Behar: National Glory: Our Land, Our Torah

by Rav Hillel Mertzbach, Rabbi of the Yad Binyamin Central Synagogue, yeshiva.org.il, translated by Hillel Fendel.

This week's Torah portion of Behar (Vayikra 25,1-26,2) begins with the mitzvah of Shmittah, in which we are commanded to let the Holy Land lie fallow once every seven years. Curiously, the opening verses mention two extra points whose relevance is not immediately clear: Mt. Sinai and the promise of the Land of Israel.

Specifically, Parashat Behar begins as follows, "G-d spoke to Moshe at Mt. Sinai, to say [to Israel]: When you come to the Land that I give you, the land shall rest…" Why could the Torah not simply say, "G-d told Moshe to tell Israel, let the Land rest…"?

Rashi here asks, "What does the topic of Shmitta have to do with Mt. Sinai? Weren't all the mitzvot given on Sinai?" And he answers that just as both the general rules and the minute details regarding Shmitta were given on Mt. Sinai, so too both the general rules and minute details of all the other mitzvot were given at Sinai as well.

The Holy Ohr HaChaim (Rav Chaim ibn Attar, 18^th-century Morocco) asks: "Why did the mitzvah of Shmittah, or all mitzvot, deserve to be the mitzvah by which this critical lesson is learned?"

He answers:

"Perhaps it is because the Torah mentions here the gift of the Land [as quoted above], and therefore it specified "Mt. Sinai," to say that this gift of the Land was completed precisely because of Sinai – i.e., that which we received there, namely, the Torah – in that because of the Torah G-d gave us the Land."

This is an amazing insight by the Ohr HaChaim! He is saying that in order to fulfill the Torah and the mitzvot, the Land is imperative! In addition, the connection between the Nation of Israel and the Land of Israel stems specifically from G-d's command in the Torah.

To understand this, let us explore why it is that this Land-Nation connection must be nourished specifically from the Torah? Clearly there are many non-observant Jews who are attached to the Land and love it very much. What role does the Torah play, precisely?

I would like to try to propose two explanations for the Land-Torah bonds.

The first is that the commandments of the Torah without Eretz Yisrael are totally lacking. As the Medrash Sifrei tells us (D'varim 43), the fulfillment of the Torah's commands outside the Land are only a "remembrance" of their ideal fulfillment in the Land. In the words of the Medrash: "Even when and if I exile you from the Land, continue to fulfill them correctly, so that when you return [to the Land], they will not be new to you… Just as the Prophet Jeremiah said [and based on Rabbinic derivations]: 'Set up milestones for yourself (31,20)…'"

The second explanation is based on the popular idiom, "The Land of Israel without Torah is a like a body without a soul." When the Nation of Israel is in its Land without a connection to the Torah, G-d's word, it can decline to many grave mistakes. Eretz Yisrael can become a source of negativity, or even just a piece of real estate that be given away at some leader's whim. Only when the Torah is the basis for our ties with the Land, and when we internalize and adhere to G-d's word from Sinai, can we truly merit to inherit the Land. 

Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, first Chief Rabbi of modern-day Eretz Yisrael, expressed it well in his work Orot, in the beginning of the chapter on the Land of Israel:

"Eretz Israel is not something external; it is not an external national acquisition, or a means to the goal of all-around unity, or a means to the strengthening of its physical or even spiritual existence. Rather, the Land of Israel is an intrinsic element of the nation, attached to it with bond of life, entwined at its very core with our national existence."

Let us raise a prayer that we will successfully pay heed to G-d's word that we heard at Sinai, and through this, be worthy of inheriting our holy Land.