Israel 2448*
In last week’s article we established that from the beginning of time, from the opening verse in the Torah, the Land of Israel plays a central role in our tradition and everything Jewish.
In this week’s article I want to address why that is.
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For a moment let’s establish what it is not.
Israel is not a place for Jews to call their own homeland. Nor is Israel a place where we can run to when the rest of the world doesn’t want us. Israel is also not a place revolving around the culture of falafel’s and schwarma or even ancient culture of the Jewish Kingdom.
I don’t mean that Israel doesn’t also have these qualities but we can’t say that this is the reason Israel is central to our faith. For starters the Jewish faith and People were intact throughout the 2 millennia that Israel wasn’t under Jewish rule. Sadly, even while Israel was under Jewish rule during the eras of the Prophets and Kings there was a lack of harmony in Israel and persecution from without.
Israel’s centrality goes deeper than any of the above. And it’s this depth that has remained the why since G-d promised the Land to Abraham.
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In Hebrew the word Eretz of Eretz Yisroel – the Hebrew for Land of Israel, has at its root the word Ratzon – will. Our Sages say the land of Israel is so called because it is a land that wishes to fulfill the will of its creator.
The majority of the Mitzvot of the Torah are connected to the Land of Israel and the Bait Hamikdash – the Temple.
Most of these commandments are connected to the actual land. Tithing of the produce, leaving the corner for the poor, giving the gifts of the animals to the Kohen and Levi, these and a couple hundred more Mitzvot are expressions of the association of the Land with the will of Hashem.
A land that is so thoroughly permeated with Mitzvot makes for a land that the very air of it is holy.
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Israel for our People and our Tradition represents the ultimate in why the Torah was given in the first place.
Prior to Creation, G-d was One and there was no “other”. The Kabbalists teach us that in Creation G-d created space for an-other – us human beings. In reality, we exist only because of the word of Hashem that sustains us. But we have a self perception of being an-other. That perception allows us to have free choice.
The ultimate use of our free choice is not when we engage in spiritually removed activities. Because spiritually removed activities was part of the domain of the Divine prior to creation.
The ultimate use of our free choice is when we engage in the most physical of life’s day to day activities, tend to the animals, plow the field, harvest the grain and do so for a Divine purpose. This is epitomized in Israel but part of our lives for millennia and has been part of the Jewish practice since Sinai.
It is for this reason that Jews and Judaism have always had Israel as our central focal point for everything that is holy and purposeful on this earth.
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So now that we have this high level why, how do we bring it into our lives? How do we turn the intensity of the three weeks when we mourn the loss of this ideal into something positive?
Stay tuned for next week.
Have a great Shabbos!
*So titled for that was the year of the revelation at Sinai
