פרי הארץ PRI HAARETZ

Menachem Mendel from Vitebsk

And to Zion it will be said, "Man after man was born in her," and He will establish it on high.

וּֽלְצִיּ֨וֹן יֵֽאָמַ֗ר אִ֣ישׁ וְ֖אִישׁ יֻלַּד־בָּ֑הּ וְה֖וּא יְכֽוֹנְנֶ֣הָ עֶלְיֽוֹן:

Rav Menachem Mendel wrote about the struggles and suffering that one must endure to gain a foothold in the Holy Land: 

This is my response, with all my heart, to all those who inquire about and wish to live in the Holy Land: It is critically important to understand this Land… that every Jew who comes to the Land will experience many reversals and complications until he finds his proper place and finds delight in its stones and cherishes its dust and loves the ruins of Eretz Yisrael more than the palaces of exile. This will not happen quickly; not in a day or two days or a month or a year, but only after several years will he be fully absorbed by the Land and dwell permanently in the presence of G-d. “Indeed, it shall be said of Tzion, ‘Every man was born there’” (Tehillim 87:5). This means that all who come to [a new level of] holiness must begin again, must be reborn and experience once again the tribulations of childhood, until he finally sees the Land face to face and his soul is bound up with its soul. (Pri HaAretz, Letters)

One time, the Chassidim heard what they believed was a shofar blast in the distant hills. They came to ask Rav Menachem Mendel: “Is it possible that the Mashiach has arrived?” He stood up, opened the window, took a deep breath and answered: “He has not yet come…”

This story is fascinating. It’s one thing to smell the air to see if the Mashiach has arrived. But why did Rav Menachem Mendel stick his head out of the window? He could have smelled the air inside his home! I once heard a sweet explanation of this story from Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburg, who explained that in the home of Rav Menachem Mendel there was always the scent of Mashiach. This was the air that he lived and breathed, all the days of his life. When his Chassidim came to ask him about Mashiach, they meant to say: “Has Mashiach been revealed in the world outside of your home? Has the time come for the entire world to be redeemed?” To answer this, Rav Menachem Mendel had to open his window, to breathe in the air from the world outside.

… In moving to Israel, Rav Menachem Mendel gave up the royal clothing and external trappings of majesty that he had taken up in Europe, embracing the sufferings and difficulties of a pioneering life in the Land of Israel. He and his Chassidim lived with constant hope for the redemption and perceived all of their tribulations and difficulties as חֶבְלֵי מָשִׁיחַ, “birth pangs of the redemption.”

The Kever of Rav Menachem Mendel

One of the students of Rav Menachem Mendel recounted that when they still lived in White Russia, it was his job to bring fish to the home of Rav Menachem Mendel in honor of Shabbat. The Chassid said: “I would go to the bank of the river and say, in the name of my Rebbe: ‘Menachem Mendel needs fish for Shabbat!’, and large fish would immediately jump out of the river, straight into the open basket I had brought with me. When we moved to Israel, I planned to do the same thing. I walked to the banks of the Kinneret and called out ‘Menachem Mendel needs fish for Shabbat!’, but there was no answer. I repeated my call several times, until in the end, two small fish jumped into my basket. When I told Rav Menachem Mendel about what had happened, he explained: ‘Eretz Yisrael is not built through miracles.’”

Rav Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk taught us that the Land of Israel, then and now, is only acquired through struggles and suffering (Berachot 5a). If we forget his character and his deeds, it is not Rav Menachem Mendel who will lose out, but rather we who squander the opportunity to learn from him. Let us attach ourselves to the path of great and holy Jews like Rav Menachem Mendel and his students who yearned for the rocks and soil of Eretz Yisrael and whose souls were bound up with the soul of the land.

–excerpt from: https://mizrachi.org/hamizrachi/chassidic-chalutzim-rav-menachem-mendel-of-vitebsk-and-the-aliyah-that-changed-history/