yom Kippur. The same applies to everything. When there's a question if the situation is considered pikuach nefesh or not, if it's a question whether a situation is considered life-threatening or not, who do you ask? You have to ask the experts in that field. If it comes to being sick, which is a question of medicine, you have to ask the doctors who are experts in the medical field. If it's a question in security of a of a land or security of a place, you have to ask the experts in security, that's what you have to ask, the experts in war and strategy. And if it's a question what is more chance to bring a war which will cost lives, and what will not bring a war, where you will have less chances of people dying or not, who do you ask? So you have to, the halacha says you have to ask the experts in the army, the experts on security. You can't go al pi halacha and ask the experts in politics. Just like you can't ask an expert in politics when it comes to medicine, you can't ask an expert in politics when it comes to security of a country. And therefore coming back to the point, when we have this question, what is is it pikuach nefesh to give back or not, most of the experts in Eretz Yisrael, in Israel, most of the experts in America, and they're non-Jews, all say that if you give back the territories, you're putting the population in Eretz Yisrael in danger, much greater danger than they are in now. The only thing that some people say, and many people say in the government, \"But politically, we can't go that way. Politically, because of United States, because of this, because of that. And for political reasons, we should give back territory and make peace.\" So here when we come to the question question of halacha, what do we do? So, just like by the case of the doctor, we can't listen to what the person says politically, we have to listen to the expert in the field of medicine, the halacha says we have to listen to the experts in the field of security, in the field of warfare, and if they say, the majority of them say, that this is dangerous, then automatically the halacha says that to give back territory is putting Jewish lives in danger. And therefore, you are not allowed to do it. And if you do it, you are over on שפיכות דמים. It's connected to murder, because that's what you're causing. And in this case, as we're talking in this situation the way it's now, the experts say, many experts, that not only actually giving back territory causes danger, even to talk about giving back territory causes danger. Because the moment that the Arabs see that we are ready to give back and we are ready to bend, automatically this causes them to want more, and they see that they could accomplish what they want with what they're doing, and they're going to continue doing it, and more and more Jewish lives are in danger. And the Rebbe explained this many times, I would say tens, probably maybe over a hundred times, more, of the details of this halacha. But in truth, in our situation, it's even more than that. In the situation that we're dealing with is more than that. Till now, we were saying that when we have a question whether something is pikuach nefesh or not, well, you have to ask the experts, and the halacha will say if the experts say, \"Yes, it is pikuach nefesh,\" and that's how we have to follow. Then there are cases where the Torah, the halacha says, \"Don't even have to ask an expert.\" The halacha says it's called a danger. See, sometimes, like the guy who is sick on Yom Kippur, and we don't know if it's dangerous or not, there's no halacha opinion whether he is dangerous or not. The halacha says, \"Ask the doctor, and his opinion will be the one that will make you pasken the din.\" But there are situations where the halacha itself says, \"Yes, this is a situation of danger.\" And therefore, even if the people would come and say it's not dangerous, it doesn't change the halacha, because here the halacha happened to say it's dangerous. I'll give you an example of where we find something before we get to our situation. We know that a person is sick, you could be מחלל שבת. A woman who is giving birth, according to halacha, she is considered in a situation of סכנה. The halacha says she is considered in situation of danger, and therefore you could drive to shul, to to the hospital, you could do everything, you could be מחלל שבת for her. Now, the truth is, nowadays, not necessarily is it really dangerous. You could manage if you wouldn't go to the hospital, she could manage. Somehow, you have a phone, you call up, you call 911, and they'll tell you. There are many cases happened, I know some people who had baby, one of our friends here had a baby in the car, from the cell phone he called and they told him exactly what to do. I mean, it's not comfortable, it's not good, it's not this, but it's that, say, dangerous to be מחלל שבת? Does that change the halacha? Chas v'shalom. The halacha is that you could be מחלל שבת for a woman giving birth because the halacha says this is a dangerous situation. In the situation that Eretz Yisrael is in, we have a clear halacha that this is a situation of danger. Which halacha do we find?

