What do we learn from these successful and failed attempts to go on aliyah and settle the Holy Land? We find that they involved not only halakhic and theological polemics, but very pragmatic issues as well.
1. PARENTS AND CHILDREN—On the halakhic level, was aliyah a commandment that was incumbent on Jews in the Middle Ages? Most halakhists ruled that this mitzvah overruled even the Fifth Commandment of honoring one’s parents. Among those who so determined the halakhah were the Maharam of Rothenberg, of the thirteenth century, and Moses Trani, of the sixteenth century. The former made his ruling against that of the great sages who settled in the Land a generation before. Later on they sent their sons back home to Europe, because of the difficult conditions in the Holy Land relating to cruel inhabitants, unemployment, and lack of Torah guidance. The Rashbatz(1361-1444) took a middle position, allowing a resident of Palestine to go abroad to study Torah or to honor his parents, on the proviso that he return to the Land.
This conflict between the generations is not asserted in terms of loving versus leaving parents. There is no expression of painful separation vis-a-vis independence, though these were undoubtedly very much present. On the verbal and written level we find this to be a conflict of mitzvot: aliyah or honoring parents. The Mabit had the perfect solution to the conflict—the young man should take his parents with him on aliyah.
2. MAN AND WIFE—Even though Talmudic law determined that a man could force his wife to go with him to the Holy Land, he was not permitted to use this ruling to swindle his wife. Neither could he force his wife and children to come with him to Palestine if the journey was hazardous. R. Haim said there was no longer any such mitzvah,
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