19th of Kislev: In the Merit of the Land of Israel

by Rav Yitzchak Ginzberg, translated by Hillel Fendel

Two and a quarter centuries ago, on the 19^th of Kislev 5559 [1798], the founder of Chabad-Lubavitch, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (the Admor HaZaken), was freed from his imprisonment in czarist Russia. He had been incarcerated because certain "objectors" (misnagdim) to Hassidut had falsely libeled him to the Czar. When he was freed, the Rebbe realized that more than just a personal liberation, this event was a spiritual struggle – the result of objections to his dissemination of the "inner Torah of Hassidut." This meant to him that his release was the victory of Hassidut and a Heavenly sign and instruction that he must continue to disseminate the light even more strongly. 

Ever since, Chabad followers and others mark this special day of the Redemption of the Admor HaZaken as a holiday for Hassidut and its many adherents around the globe.

The Admor informed his good friend, Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, of his release with this letter: 

"… and who am I, the lowest of people, that G-d brought me this far, that the Name of Heaven should be sanctified and magnified through me… But this was precisely from G-d, that this merit should come through me in the merit of the Holy Land and its inhabitants in this manner." 

It is most wondrous that of all his great works in studying and teaching Torah to thousands of people, in service and prayer, and in acts of kindness, the Admor hinged his release specifically in the merit of the Land of Israel!  What merit was this? It was his support of the Jews of the Land at the time, and especially the Hassidim who had arrived some 20 years earlier, led by Rebbe Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk, the Admor's student/colleague. This was economic support that was as needed as oxygen. 

It is of significance that it was this financial aid that was the main reason for the Admor's imprisonment, for it was claimed that he was thus helping the Ottoman Empire, Russia's great enemy. With tongue in cheek, we can say that the Admor was as if saying, "Just like I got in trouble because of Eretz Yisrael, certainly Eretz Yisrael will make sure to have me released…" 

The Merit of Eretz Yisrael

One of the first places we learn of this concept is from this week's Torah portion of Vayishlah, which is always read around this date of the 19^th of Kislev. It tells that when Yaakov is on his way home to the Land after two decades with Laban, he hears that his brother Esav is on his way to greet him – with an army of 400 men! Yaakov was therefore very frightened and troubled, the Torah tells us. But why? Such a great tzaddik, the Choicest of the Forefathers, should be afraid of a lowly evil man? 

The Midrash tells us that Yaakov was afraid of Esav's merit of having lived in the Land, while he himself lived outside it ever since having to run away for his life more than 20 years earlier! (The Ramban explains similarly in his commentary to these verses.) 

Further proof that Yaakov feared Esav's Eretz Yisrael merits is the famous Rashi on the words of Yaakov, "I have lived with Lavan [all these years]." The word for "I lived" is garti, which is the same letters as taryag, the number of Torah commandments. Rashi explains that Yaakov was telling Esav, "I lived with Laban, but I observed the taryag commandments." From here we deduce that Yaakov knew of all these merits he had, yet only when he arrived in the Holy Land did he feel that he had sufficient merits to deserve to be saved from Esav! This is because observing the mitzvot outside the Land does not reflect their full value; outside the Land, they are merely a form of practice for the real thing, in the Holy Land. (See Ramban to Leviticus 18,25.)

Planting Righteousness

The Admor HaZaken himself wrote letters explaining the great merit of tzedakah [charity], and specifically the charity that is given to inhabitants of the Land of Israel. He writes at length of the importance of physical mitzvot such as tefillin, giving charity, and the like. With all the supreme importance of one's heartfelt intentions, etc., our main objective is to do acts of mitzvot with physical objects – for the soul descended to our physical world in order to rectify it via acts that uplift the body. 

And of all mitzvot, the one with the greatest influence is that of charity, to the extent that it is known in the Jerusalem Talmud simply as "mitzvah." This is because the money that a person gives for tzedakah is truly the life-support of his soul – for how did he receive this money? By working and toiling, and by investing his soul and strengths in his work. (This is just like Yaakov Avinu, who toiled with all his strength for his employer Lavan, and who serves as an example of a tzaddik for whom his money was at least as beloved as his life.) As such, the mitzvah of tzedakah is not just a regular, localized mitzvah – but rather a comprehensive one in which a person invests his life.

We say in our morning prayers that G-d is "a planter of tzedakot, a grower of salvations." That is, tzedakah is planted in a unique field, the "supreme land," source of the souls of Israel, and the fruits thereof are "salvations" – the revelation of the Divine Light that shines upon us here in This World, which our soul can truly feel and sense. Each revelation of this sort is a small salvation, while the complete revelation is the great salvation. As our Sages teach: "Tzedakah is great in that it brings the Redemption close."  

All this is true every time a Jew gives a coin for tzedakah – but when the charity is in Eretz Yisrael, the virtue is so much greater. This is because there is a correlation between our physical Eretz Yisrael and the above-mentioned "supreme land." Those who live in the Land merit to "walk before G-d in the lands of life" (Psalms 116,9) – to live simultaneously both in physical Eretz Yisrael and the upper-level land open towards it from above. Every good deed that we do here is immediately "planted" in the supreme land, where it grows and blossoms into a salvation. Outside the Land, good deeds have to pass through many steps before they achieve their goal, while in the Land, they are directly connected to Above and their results are immediate.

The Torah says that G-d's eyes are always upon the Land, like the sense of vision, which absorbs directly and at the speed of light. Outside the Land, however, our connection with G-d is likened to the sense of hearing, which is slower and more indirect. 

Avodah Ivrit

Let us note, parenthetically, that an actual implementation of the tzedakah of Eretz Yisrael today is to employ only Jewish labor, even if it is sometimes more expensive… This is truly supremely important.

The Ladder Between Heaven and Earth

In light of the above, we can understand why and how the merit of Eretz Yisrael was so precious in the eyes of Yaakov Avinu, as well as in the eyes of the Admor HaZaken. 

The great merit of the Land is to be in a place where every good deed has independent value, where there is a fruitful dialogue between earth and heaven, between body and soul, and between Israel and Hashem its G-d. It is precisely those great thinkers, those who understand the higher worlds, who grasp more than everyone else the great treasure of physical acts in our physical world, and who understand the treasure of the Land of Life. 

Yaakov Avinu – he who saw the ladder leading up to the Heaven, and who sees its top all the way up there – for the Torah says he saw in his dream "G-d standing atop" the ladder – he was the one who also understands the importance of the bottom of the ladder, and the importance of grasping the physical land; the first things he did when he returned to the land were to [build a house and] purchase a field (B'reshit 33,17-18). 

Similarly, the Admor HaZaken, whose sublime and exalted ideology as founder of the Chabad Hassidut was manifest as he delved into the secrets of the soul and of Divinity – he is the one who admires the value of simple acts, from giving a coin to a poor man and up to strengthening the entire Jewish community in the Holy Land. 

The mission of our generation is to complete the connection between Heaven and Earth, between the secrets of the Torah that are unfolding in this special generation of Redemption and the establishment of the Jewish Kingdom here on the face of our earth.