In a powerful video statement published on Wednesday by YWN on WhatsApp, HaGaon HaRav Dov Landau, Rosh Yeshivas Slabodka, unequivocally opposed participation in the World Zionist Organization (WZO) elections. The video, now available with English subtitles, captures the revered Gadol HaDor urging Klal Yisrael to refrain from voting, emphasizing the spiritual dangers he associates with Zionist institutions.
Rav Landau’s words come amid ongoing debate within the Chareidi world about involvement in the WZO, with some advocating participation to influence funding and policy. However, the Rosh Yeshiva’s firm stance reinforces the traditional Litvish position against such engagement. “There is no heter whatsoever,” he declared, calling on those who may have registered to cancel their votes.
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25 Responses
I think there’s more than enough articles about this topic that just fuel more disgusting comments so maybe let’s leave it at that. Whoever puts this Rabbi down because they disagree with him is going to suffer tremendously in the next world, just play it safe and keep quiet
There you go boys and girls there’s your answer!! Case closed!!
If Rav claims that other Rabbis (including R Chaim?) paskened based on incorrect information – he obviously will be content when others presume that he paskens based on incorrect information.
So, R Landau does _not_ deny that R Chaim allowed the vote – he simply was not presented with right information or was too immersed in Torah to pay attention to such insignificant question.
how do you cancel your vote?
reb Emes
What you write is SHEKER! No one is putting Rav Landau “down” but everyone has their own poiskim. Chassidim won’t listen to him, Sfarddim wont listen to him and even the Yeshivisha oilim don’t listen to him unless their own leaders agree! Everyone has a right to publicly disagree with him, he is the RY of Slabodka, not Ponovitz, not Brisk, not Bobov, Belz, Biala, Sadeger, Stolin etc, we don;t have Sanhedrin anymore, everyone listens to their own rabbi!
@bmgcoffeeroom99
Why do you say case closed? Is Rav landau the only one entitled to an opinion? Is that the way of the Torah? Other gedolim say that one should vote. Hacham Yitzhak Yosef is coming to America to encourage voting, is he not entitled to a halachic opinion? Last I checked he wrote more on any halachic topic than Rav Landau.
Rav Herschel Shechter is another gadol that says to vote. He’s a current delegate if WZO and will be again be”h. Last I checked he’s also entitled to a halachic opinion.
Need I go on?
Finally Achdus in klal yisroel! The reform and chareidi rabbis agree that we should not vote for EretzHakodesh.
they edited out the “harsher words”…. and hamayvin yuvin!
So back then there were בית שמאי and בית הלל and then there were אביי ורבא and there רש”י and רמב”ן and then the בעש”ט and the גר”א and so on. And, as we get into Pesach, we can connect with the רבי אלעזר בן עזריא and the חכמים! There is a clear מחלוקת. I get it and I respect it. I’m grateful to have voted early on as per the
And this was recorded on a smartphone and posted on the internet.
Got it.
Isn’t the point of the election to take over the WZO and make it frum – if not frum, much closer to it? not to join them – but to take it over completely??
This was recorded on a camcorder
@beisyosef if you had a cup of water and 100 scientists say it’s safe to drink but 1 scientist screams that if you drink this cup of water you will die I hope you just throw that water out and don’t risk your precious life for a cup of water. I hope you’re not risking your precious neshama for a vote……..
AAQ:
He did not at all confirm that. He answered that if they claim that others allowed it then those others were obviously not presented with the actual question.
beisyosef:
“Modern Orthodoxy” holds the idolatry of Zionism as part of its core identity/religion. Therefore, the opinion of its greatest halakhic authority is obviously irrelevant, all the more so if he is meshuchad as a delegate in that organization. That should be obvious to any ninth grader who has learned some gemara.
yaapchik:
Find a written teshuva permitting this abomination which was always universally forbidden for over a century by all gedolim, ashkenazi and sefardi, throughout the ages. It is thoroughly dishonest to make this out to be like a machlokes on which bracha to make on something.
I don’t understand why YWN posts videos of our Gedolim, as it will only lead to their being less respected.
For instance, commentators who don’t accept as a given that these are Giants, might brazenly query what it was in Rav Landau’s presentation that Rav Chaim did not know as well. He cites Israel’s founding principles from 77 years ago. Rav Chaim did not know this? (Same with the Mo’etzes statement, which was entirely historical. Rav Chaim did not know of these events, nor of the shittos presented there, from over half a century ago?)
And brazen commentators would ask why the matter of taking money from the Zionist Government (demanding it) was sidestepped here as it has been in every other anti-WZO speech. Why is that question sidestepped, they would ask?
