Tzipiyah.com

We now turn to the last of our forefathers as we continue our journey through the history of the land of Israel.

Yaacov went out of Israel, but it was not out of his choice, rather because he had to flee from his brother Esav.

On his way out of the land, he got his famous dream in which he saw “a ladder set up on the ground and its top reached to heaven; and behold, angels of God were ascending and descending upon it.” (Bereishit 28:12). Rashi explains ascending and descending - Ascending first and afterwards descending. The angels who escorted him in the [Holy] Land do not go outside the Land, and they ascended to heaven, and the angels of outside the Holy Land descended to escort him.[From Gen. Rabbah 68:12]. From his dream we saw, once again, the special holiness of the land of Israel

Once he had 11 sons, he was ordered by God: “Now, arise, go forth from this land and return to the land of your birth.” (31:13)

In the Zohar, it says that when Yaacov returned to Israel, he had an even greater level than when he left. I heard from a Rav that the reason for that was that he came back with his 11 sons, as a Tsibur, a collective, not alone, as a yahid. This is a much greater level of aliyah!

Yakov then went to Schem and he bought a peice of land. With this kinyan, there is a proof for generations that we a have double claims to these places: Schem, Maarat Hamachpela as we saw with Avraham, and the Beit Hamikdash which David will eventually buy.

There was, afterwards, another famine, and Yakov had to go to Egypt there, finding Yossef there. Through this descent the promise of brit ben habeitarim given to Avraham – that we will be foreigners in a land which is not ours, was becoming a reality. In the torah, God tells Yacov not to worry since he will be buried in Israel. From this, we see that Yacov was worried not to be buried in Israel. God promised him his sons will return to Israel.

Right before his death, one of his last wishes was to be buried in Israel. He also had an influence on Yossef who also ended up being buried in Israel.
From these things we see the importance of being buried in Israel. The Gemara in Ktuvot says that those who are buried in Israel are as if they are buried under the sanctuary. It is also said that those who are buried in Israel are alive during their deaths – an obviously positive reference (even if difficult to understand precisely). There has been a minhag for generations to burry people with some land from Israel, once again showing the importance and holiness of this land even to this death.

Here, I want to add a little note: I heard a few people say that since it is so important to be buried in Israel, they will want to be buried there when they died. This is praiseworthy. However, as Jews living in a special generation of rebirth, our goal should not simply be to be buried in Israel, to die in Israel, but rather to live in Israel. Eretz Israel is called the land of the life, and it is by living in Israel that we can truly integrate the holiness of the land into our being, not simply by being buried there.

We will now continue the history of Eretz Israel with a look at Itzhak’s connection to the land.

Itzhak became linked to Jerusalem through Akeidat Itzhak. There, God promised him he would received this land, the land already promised to Avraham.

Since Itzhak had a special connection to Israel, Avraham told his servant to go look for a wife for his son in Chutz Laaretz within his family, but under no circumstance could he take Itzhak out of the country. “Rak et Beni Lo Tashev Shama” – Just do not bring my son there (Bereishit 24:8). Avraham found Itzhak’s connection to the land more important than the connection to the special family of his. Also, he had faith that through his connection to the land, God would help him succeed find a wife: “The LORD, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house, and from the land of my nativity, and who spoke unto me, and who swore unto me, saying: Unto thy seed will I give this land; He will send His angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife for my son from thence.”

When there was a famine in Israel, Itzhak went down on his way to Egypt to get food but God stopped him on his way, telling him: “’Go not down unto Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of. 3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore unto Abraham thy father;” (Bereishit 26:2-3). Rabbi Hoshaya said in Midrash Rabbah that Itzhak was like an Olah Tmima, a kind of sacrifice, who, went it goes out of the beit hamikdash, cannot be put on the alter. So too, Itzhak could not go out of Israel.

Itzhak has an even greater connection to the land than Avraham. He was asked not only to walk the land, but also to work the land, to plant and to build.

(Inspired by a shiur I heard by David Hai Hakohen)

In Midrash Tanhuma, we learn from a passouk:

The midrash goes on to explain how each of our forefathers had a special connection to this land, thus showing that the “great people” refer to Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaacov.

Everyone knows that the first mitzvah commanded to Avraham Avinu was to leave his family behind and to go to the land of Israel.

