The title is drawn from Exodus 2:21 — "And Moses agreed to stay" — an allusion the Rebbe used to argue that the Jewish people must remain in exile, patiently, until the redemption G-d Himself will bring.

185 chapters of halachic analysis of the Three Oaths, and the prohibition to join the Israeli government, accept funding from it or vote in its elections.

A responsum on why Modern Hebrew as an everyday vernacular is forbidden. Lashon HaKodesh was reserved for prayer and Torah study. Especially egregious are the changes the Zionists made to the meanings of holy words in order to repurpose them for their secular society.

For years, after the founding of the Zionist state, the Rebbe had been considering the idea of publishing a book in which he would prove from Shas and poskim that a state is forbidden by the Torah and that Jews should take no part in its government. Many other rabbis asked him to write such a book, but his schedule was busy – he was rebuilding the Chassidic community in America after the devastation of the Holocaust – and there was no time.

By the late 1950’s the Rebbe was already spending time refuting the Zionists’ Torah arguments, albeit not in book form. He would stand in his small beis medrash every day between Mincha and Maariv and greet his chassidim who were returning from work. The chassidim would take turns telling the Rebbe all the questions that Zionist Jews had thrown at them during the workday. The Rebbe would patiently answer each question, explaining the subject until it was crystal clear so that the chassid would be able to answer his challenger. This routine took much time of out of the Rebbe’s schedule, and it helped convince the Rebbe of the necessity to publish his arguments for the world to read.  

And so he began to tear himself away from his innumerable responsibilities for some time every day to write Vayoel Moshe. This was the period when the Rebbe oversaw the critical growth of the Satmar mosdos. He acted as a father to orphans of the war, and fought battles against Zionist decrees. To the thousands of broken souls that lined up at the Rebbe’s door he offered spiritual and physical assistance. He was always busy raising money for countless tzedaka purposes. Besides all of the above, he spent time on his personal avodas Hashem. His preparation for davening and davening itself took up a large part of the daylight hours. It seemed that there wasn’t a minute of extra time in his twenty-four hour day. Yet he set aside time and locked himself in his room to write the sefer.

If the Rebbe had wanted, he could have printed many more Torah books. He said brilliant Gemara shiurim, beautiful drashos on Chumash and wrote responsa on every area of halacha. But he had no time to publish other works. In fact, he seldom gave permission to others to print his Torah. However, when it came to bringing truth and emunah into Jewish hearts, he somehow made time.

He usually worked on the sefer for many hours at a time during the night, or in the early morning before davening. His attendants were warned not to allow anyone in while he was working. Those who peeked in as he was writing could see how agitated the Rebbe became. His face was aflame. He often paced the room like a wounded lion. And sometimes in the middle of writing he would break out in a pained cry, lamenting the plight of the Jewish people, the blindness of simple Jews, the spiritual and physical danger of following false leaders and the delay of the redemption it causes. The Rebbe’s table was piled high with dozens of sefarim. He would take a sefer out of the pile, look up what he needed, and continue writing.

The writing of the sefer took more than two and a half years. Each word was carefully weighed. The Rebbe gave the manuscript to several rabbanim to review: Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Meisels (Veitzener Rav), Rabbi Yissocher Ber Rothenberg (Voidislaver Rav), Rabbi Shmuel Halevi Wosner, and Rabbi Nussen Yosef Meisels.

Reb Nussen Yosef suggested publishing a smaller volume containing only the Rebbe’s sharp, zealous remarks against Zionism to make it easier for the less scholarly who have trouble understanding the wide-ranging halachic discourse of Vayoel Moshe. The Rebbe disagreed. “If someone sees only those pieces, he will think that I have a natural tendency to zealousness and sharpness, and therefore I am always strict in my interpretation of halacha. But that is wrong: I have truly worked through every sugya and proven from the sources that I am correct. I did not write this sefer out of emotion.”  

The Rebbe humbly remarked that he did not expect Vayoel Moshe to make a revolution in the world. Many Jews were already biased or had too much invested in their views to consider changing them. Others were out-and-out heretics, with whom it is forbidden to debate (Sanhedrin 38b). But, he said, there are a few people out there who are genuinely searching for the truth, and for them he was writing the sefer.

In his introduction to the sefer, he wrote that even if the sefer would save one Jew from the falsehood of Zionism, it would be worth the trouble, since Zionism outweighs all other sins of the generation. Furthermore, there may come a time when the Zionist storm will die down, and people will look for the truth. If we do not write down the true path of Torah as expressed by our great authorities of the past, it may be forgotten when that time comes.

After Vayoel Moshe was published, the Rebbe said on many occasions, “If anyone has any questions or problems with my sefer, let him come and ask or debate with me. I am ready at any time to debate with any rav or talmid chacham who wants to refute my words.” But no one took the Rebbe up on this challenge.

Indeed, one measure of the impact of Vayoel Moshe is that whatever books the Zionists have since published purporting to refute it have not been taken seriously in the general Torah world. To this day, no serious, mainstream work has been written to refute Vayoel Moshe. Even those rabbis who continue to advocate voting in the Zionist elections use the terms “eis laasos” and “aveirah lishmah” (meaning a sin permitted temporarily as an emergency measure), indicating that at least in theory they agree with the central concepts of Vayoel Moshe.

