Learning from the Ma’apilim

Last week I was on a Jewish National Fund- USA tour for Rabbis of projects in the south of Israel (Beer Sheva, Yerucham, Arad, Chalutza, Sde Boker) supported by JNF to help realize their goal of increasing Jewish settlement in the periphery of the country. The Negev constitutes 60 percent of the land mass of the modern state of Israel. Yet less than 10% of Israel’s citizens live in the south. JNF is looking to change this reality by investing in infrastructure such as community centers, parks and daycare centers. One of the Jewish heritage sites supported by JNF-USA that we did not visit is the Atlit Detention Center Heritage Site, located on the northern coast about 20 kilometers south of Haifa. In the 1930s and 40s, this site served as a detention center for illegal Jewish immigrants seeking refuge in pre-state Israel.
Illegal immigrants who came to Israel during Alyah Bet are known as “ma’apilim”. Before and during World War II, thousands of Jewish people fled their homes trying to escape persecution and concentration camps. More than 122,000 people came to Israel despite the British blockade. Those who did not have a valid permit to be in the country were detained and placed in camps like the one in Atlit. Some people were in these camps close to one year. The Atlit Detainee Camp was in place until 1945 when Jewish forces broke into the camp, allowing all the detainees to escape.

The term “Maapilim” comes from an episode in Parshat Shelach. After the sin of the spies a small group of Jews decide to enter the land, against Moshe’s request. The entire group was killed before ever reaching Eretz Yisrael.  In our Parsha the Maapilim are sinenrs. And while the application of the term Maapilim to these Jewish immigrants might be chalked up to the secular bent of Israeli society at that time, one can suggest that there is something we can all learn from the Maapilim. The Maapilim were stubborn and unwilling to give up on their dream, even after it was clear to everyone else that the effort was doomed to fail. It is this can-do attitude, optimistic perspective and chutzpah that allows the modern State of Israel to not only survive in a hostile part of the world, but to also thrive. Rav Tzadok Hakohen writes that Moshe stopes the Maapilim and warns them that their mission will be a failure, “V’Hi Lo Titzlach” “and this will not succeed.” Rav Tzadok explains that the Torah here is hinting at the fact that while the Maapilim were not destined to be successful, their attributes and their chutzpah would one day pay off in the future in the successful development of Israel. Today we live in an era of Chutzpah (Talmud Sotah 49b). We need the Maapilim’s chutzpah to develop the State of Israel today. And it will be chutzpah that helps bring the Ultimate Redemption.