by Rabbi Shaya Karlinsky, Shlita

Elul 5761

Klal Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael is experiencing its most difficult period since the 1948 War of Independence. But much has happened since 1948, and the context in which we view the current difficulties has changed dramatically over the past fifty years.

The Jewish people has witnessed miraculous fulfillment of many of the Messianic prophecies, from the agricultural flourishing of the land to the return of Jews from every corner of the Diaspora. While only 600,000 Jews were living in Israel in 1948, nearly half of world Jewry resides there now. Israel has become the Torah center of the world. Torah study and observance throughout the world strengthens from year to year. Even non-Orthodox movements have recognized their inability to create any viable Jewish ideology detached from our authentic sources. History continues to validate the foundations of Jewish belief: Our eternal connection to and the Divine truth of the Torah, and our eternal connection to the Land of Israel.

With all the positive changes that have occurred in the past fifty years, the picture nonetheless has its very bleak side. Assimilation and intermarriage are rampant throughout the world. Hundreds of thousands of Jewish children in Israel are lack familiarity with even the most basic elements of Jewish values and Jewish culture, let alone Torah knowledge. Nearly a quarter of the citizens and residents of the State of Israel are not Jewish. The polarization between religious and secular Jews increases on a daily basis. And Jews in Israel who were the heroes of the nation a generation ago are today being vilified as extremist opponents of peace.

In these troubling and confusing times, as we claim to be waiting anxiously for Mashiach’s arrival, we ask ourselves exactly what G-d wants from us. Without prophecy, there are no clear answers.

But some ideas resonated in my mind while reviewing the parshioth leading up to Elul. I would like to summarize some verses and share a powerful Midrash in the hope that they can give us renewed focus on the challenges that stand before us.

Summaries: G-d, Eretz Yisrael, and the Jews in Sefer Devarim

(8:6-20) The Torah commands us to keep the Mitzvoth, follow the path of G-d, and fear Him. For G-d is bringing us into a good land, with plentiful resources that will enable us to have our needs met, and for which we are commanded to bless G-d. But these resources, comfort and wealth can be the cause for arrogance, a sense of independence and the power to control our destiny independent of G-d’s intervention. This leads us to follow false gods, which brings upon us destruction and exile.

(9:1-5) We are being brought into Eretz Yisrael to inherit the land from nations more powerful than we are. It is being done through the power of G-d, not out of our own righteousness, but as a result of the evil ways of the nations dwelling there, and as a fulfillment of G-d’s promise to our forefathers.

(10:12-14,20) What does G-d want from the Jewish people? To fear G-d, to follow in His ways, to love Him, to serve Him in every aspect of our lives, and to attach ourselves to Him.

(11:8-12) Keep all the Mitzvoth that G-d commands you, in order that you should be strong, entering and inheriting Eretz Yisrael, and remaining there in perpetuity. For the land to which you are being brought to inherit is not like Egypt, which is sustained by irrigation. Eretz Yisrael is a land of mountains and valleys, drinking water from the heavens. It is the land to which G-d directs his inquiries, with the eyes of G-d on it from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

(11:22-23,25) For if you keep the Mitzvoth, to love G-d, to follow in His ways, and to attach yourself to Him: He will drive out all the nations before you, and you will drive out nations greater and more powerful than you…No one will stand before you; G-d will place the fear of you on the face of the land that you will traverse, as he promised you.

(14:1-2) You are the children of G-d…you are a nation holy to G-d, and He has chosen you to be his treasured nation…on the face of the earth.

(14:22-15:11) [Laws of tithing agricultural produce; supporting the Levi, the widow, the orphan; providing loans and charity to the poor].

The Midrash: Why Israel?

The Midrash (Breishith Rabba Ch.39) tells of how Eretz Yisrael (Cana’an at that time) came to be promised to Avraham Avinu for his descendants. Avraham was walking through Aram Naharaim and Aram Nachor, where he saw people eating, drinking and making merry. He said “Would that I have no part in this land.” But when he reached the rocky heights (overlooking Eretz Yisrael) he saw the people weeding at the time of weeding, and hoeing at the time of hoeing, he said “Would that my portion be in this land.”

What did Avraham see in Cana’an that made it appropriate for his descendants? – the principle of delayed gratification, which is the foundation of agriculture. The pursuit of instant gratification, which Avraham saw in Aram Naharaim and Aram Nachor, has become the defining goal in our own culture (and too often affects the norms of the Torah community), is foreign to Judaism. We live in this world to invest our resources in bringing glory to G-d, being a holy nation, and ethical nation, a nation that imitates the traits and ways of G-d.

The Land of Israel is the most appropriate place in the world for Jews to accomplish these goals. Living in a land under G-d’s constant attention enhances our relationship with Him. Being a “land of mountains and valleys” implies that things are not predictable. That certainly undermines our quest for instant gratification. Every day brings surprises, which is what you would expect when G-d is micro-managing the goings-on there. Requiring our water and sustenance to constantly be coming from heaven creates an ongoing relationship with G-d. This requires a greater sensitivity to our behavior, in contrast to a more predictable and “natural” system of irrigation. It has the potential to create a culture of spirituality, an environment focused on Divine service.

Therefore, there is a positive requirement for every Jew, when it is possible, to live in Eretz Yisrael. Living outside of Eretz Yisrael is viewed negatively, a manifestation of exile, since it distances us from G-d and makes it more difficult for us to reach our full spiritual potential.

Conclusion

The cultural influences of a secular and materialistic society have impacted every segment of the Jewish world. While the quantity of our Mitzvah observance, our Torah learning and our Jewish institutions far surpasses anything dreamed about fifty and a hundred years ago, the inner dimension, the uniquely Jewish quality of the accomplishments raises troubling questions.

It is painful to listen to the Palestinian claims and devotion to their “holy land.” But the pain is amplified with the confusion emanating from within the Jewish community about the importance of Eretz Yisrael, the source of our rights to it, and the opportunities the Jewish world seems to be losing, as Mashiach waits anxiously for his cue to bring us our final redemption.

I hope that sensitivity to these issues will give us the clarity to more accurately decipher the messages G-d is trying to send us.