RAV KOOK ON PARSHAS REAH PART 2

(PLEASE LEARN THIS FOR THE REFUA SHELAMA OF RAV CHAIM KANIEVSKY-Rav Shmaryahu Yosef Chaim ben Pesha Miriam,Rav Shteinman - Aaron Yehuda Leib ben Gitel Feiga, Rav Weiss - Yitzchak Tuvia ben Rikal, Rav Yosef - Yaakov Chai ben Margalit Harav Shlomo Leib Ben Miriam - HaRav Shlomo Brevda Harav Yeshaya Yaakov Ben Raizel - HaRav Yeshaya Yaakov Portugal Harav Meshulem Fish Ben Tziril - The Toshe Rebbe Rav Yerachmiel Shlomo Hakohen ben Raizel. -Rav Yerachmiel Shlomo Rothenberg, rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva of Mountaindale Rav Shaul ben Pasha-Gavaad Zurich, Switzerland and rav of Beis Medrash Agudas Achim for a refuah shleima b’soch kol cholei am Yisrael.)(AND L"N RAV YOSEF SHALOM BEN RAV AVRAHAM(RAV ELYASHIV ZT"L)

ranslated and abridged by Rabbi Chanan Morrison Parshat Re’eh As a condition for inheriting and keeping the Land of Israel, God commanded that all idolatry be destroyed. "Do away with all the places where the nations whom you are driving out worship their gods ... You must tear down their altars, break up their sacred pillars, burn their Asherah trees, and chop down the statues of their gods. You will obliterate their names from that place." (Deut. 12:2-3) The Torah stresses that this obligation to destroy idolatrous artifacts is primarily in "Eretz Yisrael". As the Sages commented, "'You will obliterate their names from that place' — in the Land of Israel you are commanded to pursue idolatry (until it is totally eradicated), but not outside the land." (Sifri; see Maimonides, Laws of Idolatry 7:2) Idolatry is clearly the antithesis of the monotheistic message of Judaism. The imperative to fight idolatry should not be limited to a particular location. Why does the Torah connect the eradication of idolatry to living in the Land of Israel?