By: Rabbi Shlomo Ezagui
The Bible begins with the words, “in the beginning G-d created the heavens and the earth.” Rabbi Yitzchak says, “As a book of rules it would have been more fitting for the Torah to start with the first commandment, why then did it start with Creation? The Torah, G-ds book and message to the world wants to convey a very clear message. A message of who created the world and who granted the Land of Israel to the Jewish people.”
Rabbi Yochonan says, “whoever walks four cubits (eight feet) in the land of Israel is guaranteed a place in the world to come. “
Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai says,” G-d measured all the lands and did not find a more appropriate place for the Jewish people but the land of Israel. All lands, one has what the other doesn’t, while the land of Israel is lacking nothing, as it says, “nothing is lacking there.”
In what merit, on what basis, do the Jewish people claim this small strip of land on the Mediterranean? It is certainly not any UN resolution since the Jewish people have been in Israel thousands of years before the UN was even formed. It is not by the good grace of any countries we know of today, since the Jewish people have been living in the Land of Israel way before any of these countries where populated and/or discovered.
The bible tells us G-d made a covenant with Abraham and promised, “To you and your children I have given this land.” Abraham’s children were promised the land of Canaan. G-d says the reason why it will still take some time before it can be transferred to Abrahams children is because, “the sins of the Amorites have not yet reached its saturation point.” The message seems pretty clear. Living on this land is uniquely a matter of spiritually deserving to be there.
Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson said many times to people visiting Israel. “Israel is G-ds special chamber, G-ds House. The visa necessary to enter this land is to increase and come to the land with more observance of G-ds commandments.”
G-d says to the Jewish people before they entered the land, “Don’t contaminate yourself with abominable behaviors, because it is for that reason the land spewed its inhabitants before you.”
In Psalm 105, King David says, “He gave them the land of the nations…so that they might preserve His Statutes and treasure His laws…” In another Psalm King David says, “These (come) with chariots and horses, and we (come) in the name of G-d whom we proclaim.”
King David knew this from personal experience. As a young lad, David and Goliath confront each other, Goliath with his armor and shield, David with his staff and sling. “The Philistine cursed David by his gods.” but David replies: “This day G-d will deliver you into my hand;…. all the earth may know that there is a G-d in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that G-d saves not with sword and spear; for the battle is G-d’s, and he will give you into our hand.”
The land of Israel has no deep reservoirs of oil or significant bodies of water to rely on. The holy land of Israel has the unique power to connect a person with G-d directly, the greatest source of everything. Israel is a land that G-d Himself watches, like the apple of His eye. The Land of Israel more than anywhere else in the world experiences miraculous and G-dly occurrences all the time.
The book of the Zohar says, “G-d apportioned the nations and lands of the world, to appointed emissaries and officers. Over the Land of Israel, no Angel or appointed one has any power but G-d Himself. Therefore G-d took a people, who no one has any power over, into a land that no one else (but G-d) has any power or authority.
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