The Gemara, we have a Gemara in Eruvin, and it's brought down in the Rambam, and it's brought down in the Shulchan Aruch as a halacha, and it's known, the famous halacha in סימן שכט. And the halacha is like this. It says if there is a Jewish yishuv, a Jewish settlement, different cities, Jewish cities, and mind you, that doesn't even mention Eretz Yisrael. Actually, the case the Gemara talks about was not Eretz Yisrael, it was in Bavel actually, it was in Nehardea. And the case is like this: goyim come and say, \"We're coming, we want to take things from you.\" And the question there is not whether you should fight back. The question is, on Shabbos, are you allowed to go fight with them with ammunition on Shabbos? Because it's מחלל שבת. But the halacha says like this: If they come and they say, \"We want to get some of your territory,\" Torah says, the halacha says you have to fight them on Shabbos. You have to fight with them on Shabbos because if you let them in and you give them their territory, then your life is in danger. We can't trust it. What happens if they say, \"We're not coming to take territory, we're coming, we want to take some things\"? And an example that the Shulchan Aruch gives, עסקי קש ותבן, we're going to take some straw, how valuable is that? Alright, some hay. And that's all they want to take away from you. So, the Shulchan Aruch says like this: If they want something that's in middle of the settlement, then on Shabbos you can't go out, because it's not a danger situation. If what they're asking for is at the border, and all they're asking for is קש ותבן, they're only asking for straw, then The din is you must, not you're allowed to, you must be מחלל שבת and go out, go out to fight with them because the moment you're going to let them in to come and take whatever you want they're claiming to take at the border, you are opening the land for them, and you never know where they're going to go. And this makes it a situation that's dangerous, and the halachah says you must fight with them on Shabbos, you must be מחלל שבת. What does this halachah say? The halachah says you don't even have to go ask any experts. The Torah, in this situation, happens to be the expert, and says that at a border, even if they come for something else. What's our situation? First of all, we're talking about territories, not קש ותבן. But let's say they say we don't want to hurt anybody. But if it's at the border, the halachah is if they want something that's at the border city, this is called pikuach nefesh. This is called a life is in danger. The truth is, nowadays, the halachah would be, even though it doesn't say in Shulchan Aruch because that's not talking about nowadays, everywhere is called at the border, because nowadays with the with the planes and with the rockets, wherever it is, it's similar to the border if you're going to let them any give them anything, they have an in into the ישוב, and the Torah says this is pikuach nefesh, this is the puts the situation in danger. See, I'm not the expert in in these things, but the ground war is very important. By the Gulf War we saw it, by this war, that you can't say now the ground war and the soldiers going doesn't is not important, therefore everything goes with planes and with bombs and therefore what's the difference if it's the border or not. It is still a difference, because the main thing is that's all a preparation, and the main thing is when the forces come in, and that is the border makes a difference between where if it's the border or not. And therefore, according to halachah, the situation is that if you give back, this is called the Torah says the Shulchan Aruch that this is called giving calling them in and giving them allowance to do what they want, and then your life is in danger. And all the promises that you get, in halachah you cannot rely on it, because in Shulchan Aruch it says clearly they promise, all we're going to do we're going to come in, take some קש ותבן, take some straw, we'll take it out, and we're going to go. Says, don't believe them. The halachah says don't believe. There's a pasuk that says כי פיהם דיבר שוא וימינם ימין שקר. They talk, and you can't believe them. That's normally. In this situation, we don't have to have any proof that we can't believe them, because we know from experience that all the promises and all the things they made, they never never keep it. So according to halachah, to give back any territory falls under the category of pikuach nefesh, and automatically the moment it falls in the category of pikuach nefesh, you also have the other prohibition of automatically you're not allowed to give them a land, any place לא תחנם, חניה בקרקע. You can't give them any land in Eretz Yisrael. You can't even sell them, you can't give them, you can't give it to a goy.

