ALIYAH: CONFLICT AND AMBIVALENCE
It is therefore not surprising that the vast majority of those who considered alivah, from the immortal medieval rabbis to famous Zionists of our own day, remained in the Diaspora. It is remarkable, however, that a number of Jews in almost every era surmounted these obstacles, left the country of their birth, and went up to the unknown Land, like Abraham , their father, and Sarah, their mother, before them.
Notes
1 Responsa Maharam ben Barukh(Berlin: 1891), no. 79. See also E. Karnafogel,“The Aliyah of 300 Rabbis.” Jewish Quarterly Review 86(3): 191-215
2 This is based on Baba Metziah 32a. which states that one may not obey a parent's command
to commit a transgression.
3. Responsa Maharam, ad loc. See Israel Schepansky, Eretz Yisrael in the Responsa Literature (Hebrew )(Jerusalem : 1966), p. 120, who states that the Maharam may have been asked about the sons of those gedolim that lived in the generation before him who themselves went on aliyah to the Land. They either permitted or commanded their sons to return home.
4. Responsa Mabit(Lemberg: 1861),(1) 139. Mabit was one of the four Safed rabbis who received the controversial semhah from Jacob Berab in 1538. The others were Joseph Caro . Moses Cordovero. and Joseph Sagiz.
5. There is a difference of opinion among sages whether aliyah and yeshiva ha-aretrz are Torah mitzvot, that must be observed“in our time,” i.e., the Middle Ages. Among these who considered them obligatory under Scriptural Law was Nahmanides (see infra note and the chapters in this volume by John Rayner, notes 18-19; Leonard Kravitz, notes 33-34; and Aviezer Ravitzky , notes 30-33.
10. Responsa Mabit, ad loc.(supra, note 4: emphasis mine).