By Avner Friedmann
In this parshah, HaShem is telling the Jewish people that if they don’t live up to the covenant with Him while in the Land of Israel, they will pay the consequences and be driven out of the Land. The Land will change as well, as written:[1] “I will make the land desolate; and your foes that dwell upon it will be desolate. And you, I will scatter among the nations, I will unsheathe the sword after you; your land will be desolate and your cities will be a ruin.”
Rashi says that this verse also implies a comfort of sorts for the Jewish people. While the Jews are outside their Land in exile, none of its conquerors or successors would ever thrive in the Land, prosper, or find any comfort in it. The Land during foreign occupation would always be desolate.
All the ancient pathways crossed through Israel. It has been the crossroad of three continents, Asia, Africa and Europe. Its strategic location, along with the access to the sea, has always been a key territory to occupy, not to mention its holy places to the three major religions. History shows that every empire, be it the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, the Ottomans and the British, tried to settle in the Land of Israel. However, with all their wealth and resources, due to its condition, they failed to hold on to it.
Indeed, throughout the many centuries of the current Jewish exile, the land of Israel, once a land flowing with milk and honey, remained inhospitable and barely able to support its inhabitants on a subsistence level. Mark Twain, while visiting Israel, wrote in 1867 that the land has been cursed and desolate; one sows and plows and nothing grows. He documented it, possibly without being aware of this explicit prophesy mentioned in the Torah.
Eretz Yisrael has been waiting for the Jew people like a loyal wife waiting patiently for her husband to come back home. The Talmud states[2] that upon the return of the Jews to their homeland towards the End of Days, the land would once again become fertile and yield fruit and produce in abundance as it once did. It then states that there will be no clearer sign than this that the redemption is near, as the prophet Ezekiel said:[3] “but you, O mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches and bear your fruit for My people Israel, for they are soon to come (back from exile).”
When we look at Israel today, we are witnessing this very prophesy. A piece of land with no natural resources or infrastructure, in just a few short years after the Jews began to return to their homeland, finds itself exporting produce worldwide. We see deserts turned almost overnight into green fields and orchards. In response to the return of the Jewish people, the land has returned to itself once again. A living example can be seen in Gush Katif, in south of the Gaza strip. That portion of land was green and produced the most beautiful fruits and vegetables. In 2005, once the Jewish settlers were forced to leave their land, it virtually ceased to produce, and went back to being the unfertile sand that it once was.
The land of Israel plays by entirely different rules. The Midrash[4] says that it is unlike any other land. All other lands sometimes satisfy their inhabitants and sometimes not; but always within the realm of nature. Israel is also sometimes blessed and sometimes cursed, but always outside the realm of nature. When it is blessed, one sows little but reaps in great abundance. When it is not blessed, there is nothing in the world that one can do to open up its resources. Because in Israel it is not effort alone, but the blessings that comes as a result of the Jews’ own conduct and behavior, as the Torah writes,[5] “The blessing (on the condition) that you listen to the mitzvot of HaShem, your G-d…”
The Midrash further says how plentiful and beautiful it will be in the End of Days when the land will give blessings in abundance to those who return from exile; because it is the Chosen Land and the Chosen Land will stay forever as the[6] “Land that flows with milk and honey”.
May we merit to behold the final ingathering of the Jewish people to their beloved homeland very soon, as promised,[7] “I will take you from (among) the nations and gather you from all the lands, and I will bring you to your own soil”, with the coming of our righteous Moshiach, speedily in our days, Amen.
[1] 26:32-33.
[2] Sanhedrin 98a, and Rashi’s comments.
[3] 36:8.
[4] Yalkut Hareuveni, Eikev, as brought by Sefer Hatoda’a Perek 13:6.
[5] Devarim 11:27.
[6] Numbers 14:8.
[7] Ezekiel 36:24.
