Our Ties to the Land of Israel
In this week’s reading the Torah describes the procedure for the division of the Holy Land to the twelve tribes that were poised to enter the Promised Land..
It is curious that the division of the land was accomplished through three methods: First, the Torah tells us that it was to be apportioned to each tribe based on its population. Those tribes that were more populace would get a larger share of the land. This was a logical and equitable way of dividing the land.
In addition, the land was also apportioned by way of a lottery: the names of the twelve tribes were written down and placed in one box, and the location of the twelve territories into which the land was divided was placed in a second box. Then pairs of lots, one from each box, were drawn.
And while the lottery was determining who got what, there was a Divine message communicated through the Breastplate of the High priest that would confirm the results of the lottery.
That three different methods were needed to determine the way Israel should be divvied up amongst the Jewish people is an obvious sign that there is a three-fold connection to the Land of Israel that we have. And in times like these, when Israel’s right to exist is being challenged so severely—may G-d protect our brethren in Israel and bring them true peace and security—it is crucial that we reexamine the ties that we have to this special land.
The first connection we have to the Land of Israel that is symbolized by the logical method based on population is that it was created and designed for the Jewish people specifically. The Midrash compares the Land of Israel and its relationship to the Jewish people as a tailor made suit that fits snugly on the person for whom it was designed. Any other person, no matter how close they resemble the original owner of the garment, will simply not be able to fit comfortably into that garment.
Similarly, the Land of Israel has been designed by its Creator to fit the Jewish people exclusively. From the day we were driven out of the land, numerous nations and powers attempted to cultivate it and colonize it, but to no avail. The “land of milk and honey” produced neither; it was utterly desolate without its natural inhabitants. Only when Jews began to return to Israel in the last century, did the land begin to blossom again.
This logical connection is what we really mean when we say that Israel is the Jewish Homeland; it is the land that is truly and fundamentally our home given to us by G-d for all times.
But there is another dimension to the relationship that exists between the Jewish nation and the Jewish land. It is the Land of Israel’s role as the Holy Land. This connection, symbolized by the prophetic affirmation as to whom the land should be apportioned, is based on the holy nature of the Jewish people. A holy land to a holy people.
There are standards demanded of its inhabitants to which no other land and nation have been subjected. But it is this standard that determines our ability to hold on to our land. And while we should fit into this land, our inability to hold on to it when we are not holy is like a person who tries to put on a silk suit on a body covered with grime and grease.
When the Jews behave as a holy nation, consistent with the G-d’s charge to us at Sinai, the Holy Land provides them with an hospitable place. When, however, our holiness was lacking as it was during the period of the destruction of the two Holy Temples, it is stated in the Torah that the land would “spit then out.”
And then there is a third dimension that transcends even the one of holiness that is represented by the lottery that was used to divide the land.
A outcome of a lottery is totally beyond logic. Any rhyme or reason that could justify the outcome of a lottery suggests that someone tampered with it.
Likewise, the connection we have to Israel is one that ultimately transcends logic. How is it that a people driven out of their land for close to 2,000 years should never have lost their ties to the land? For close to two millennia, Jews have prayed three times daily towards Jerusalem about their imminent return there to rebuild their Holy Temple that was destroyed. Every wedding, at the peak of the joy, a glass would be broken to remind us that our joy is incomplete without Jerusalem and the Temple.
There is simply no parallel to this phenomenon because it is totally without any rational explanation. Even when we do not live there, and even when our holiness is wanting, every Jew has a connection to the Land of Israel.
By reinforcing the belief that our connection to Israel is on all the foregoing three levels, and by yearning for the ultimate Redemption, at which time the Temple will be rebuilt by Moshiach, we will see the fulfillment of our desires imminently!
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Pinchas by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