This is all before we get into the point of our בעלות, our ownership of Eretz Yisrael. That's another issue altogether, that Eretz Yisrael is ours and we have no right to give it up. See, we're talking before now from a regular point of view which is not connected to Eretz Yisrael, because לא תחנם is ארץ is only Eretz Yisrael, but the security part, the same thing would be if you'd have Jewish cities in middle of the United States, and the same thing would happen, the same halachah would be. And that's why in Eretz Yisrael if the prob question would be giving back Eilat, which is not Eretz Yisrael, or at the time when it was the giving back parts of Sinai, which is not הלכתית ארץ ישראל, so the prohibition of לא תחנם would not apply. But the issur of pikuach nefesh applies, because that has nothing to do with the fact that it's Eretz Yisrael. But in this situation it happens to be Eretz Yisrael, and in Eretz Yisrael we own Eretz Yisrael that no one has a right to give Eretz Yisrael to anybody. Eretz Yisrael, which was a present given to the Jews, no one has a right to give it up. Eretz Yisrael was given to the Jews a long, long time ago. It was given to the Jews in the time of Avraham Avinu. By the Bris Bein HaBetarim, Hashem said to Avraham, לזרעך נתתי, I gave to your children this land. In some pesukim, Hashem said, to your children I will give this land, in the future. But this pasuk says לזרעך נתתי, I gave. At the time of Avraham Avinu, Hashem already gave Eretz Yisrael to him. Said to him, meaning to the Jews. And according to halacha, he already then it belonged to Avraham. We know this this week's parsha, Chayei Sarah, when Avraham came for the Me'arat HaMachpelah, he said, גר he wants to buy it. He's ready to buy it, but said, גר ותושב אנכי עמכם, I'm a stranger and I'm a תושב, I'm a a settled person here. So Rashi says, \"What do you mean? Or you're a stranger, or you're a תושב.\" So he says, \"You know what?\" He told them, \"I'm ready to behave like a גר, like a stranger, and I'm ready to pay for it hard cash. But if you're not going to sell it to me, I'm the owner of this land, and I will take it by force because it's mine, Hashem gave it to me.\" Ready to sell it, so he bought it. But in truth, already then it was his. And we find in halacha, it says in Chumash later on, when the daughters of Tzelafchad came to demand their share in Eretz Yisrael, the whole story there, their father one-, their father was a firstborn, so he got a double share. And the Gemara asks the question, the halacha is that a firstborn gets a double share only במוחזק, not בראוי, and I'll explain it just for a second, that let's say a person dies and he leaves over a few children, so the halacha is the firstborn son, if he's a bechor, gets a double portion. But the din is he only gets a double portion of whatever is already his father's. So whatever is going to come in in the future, he doesn't get. Let's say someone owed his father money, and after the father died, a person came and paid his debt, from that money they will all divide it equally, because that's called ראוי, that's called potential. Only what's there already, there, the father's, that's when you get a double portion. So the Gemara asks, \"How did Tzelafchad get a double portion in Eretz Yisrael when Eretz Yisrael was not given to them yet? It was for the future that when they would enter Eretz Yisrael and have the war, they would conquer it, they would get it.\" So the Gemara says, \"No, Eretz Yisrael was theirs already. It was מוחזק by Tzelafchad before they went to Eretz Yisrael. It's מוחזקת, it's not ראוי, it's not called potential, it's מוחזק.\" So Eretz Yisrael was already given then. So Eretz Yisrael was given to Avraham Avinu already then. And since then, Eretz Yisrael belongs to the Jews. And nobody else can take it. They might steal it, but it's not theirs, so certainly we have no right to give it away. And I'd like to explain it in a little bit more detail. Now, I explained it in shul a few weeks ago in Parashat Bereshit. In Parashat Bereshit, Rashi says, \"Why does the Torah start with the creation of the world? Why is it important? Torah should start with the first mitzvah.