of anxiety about his unfulfilled vow. He was penniless and would have become a beggar. Furthermore, he was terrified of the sea and its fearsome waves. He wished to know whether he could receive release from his vow.
R. Joseph Trani, citing R. Asher b. Yehiel as his authority,* states that usually one is not granted release from a holy vow to fulfill a mitzvah, such as going on aliyah. In contrast to his own exhortations just cited, he allows an exception where the route is hazardous or there is a risk that the man might leave his wife an agunah: in such a situation, observing the precept of aliyah could lead to a sin(mitzvah goreret aveirah). Consequently, the man from Adrianople may be released from his vow. The Chief Rabbi of Turkey proclaimed:
The essence of the mitzvah is not aliyah, but dwelling [yeshivah] in the Land and establishing a home there, as the late Nahmanides taught. Anyone who goes there as a tourist intending to return whence he came is not fulfilling the well-known mitzvah.
PREACHING AND PRACTICING ALIYAH
Great halakhists, like all other human beings, were not always able to apply their pesikah to their own lives. Instructing their followers around the Jewish globe about the supreme value, holiness, and importance of Eretz Yisrael with halakhot, tesponsa, and theological tracts was one matter; drawing conclusions for themselves and putting them into action was quite another issue. A touchstone of these rabbinic judgments and teachings was whether the rabbi himself adopted them and went on aliyah to settle in the Land of Israel.
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