Israel 2018 – Why Israel?

The Torah told us 3300 years ago that we are the smallest among the nations. Not much has changed in that regard since then. And as the Jewish People have faced anti-semitism we continue to do so today.

 

There are many important organizations engaged in Israel advocacy from political (AIPAC) to experiential (Birthright) to religious (many Yeshiva recruiters). All of them are focused on the “how”. Underlying every how must be a why for the cause to be sustainable. As Victor Frankl famously said “those who have a why to live can bear with almost any how”.

 

This Sunday we began the period on the Jewish calendar known as the Three Weeks. It is a time we remember the destruction of the Bait Hamikdash, the Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple was and is the essence of the city of Jerusalem and the Land of Israel.

 

During this period of the year it is important to focus on the “why” of Israel, Jerusalem and the Bait Hamikdash.

 

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In this column over the next few weeks I’m going to focus on different aspects of the why of Israel.

 

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The opening verse of the Torah establishes the centrality of Israel to Creation, the Jewish People and the Torah.

 

In the opening verse of the Torah “In the beginning Hashem created the heavens and the earth”, Rashi the foremost commentator on the Torah comments. He says; the Torah being a book of laws should have started with the first Mitzvah that was given to the Jewish People as a nation – the Mitzvah of observing the new Month, Rosh Chodesh. Why does the Torah begin with Creation. He answers; to teach us that there will come a time when the nations of the world will claim that the Jewish People stole the land of Israel from them. Therefore from the beginning G-d establishes that He is the Creator of the world. He gave it to the nations he desired to give it to. And then he took it from them and gave it to the Jewish People.

 

In other words from the beginning Israel belonged to the Jewish People. It was a temporary state that Hashem had given it to others.

 

Clearly, the Land of Israel takes precedence in the Torah, for the Jewish People and is central to everything Jewish.

 

Why is that?

 

Stay tuned…