\" And Rashi says, \"This is because in future the goyim will come and say to the Jews, 'You are לסטים! You are robbers! You are thieves! You stole Eretz Yisrael.' And the goyim are going to complain. So we tell them, 'You see? Hashem created the world, so it's His. He could give Eretz Yisrael to whoever He wants. So first He gave it to you, and now He gave it to us.' That's the answer to the goyim.\" So that's why the Torah starts off with the creation, to know that Hashem is the one that created the world. So the Rebbe asks a question, a few questions on Rashi, just for short, he asks, \"What kind of complaints do they have? They didn't do that? The goyim didn't conquer one from another constantly? Why all of a sudden are they complaining against us?\" And another question, \"Why are all the goyim complaining? All the goyim in the world, we didn't take anything from them. If anything, the seven nations who we took from, they should complain.\" And besides that, if you look, we know, we learn, we know that Noach divided the world to his three sons: Shem, Cham, and Yefet. Eretz Yisrael happened to be in the section that belonged to Shem. Then how did it get to Canaan? Canaan was a son of Cham. How did it get to Cham's side? Well, they had a war, and Cham's side, Canaan, conquered it from the children of Shem. We are the children of Shem, so we came and took it back, so we took ours. So what's the problem? Also, you know in halacha even, certainly by the goyim, כיבוש מלחמה, if you conquer, it's not called stealing, because that's what they everyone did, and even halacha is like that. Anyway, the Rebbe answers that sure, you conquer and the goyim conquered, Eretz Yisrael is different. The moment Hashem gave Eretz Yisrael to the Jews, it became in such a way that no goy could take it. Every other country could be conquered from one from another. So potentially, every country in the world potentially belongs to every other country, to every other nation. There's one nation that's in there, but another nation, if they decide, they come and they conquer it, and they take it back. So potentially they one person has a reality, a real ownership, and another has a potential ownership. Eretz Yisrael, no one in the world could have an ownership. So we took away Eretz Yisrael not only from the seven nations, from the whole world! Because now whoever will comes and conquer Eretz Yisrael, he might take it, but it doesn't mean it becomes his. That's why we say in davenen, \"מפני חטאינו גלינו מארצנו\", because of our sins we were chased out of our land. We call Eretz Yisrael our land even when we are in galut, and not because now it's physically in the hands of the Jews. Throughout all the 2,000 years of galut, Eretz Yisrael is called Eretz Yisrael, the land and the Jews. And it's called ארצנו because Hashem gave it to us, so if He gave it to us, no one could take it away. See, all other countries, everything is hashgacha pratit, everything comes from Hashem, so whoever had it, obviously Hashem made it happen, but still it was done through human beings. Eretz Yisrael was given to us directly by Hashem, so it's ours. So who has the right to take a piece of Eretz Yisrael and give it to a goy, besides the prohibition? You can't. So many years it wasn't in our hands, but it was still ours. And now that we do have it, can we give it back? We have no right. This is talking from the point of view of ownership. Then there's another point of view of kedusha, of the holiness of Eretz Yisrael. Imagine taking a holy place and giving it to goyim, the kedusha of Eretz Yisrael. Know what the kedusha of Eretz Yisrael is? Eretz Yisrael, it says Hashem chose Eretz Yisrael. Where else do we find the expression Hashem chose? He chose the Jews. אתה בחרתנו מכל העמים, He chose us. And when He chose, that means that we are the special one and we are connected to Hashem in an essential way, as I explained once what choice means. It says Hashem chose Eretz Yisrael. The Midrash says says that Hashem chose Eretz Yisrael from all the countries in the world, chose the Jews from all the nations in the world, and He said, \"Let me take the chosen land and give it to the chosen people.