The bulk of the first section, Maamar Shalosh Shevuos, revolves around the Three Oaths, which prohibit mass immigration to Eretz Yisroel, rebellion against the nations, and forcing the end of exile. The Rebbe addresses several major questions about the oaths: When, where and how were they accepted by the Jewish people? Why aren’t they mentioned by the Rambam in Mishneh Torah? Why must a Jew give up his life rather than violate the oaths, according to the Maharal?

He resolves all these questions by proposing that violating the oaths is a form of heresy, a denial of Hashem’s Providence for the Jewish people and an attempt to thwart His master plan of exile and redemption.

In light of this, Zionist arguments that the oaths become nullified if and when the gentile nations allow Jews to have a state, or after the gentiles violate their oath and persecute the Jews too much, fall flat. The Three Oaths were not imposed on the Jews for the benefit of the gentiles, and are not dependent on the gentiles’ actions or positions. They are rather an intrinsic part of Jewish faith and the Jewish people’s relationship with Hashem.

In the course of resolving these questions, the Rebbe covers related subjects such as the purpose of galus, the criteria for moshiach, the Bar Kochba revolt and the rebuilding of the Beis Hamikdash. He also cites many important sources in Chazal, Rishonim and Acharonim which refer to the oaths and to the dangers of false redemption or messianic movements. Then he shifts to practical halachic implications: the prohibition on participating in the Zionist state in any way, including voting in its elections.

Based on a passage in Sanhedrin (98a), the Rebbe says that moshiach will not come as long as the Zionist state exists. It is therefore certain that the state will certainly come to an end somehow. With the mercy of Hashem, the demise should come through a Heavenly power, rather than through the nations, which would pose great danger to the Jewish people.

Among other points, this treatise covers the famous statement of the Ramban that the mitzvah of living in Eretz Yisroel applies even nowadays, during the exile. Zionists have used his words to promote their movement, but the Rebbe shows that the Ramban does not say conquering the land is a mitzvah today, only living in it (as a peaceful citizen of a non-Jewish state or empire). Also, the Rebbe note the Ramban’s word choice: "It is a positive commandment for all generations, in which each one of us is obligated, even during exile." Why does he say "each one of us"? Because he knows that if the mitzvah were obligatory upon the Jewish people as a whole, it would be impossible to fulfill it during exile without conquest. There is no way that any power ruling the land would allow the entire Jewish people to return to the land en masse - they would see it as a threat to their rule. They would only allow one Jew here and one Jew there to come. Therefore, the Ramban says that whatever individual Jews can come and live there are fulfilling an optional mitzvah. No one is obligated to go.

In contrast to the Ramban, other Rishonim such as the Rambam and Rashi hold that there was never a mitzvah to live in Eretz Yisroel to begin with. The Biblical verse that the Ramban interprets as a commandment, “And you shall take over the land and live in it” (Bamidbar 33:53), they interpret as a promise.

According to all opinions, Eretz Yisroel is a place of great holiness and spiritual elevation. Mitzvos done there are more powerful and have a greater beneficial effect. But by the same token, sins committed there are worse than those committed elsewhere in the world.

Before moving to Eretz Yisroel, a Jew should consider many factors: is he perfectly observant and fit to live in such a holy place? Even if so, is he needed in his hometown to strengthen the Jewish community and teach Torah? Will he have a source of income in Eretz Yisroel, or will he be reduced to begging or, worse yet, accepting money from the Zionists? Will he – and his wife and children - be able to withstand the pressures of living under an anti-religious government, or living among religious Jews who are mistaken about Zionism?

Jewish children have always been taught classical Hebrew as part of their Torah education. The language was never taught on its own; rather it was taught through word by word translation of the Torah, Rashi, Mishnah and Gemara, as well as the daily prayers. In the wake of the establishment of the state in 1948, a new trend arose in Jewish schools around the world: teaching Hebrew as a language on its own. The Rebbe was asked by Rabbi Pinchas Hirschprung, chief rabbi of Montreal, if this trend was correct. This treatise was the Rebbe’s reply.

He proved from Talmudic sources that Jews stopped speaking Hebrew as a conversation language after the destruction of the First Temple. From then on, through the Second Temple Era, they spoke Aramaic or Greek. In Babylonia, the Amoraim spoke Aramaic, and throughout the 2000 years of exile they have spoken other languages like Judao-Arabic, Ladino and Yiddish. Speaking in Hebrew was avoided. The Chasam Sofer explains that Jews deliberately avoided Hebrew when they began living among idol worshippers, just as it is better to avoid speaking Hebrew in dirty places like the bathroom. The Rebbe suggested a different reason: sinful speech is worse when in Hebrew than in other languages. When the Sages saw that Jews were no longer on a high spiritual level, and they were likely to sin, they instituted the speaking of other languages for everyday use, instead of Hebrew.