W ith the Balfour Declaration and the UN resolution for a Jewish state we’ve witnessed the world’s recognition of the Jewish People’s right to Eretz Yisrael which is intrinsic to the process of geulah. So why is there such a fuss now?
In our historical timeline we’ve just marked the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration and the 70th anniversary of the dramatic resolution by the General Assembly of the United Nations in favor of establishing a Jewish state in Eretz Yisrael. Those decisions were given an unprecedented stamp of approval by the international community and if we look at the matter outside of the political box perhaps we can find the spiritual meaning underlying these events and trace their causes to something beyond the caprice of political trends.
The Balfour Declaration of November 1917 was really just a general statement recognizing in principle the right of the Jewish People to return to their ancestral land and build a national home there. When the declaration came up for ratification by the Supreme Council of the Allied Nations at the San Remo Conference in 1920 it was the first time in history that the nations of the world stood up for the Jewish Nation as a united front. And a large portion of gedolei Yisrael saw that event as a flash of Hashgachah lighting up the darkness for a brief moment.
Thirty years later the UN General Assembly voted by a wide majority to endorse the founding of a Jewish state in what was then known as Palestine. On that night of November 29 1947 I was a young boy living in Bnei Brak and I remember my father a”h waking me up excitedly not wanting me to miss that historic moment. “Get up!” he urged me. “The world has decided to give us a state of our own in Eretz Yisrael!”