\" So He chose it, and because He chose it, there is a kedusha in Eretz Yisrael. The actual kedusha started from when Yehoshua conquered Eretz Yisrael, but from when we conquered Eretz Yisrael, there is a kedusha there, and therefore there are so many mitzvot that only apply in Eretz Yisrael, not anywhere else, because of the kedushah. So how is it possible to take the kedushah of Eretz Yisrael to give it to a goy? But I must say, if it would be dangerous to keep it, then we'd have to overlook all this, because pikuach nefesh pushes away everything. But since it's the opposite, it is dangerous to give it, so on top of being doing the aveirah of giving bringing danger to Jews, we are now doing it לא תחנם, giving away something that's ours that no one has a right to give up, and giving away something that's holy. Would anyone think of taking a Sefer Torah and giving it to an Arab, to a goy? A holy object. We're giving away holy land. Eretz Yisrael is holy in such a way, it says, in Chumash it says that Eretz Yisrael is ארץ אשר עיני השם אלוקיך בה מראשית השנה ועד אחרית השנה, it's a land that the eyes of Hashem are upon it from beginning of the year to the end of the year. And the commentaries ask, what does that mean, the eyes of Hashem are upon it? It means Hashem watches it. Hashem is משגיח בהשגחה פרטית, He takes care of it. Doesn't He take care of the whole world? Hashem takes care of everything. Hashgachah pratit, everything that happens in the world, a little leaf that turns around is because Hashem makes it happen. So why is there, what does it mean Eretz Yisrael is special? What it means is that in the whole world it's true, but you can't feel it, you can't see it, it's not revealed. In Eretz Yisrael it's revealed. If a Yid wants in Eretz Yisrael to feel Godliness, he's able to feel it much faster than he's able to feel here. That's why the Gemara says very harsh statements. It says in the Gemara: כל הדר בחוץ לארץ כאילו אין לו אלוקה. If you live outside of Eretz Yisrael, it's almost as if you have no God. The Gemara says: ישראל הדר בחוץ לארץ עובדי עבודה זרה בטהרה. Jews who live in חוץ לארץ, outside of Eretz Yisrael, worship idols בטהרה. בטהרה means in a pure way, but they worship idols. What does that mean? So I'll explain it just in short. What's an idol? You think an idol means take a rock and bow down, you're my God? That's meshugass. An idol means if somebody believes that there is another power other than Hashem. If a person believes that I, with my own power, reached the success that I have, that's to a level of avodah zarah. If someone says כוחי ועוצם ידי, my own power, what's the difference if you believe in another power, you believe in the sun has a power or the stars have a power, that's avodah zarah, and if I have a power, it's not avodah zarah? It's same It's avodah zarah. The problem is, it's very hard not to feel that way. You got to work very hard. In Eretz Yisrael, just the air of Eretz Yisrael is something that allows a person to feel the truth, to feel that everything comes from Hashem, while outside of Eretz Yisrael it's hard to feel that. That's what it means if you live outside of Eretz Yisrael, you worship עבודה זרה בטהרה. Why? Because if you live outside of Eretz Yisrael, it's you will not necessarily come to feel that everything comes from Hashem. You might think, I'm also something. But in Eretz Yisrael, if you want, you will feel the truth of Hashem. Well, obviously someone who doesn't want, Hashem doesn't take away free choice. You could be in Eretz Yisrael and be the biggest apikores and be, and the truth is, why is it that in Eretz Yisrael there are so many people who are anti, which in America you don't find? You find religious Jews, non-religious, very few anti- anti-דת, against religion. Over there, why? Because the kedushah is so strong, and it says זה לעומת זה, there's a balance of power. The Ramban says כל הקודש ביותר, מקודש ביותר חרב ביותר, whatever is holier is more destroyed. Eretz Yisrael is so holy, so the other side is also strong. But, so therefore, if a person doesn't want, he will not feel godliness in Eretz Yisrael, and as a matter of fact, he will feel worse there, if he wants, if he chooses. But if a Yid chooses, he wants to feel Hashem, it is much easier to feel it in Eretz Yisrael because the kedushah is there. The Gemara says אווירא דארץ ישראל מחכים, the air of Eretz Yisrael makes you smart. The Gemara says that if you compare chachamim the time of the Gemara, the chachamim of Eretz Yisrael and the chachamim of Bavel, the chachamim of, one chacham of Eretz Yisrael, it says, is as great as two of Bavel. The Gemara does say if one of Bavel goes there, he'll become as twice as one of them, which means he'll become four times as great. But normally, why? Because even the air is holy. Even the air makes a person smart in the true chochmah, the chochmah of Torah. So Eretz Yisrael has the kedushah in the air, has the kedushah in the ground. The ground is holy. And imagine