Beshalah: Automatic Holiness!

By Rav Netanel Yosifun, yeshiva.co, translated by Hillel Fendel

A few years ago, a friend of mine told me he was planting a new orchard somewhere in the Land of Israel. I jumped at this special chance to be a partner in such a great mitzvah, and I went to help him dig and plant. Another friend of mine, a seeker of G-d who combined Torah study with inner contemplation and Hassidic gatherings, was surprised that I was going. "What are you going for?" he asked. "Will there be some kind of Hassidic gathering there?" 

This simple dialogue touches upon a very fundamental point in the service of G-d in the Land of Israel. (It also touches on the general difficulty that many have with the entire idea of practical mitzvot.)

Planting in Eretz Yisrael is the path that leads to closeness to G-d, as the Midrash teaches (Vayikra Rabba, Kedoshim 25): "G-d [Himself] engaged first in planting trees, as is written, "G-d planted a garden in Eden" (B'reshit 2,8). Similarly, we find that the first thing we were commanded to do when we entered the Land was to plant trees, as is written, "When you come to the Land and you plant fruit trees…" (Vayikra 19,23)"

The Chatam Sofer explained (Tr. Sukkah p. 36) the importance of planting as follows: "Working the Land itself [under certain circumstances] is a fulfillment of the mitzvah of settling and building the Land and extracting its holy fruits – as the Torah commands: "You shall gather up your grain" [recited in the second paragraph of Kriyat Sh'ma]. Would one ever say, 'I won't put on tefillin today because I am busy studying Torah?' Similarly he should not say, 'I won't harvest my crops [or work the land - ed.] because I am studying Torah,' for working the Land is a mitzvah as well."

We all understand that the mitzvot are meant to bring us to spiritual heights. Some of our mitzvot are clearly "spiritual," and it is easy to see how they help a person rise up in Divine service and closeness. But there are also mitzvot that appear to be "materialistic," of which it is hard to see the spiritual benefits. 

On a superficial level, it is hard to see the mitzvot of working, building, and settling the Land as bringing about a higher level of spirituality. After all, people do these very same things on their parcels of land throughout the world! Perhaps we can see spirituality in synagogues and other holy sites, where people come to pray and the like – but what of regular pieces of earth? Where is the sanctity there?

But the truth is that our sages and Torah leaders throughout the generations have written endlessly about the holiness of the entire Land in general. Rav Nachman of Breslov, for instance, wrote: "The Land is holy in the very simplest sense – its houses and its courtyards… Every Jew must come to this physical Land of Israel."

This is precisely the "point" of the Land: Its holiness acts upon us and uplifts us even when we do not sense it openly. As the same Rav Nachman wrote: "Our Sages said that one who dwells in the Land of Israel is without sin… for it is a land that 'eats its inhabitants' [in the words of the Twelve Spies] – meaning that one who lives there is consumed by it and becomes himself an essence of holiness."

This touches upon the special virtue of eating the fruits of Eretz Yisrael: At first glance, what could be the difference between the fruits of the Land and of anywhere else in the world? But our great Torah scholars explained that their virtues and holiness are a continuation of the sanctity of the manna that we ate in the desert for 40 years, as the Shaar HeHatzer wrote: 

"When the Land was in its ideal state of holiness, and the Holy Temple and Altar were operative, the fruits of the Land and their taste were even greater than that of the manna… We well know the greatness of eating the manna, that it purified their bodies in preparation for their acceptance of the Holy Torah. And it has many other wonderful virtues as well, as is known. This helps us grasp the great holiness we attain when we eat fruits of Eretz Yisrael."

As is also known, the food that we eat affects us spiritually, even when we have no intention to this end. For example, "forbidden foods clog up the heart," the Sages teach – for they literally become a part of our body. And [even more so does] holy food sanctify one's body, even when he doesn’t understand all the deep concepts hidden and imbued in the food.

It is told that Rabbe David of Laluv [whose yahrtzeit was this past Sunday] once related that he had visited the Holy Seer of Lublin, who taught the following idea on the Torah portion of B'shalach [which we read aloud this coming Shabbat]: 

The Torah states that when the Israelites saw the manna falling, "they said one to another, 'What [i.e., manna] is this?'… for they did not know what [i.e., mah] it was." Based on the fact that the Hebrew word for zeh can mean both "it" and "him," the Seer said that each person asked about the other, 'What is he? Who is he?' – because after they ate the spiritual manna food, bread from the Heavens, they all rose up to a yet higher spiritual level, and therefore by the next day, no one recognized each other, because they were all on higher levels than they had previously been." 

We thus learn that eating the manna had an automatic effect, raising its eaters to higher spiritual degrees. And the same is true for the fruits of Eretz Yisrael. I once collected many stories and teachings about the virtues of the fruits of the Land – and when I compared the teachings of our Talmudic Sages to those of the scholars of later centuries, I discovered something amazing: The sages of the Exile generations speak primarily about the sanctity of the fruits – while the earlier Sages focus chiefly on the physical abundance and the superior sweet taste of the fruits. The Sages mention the spiritual aspects only in the context of the decrease in abundance and sweetness as a result of sins and the like.  

What we see is that in the Exile, we must speak about holiness – but when we live in our holy land, breathe its air. and eat its fruits, the holiness streams over to us in a most natural manner, and is poured into our bodies via our enjoyment of the goodness and sweetness of the fruits.

Of course, even after all these explanations, it is important to remember that though the sanctity streams in naturally, an even higher level is attained by one who understands the depth of these matters and meets the spirituality openly. As such, the highest level is to learn and delve into the beauties and virtues of our Land and the sanctity of its fruits. 

May we merit on this Tu B'Shvat, this coming Monday, and throughout the year, to – as we say in one form of the blessing following food – "eat from its fruits, be satiated from its goodness, and to bless [G-d] upon it in holiness and purity."