Please stop posting these videos, as it only leads to skepticism and cynicism, once we see for ourselves how our Gedolim lay out their thought process.
Perhaps it would be best to not see this.
There is no question that this is his Psak, but many other Pasken differently. I heard the question posed to R Chaim and it seemed pretty clear to me. “Daas Torah” can’t only be when you agree with the opinion. But we should all respect the Gelolai Yisrael’s opinions and understand that there are differences of opinion on this topic.
Any Rav will tell you that if your Rav tells you to do something that’s obviously against the Torah, we shouldn’t listen. Otherwise, we should listen to our Rav.
The tragic status of the Jewish nation today regarding the Beis Hamikdash;
100% pray for it
50% are secular and have little or no interest in it.
45% are religious but adopted to some extent or another Satmar ideology that it can only be achieved through 100% super natural means.
5% are ready to do whatever is necessary to actually rebuild the Beis Hamikdash any way possible.
The Sefer Hachinuch counts rebuilding the Beis Hamikdash as one of the 613 commandments, he writes the commandment is binding when most of Klal Yisroel lives on their land. Acc. to the official numbers of Jews in the world today we are pretty close if not their already.
At one of the Otzma Yehudi rallies Rabbi Dov Lior encouraged the group not to worry about their popularity as also in Yetzias Mizrayim it says וחמושים עלו בני ישראל ממצרים only a small fraction merited to leave as the others were not worthy…
By Mechiras Yosef and the Meraglim the Majority were wrong and the minority were right…
Avraham Avinu was a Yachid vs many as was Moshe Rabenu, Yosef Hatzadik, Dovid Hamelech, Yirmiyah Hanavi, Yeshaya Hanavi, Mordechai Hatzadik, Matisyahu Kohen Gadol and more…
At the end of the day in the Torah we find being afraid to conquer Eretz Yisroel is the sin of the Meraglim, going to conquer when it is not the time is the sin of the Maapilim. What it all depends on is if Hashem is commanding to do it now or not.
The fact that we have no system of appointing legitimate Rabbis to a Sanhedrin or some sort of supreme Rabbinical court is the main churban of our times. All we have are way to many groups each claiming they and their Rabbis are the truth and all the others and their Rabbis are invalid.
Mathematically if all the religious anti voters would simply start voting they are hands down the clear largest group and ruling party in Israel. It is the blind refusal to confront and accept the miracle Hashem has done with the return to the Holy Land after all these years that is the main reason the Secular still rule Israel.
There are many, many גדולי עולם, extremely recognized מנהיגים who have specifically encouraged everyone to vote especially their own kehillos: the Belzer Rav shlita among many others.of his stature. There is clearly a מחלוקת here. And the גאון רבי לנדא שליט”א is not the only פוסק. There is clearly a מחלוקת of the גדולי עיון
Rav dov landau most widely accepted as the gadol hador (doesn’t mean by all but definitely more than anyone else alive today) was rav Chaim’s best friend probably knows what rav Chaim held better than you and believe me they showed him everything and he still has no doubt that rav Chaim wouldn’t permit it
bmgcoffeeroom99:
your analogy is flawed. In your analogy one is saying the water will kill me, but the 99 others say that it’s just plain water with no added benefits. Here we’re talking Abt a situation where my vote can be used for mosdos if it goes to the right parties.
HaKatan:
Your Katana Daat if you think that Rav Yitzhak Yosef is modern Orthodox. I know you meant Rav Shechter, and he too is a Gadol B’yusrael. But your comment negates that there are many mainstream Orthodox yeshivish gedolim who are also baaleh devarim that have an opinion on the matter.
BMG:
Maybe in the Ashkenazi world. In the mainstream Sephardic world you’d be hard pressed to find ppl that have even heard of him. Rav Yizchak Yosef is more well known and held it’s good to vote. They all have opinions and negating that is stupid.
@beisyosef let’s change the analogy 99 scientists say this water will make you extremely wealthy and strong and 1 scientist promises you to your face that you will drop dead from this water and begs you not to drink it…….. that being said if your rav says to vote go right ahead
@bmgcoffeeroom99:
I think the most accurate analogy would be if 99 lawyers told me a very lucrative public was totally legal and beneficial to my vountry, and one told me it was illegal and I would be tried to the fullest extent of the law.
I’m not the one arguing with Rav Landau, there are many gedolim as great as him that tell me I should do this. If Hashem asks me why I did I will call those gedolim to my defense. Hashem doesn’t punish those that listen to their gedolim. Also happens to be the opinion that it’s good to vote makes much more sense to me
*lucrative public business deal