taking something like that and giving it up. Now this is all true, but again this is not the basis. The basis is that it's it is for security reasons. And it's also true in that case that it's ours. And the Rebbe said many times that if we would come to the goyim and tell them the truth, that Eretz Yisrael is ours because the Torah says so, we wouldn't have a hard time. The Rebbe said many times that if you go to the president of the United States, tell him that Eretz Yisrael is ours because the Torah says so. And I must tell you the truth, me as being a chasid and the time when, you know, especially when you're young you're full of I was heard this and I couldn't understand what the Rebbe meant. I couldn't understand. You're going to go to to to the president, whoever the president was there, and tell him the Torah, Bible says so, and that's going to make the difference? They're talking all kinds of different languages. So I heard not long ago, someone told me that he heard from a person who is friendly with Kissinger. He told it me, so he heard it from that person, friendly with Kissinger, and Kissinger told him, not to the one that told me, but the his friend that was told, that he was the ambassador then, I think the president was Nixon. And it was a time when Golda Meir was supposed to come to America and have a meeting with him. So he told Kissinger, he said, \"Whatever she'll tell me, no to,\" you know, cuz he they all try to push, you know, to give up territory and Israel string say no, so he says, \"Everything that she'll tell me, I have an answer, because all that is nothing. I'm afraid of one ta'anah. If she will say that with these we have to keep the territories because the Bible says that it was given to the Jews, then I don't know what I will say.\" That's what he said to Kissinger. She came, didn't mention a word, did not mention a word about the Bible. But had she said, so I'm thinking now, the Rebbe knew that. We were thinking of what could you expect from the president of the United States? That's what it is! And they're not saying it! They're not saying it! But if they would say it, many of the presidents were religious, in their way religious. And if you bring it from the point of view of the Bible, in their eyes, that would mean a lot. But we don't say it. So it's that point, the point of pikuach nefesh, and then automatically all the other points that come along. And therefore it is, you know, the worst thing to do is this peace process. And the Rebbe spoke about this so many times, and he and unfortunately, we saw that everything that the Rebbe said came true. I'm saying unfortunately, because the Rebbe kept on warning, warning, \"Don't even talk about it. The moment you talk about giving back territories, you're putting Jewish lives in danger.\" And he said not only in the shetachim, not only the territories. He said do you remember he once many times, but once I remember he said, \"You're putting Jews in Yerushalayim in danger, Jews in Kfar Chabad,\" he said, \"and in Bnei Brak.\" And the reason he stressed Bnei Brak there, because at that time, many of the people from Bnei Brak kept on saying, \"No, we have to give back territories.\" And the Rebbe Now everyone agrees already, all religious Jews know the truth because every, but then the Rebbe said, \"You're you're not safe if you\" And the truth is we didn't even know how strong it is, and now, you know, we know the Rebbe said. But now we see what it is. That had they then been strong, and not even spoken about, and they would know this is not there's nothing to talk about, then we wouldn't have these problems that we have now. Now, some say that there is a Gemara that says אל תמרודו בגוים, we're not allowed to revolt against the goyim. That's called revolting against the goyim? This is security! Security, this is for our own security, and everyone says, all the experts, that this is for the security. So certainly we can't we're not allowed to give back. And therefore, we got to daven to Hashem, he should put the right sechel into the minds of the leaders of the government, that they should just finish with this peace process, and say to it, \"all kaput\", and come with a strong hand, and then They'll know that we mean business, and then the Eibershter will protect us, because we will have done everything in our hands. Hashem protects us anyway, but we have to do what Hashem wants us, according to halachah, and then, hopefully, we won't even need that. Soon as that's said, we'll have Mashiach, and he will take us out of galut and take us to Eretz Yisrael, in a different Eretz Yisrael, the way it'll be when Mashiach will be here.