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MONEY FOR THE HOLY LAND
Throughout the long exile of the Jewish people, a few Jews continued to live in the land of Eretz Yisrael under very difficult circumstances. There were waves of substantial Jewish immigration to the country in the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, but nevertheless the Jewish community in Eretz Yisrael remained in the main small, weak and impoverished. The Ottoman Turks who ruled the country for many centuries were inimical to the Jewish population and placed great restrictions on it. The country itself was basically a wasteland with backward agriculture, rocky unyielding soil and very little economic opportunity. The Jews who lived in the country saw themselves as a tenacious representative Jewish foothold and a connection to the land of their forefathers and felt entitled - by the simple fact of just living in Eretz Yisrael - to be supported economically by their brethren in the Diaspora. Even in talmudic times, charity and funds for Jews living in the Land of Israel were given priority over other charitable, even local communal causes. There was an unspoken but nevertheless very real contract between the Jews of the Diaspora and those living in Eretz Yisrael that the Jews living in the Holy Land would be supported by the Jewish world. To a great extent, this unspoken but unbroken contract remains in effect even today.
In the 1800's, Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe to the Land of Israel steadily increased, though again we are not speaking about very large numbers of immigrants. A fund for the support of these Jews was established throughout Eastern Europe. The fund was named Keren Rabi Meir Baal Haness. A small yellow pushke (charity box) was placed in almost every home in Jewish Eastern Europe and the woman of the house would deposit a few kopeks in it every Friday eve before blessing the Sabbath candles. The pushkes were emptied before Rosh Hashana and before Pesach and all of the collected money was entrusted to the rabbi of the community. Somehow, through a complicated and patently illegal system - the Russian government forbade the shipment of currency outside of its borders, especially to areas under the control of its ancient enemy, the Ottoman Turks - the money somehow reached its destination, coming to the rabbis of Jerusalem and the Land of Israel. The rabbis in Russia were in constant danger of arrest by the Russian authorities because of their participation in this scheme. In fact, two of the greatest rabbis of the nineteenth century, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (the first Lubavitcher rebbe) and Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (rosh yeshiva of the famed Volozhin yeshiva) were arrested for sending funds to the Jewish community in the Land of Israel. In spite of the dangers, the process of sending funds for the support of the Jews in the Land of Israel continued unabated. The local leaders of the community, in a fashion called chaluka, distributed the monies in Eretz Yisrael. This literally meant, "dividing" the money. There never was enough money to satisfy everyone and many of the disputes that still exist within the haredi community in Israel today can trace their origins to the times of the chaluka.
When the secular Zionist movement began to gain momentum at the turn of the past century, one of the main accusations that it leveled against the old yishuv hayashan Jews in Israel was that they were schnorrers living off of the chaluka system. The "new Jew" that was going to be created was going to be completely self-sufficient and would disdain the help of its brethren in the Diaspora. Well, it hasn't quite turned out that way. The United Jewish Appeal, JNF, Israel Bonds, United States government aid, the individual drives of many Israeli institutions for funds overseas, and the continuing trips of Israelis on private trips to raise funds for themselves are all worthy successors to the chaluka system. The unspoken contract between the Jews of the Diaspora and those of us living here in Israel remains inviolate and intact. Contributing funds for the support of the Jewish presence in the Land of Israel has become much more formalized and finalized since the creation of the State of Israel. Nevertheless, it is the old bond between Jews the world over and the Land of Israel itself that remains the driving force behind all of the monies donated to Jewish causes here. It is a symbiotic, almost spiritual, relationship that this situation creates. Long may it continue for the benefit of all concerned.
Berel Wein
