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→ What does each say about what having a (Jewish) Birthright might mean?
1. One day when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau arrived home exhausted and hungry from a hunt. Esau said to Jacob, "I'm starved! Give me some of that red stew you've made." Jacob replied, "All right, but trade me your birthright for it." "Look, I'm dying of starvation!" said Esau. "What good is my birthright to me now?" So Jacob insisted, "Well then, swear to me right now that it is mine." So Esau swore an oath, thereby selling all his rights as the firstborn to his younger brother. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and lentil stew. Esau ate and drank and went on about his business, indifferent to the fact that he had given up his birthright.
Genesis 25
2. Unlike almost every other vision of the ideal society, Jews knew that theirs was the work of many generations and that therefore they must hand on their ideals to their children so that they too would be part of the journey, letters in the scroll. To be a Jew, now as in the days of Moses, is to hear the call of those who came before us and know that we are the guardians of their story. ... We have inherited the book our ancestors wrote, and there is a letter [in that book] that only we can write.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, A Letter in the Scroll
3. The land of Israel is not some external entity.
It is not merely an external acquisition for the Jewish people.
It is not merely a means of uniting the populace.
It is not merely a means of strengthening our physical existence.
It is not even merely a means of strengthening our spiritual existence.
Rather, the land of Israel has an intrinsic meaning.
It is connected to the Jewish people with the knot of life.
Its very being is suffused with extraordinary qualities.
The extraordinary qualities of the land of Israel and the extraordinary qualities of the Jewish people are two halves of a whole.
R. Avraham Kook, "Eretz Cheifetz" (1930s Chief Rabbi of MandatePalestine)
4. Every Jew has the right to come to this country as an oleh (immigrant)…. An oleh’s visa shall be granted to every Jew who has expressed his desire to settle in Israel, unless the Minister of Immigration is satisfied that the applicant (a) is engaged in an activity directed against the Jewish people, or (b) is likely to endanger public health or the security of the State.
Israeli Law of Return, 1950