Now the LORD said unto Abram: ‘Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto the land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing. (Bereishit 12:1-2)

From these pssoukim, we can see two things: First of all, we see the first relation between one of our forefathers, Avraham, and the land of Israel. Secondly, we can clearly see that the greatness of our Nation is fully developed only on our land – The land of Israel. Many centuries later, the Kuzari explained this concept by comparing Klal Israel to a plant and explained that different plants need different soils in order to grow properly. For Klal Israel to grow properly and for our potential to come out fully as a Blessing for the whole world, we need to be based in the Land of Israel.

Afterwards, Abraham was commanded a second thing with relation to the Holy Land:

Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for unto thee will I give it.’ (Bereshit 13:17)

For a nice explanation on this passage, I suggest reading what I wrote here from my Rav, Rav Mordechai Elon Shli”ta. Chaz”al in Baba Batra explain that the reason he walked through is that by walking through the land, Avraham made it easier for his sons to take over. In other words, Avraham’s walking was not simply meaningful to his time but rather was something which had eternal consequences on the ownership of the Jewish People on this land.

At the end of his life, Avraham finally got to Jerusalem, although it was during a very tough challenge – Akeidat Itzhak. In Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, we are taught that even as they were getting close to the mountain of Mount Moriah (Jerusalem), they already recognized the holiness of that place. When they got there, we are told that God himself told them that this is the place in which Avraham gave sacrifices, where Kain and Ebel brought sacrifices and where Noah and his sons also brought sacrifices. It is not a temporary place but rather a place which is inscribed in eternity.

In Hebron, Avraham, for the first time, bought a piece of land from the Land of Israel. In the Torah, the negotiations between Avraham and Efron are detailed very meticulously. The Ibn Ezra explains that the reason for that is that God wanted to show us how important the land of Israel is to show how much space the Torah dedicates to the buying of a piece of land there.

From all these events we see that at the source of the Jewish Nation, our oldest forefather Avraham Avinu, we already have many mentioned of a special connection between Klal Israel and Eretz Israel.

Today, we will simply briefly take a look at the references Chazal (Our Rabbis) give us on the Land of Israel from the creation of the world until Avraham Avinu.

In Massechet Taanit (10a), we are told that the Land of Israel was the first piece of land created during the creation of the World. Only after the land of Israel was created did the whole world get created as well.

We are told (In Sanhedrin 39b) also that Adam Harishon was created from the land. Chazal explain that in order to create Adam Harishon, God used land from all around the world. However, in order to create his head, he only used land from the most cherished land of Israel.

The story of Kane and Abel also has a reference to Israel. Rabbi Yehudah Halevy in the Kuzari teaches us that the real fight between Kane and Abel was a fight to see whose decedents would inherit the land of Israel. Once God accepted Abel’s sacrifice and not Kane’s, Kane thought Abel received the inheritance and got jealous – thus killing his brother.

Finally, during the big Flood in the time of Noah, the Sages teach (in Zvachim) that God flooded the whole world except for the land of Israel.

These are a few sources detailing the history of the land of Israel before Avraham Avinu. My goal today was simply to share these sources with you to prepare our journey through history detailing the connection between our nation (starting with our forefathers) and it’s land.

There are those who say that Religious Zionism started with Herzl, as a way to combine the secular ideology of Zionism with the religious teaching of Torah. Those people are wrong.

There are those who say that Religious Zionism started with Rav Kalisher, Rav Gutmacher and Rav Alkalai, the “mevasserei hatzionut” (callers of Zionism), who preceded Zionism with a religious call to go back to Israel and build a state. Those were some of the greatest talmidei chachamim of their times, students of Rav Akiva Eiger and the Pelei Yoetz. Yet, they were not the start of Religious Zionism.

Some people go even further back. To the GRA, the Vilna Gaon, who called on his students to build a Jewish State in Israel; to the Ramban, who tried to encourage mass aliyah to Israel in his time; to Rav Yehudah Halevy, who famously said “My Heart is in the east”.

Modern Religious Zionism started the day where the Jews were exiled from their land, as you can see from all the Tanaim who lived right after that time. Religious Zionism as an ideology came even before! It started with Avraham who left his land to get to Eretz Israel. The importance of the land of Israel came even before! It came even before the creation of this world!

The goal of this new series will be to look at the history of Eretz Israel, look at history in order to understand what is so special about this land and its connection to Klal Israel and the Jewish People. We will go all the way back to the creation of the world and move forward, slowly, post by post, until we get to the modern Zionist movement.

Stay tuned for more!