by Rabbi Yisrael Rutman

With Israel at war, the focus of attention in the media is, as usual, on military and diplomatic developments. Will the Israel Defense Force prevail over a well-armed, professionally-trained and fanatically committed guerilla army in Lebanon? Will negotiations for return of prisoners succeed? Will it be possible to establish an international peacekeeping force in South Lebanon that can guarantee Israel’s security?

However, as Jews we have to know that from our inception as a people to the present day the conditions of our survival are ultimately not physical but spiritual. The maintenance of an army is, unfortunately, a necessity; and we are full of concern and appreciation for those who are daily risking their lives to protect the country from a merciless enemy. But without Jewish spirit, without God’s help, all the tanks and jet fighters in Israel’s vast arsenal will be to no avail.

Consider the following verse in the Torah: And we will pass over before God into the Land of Canaan…(Bamidbar 32:32).

One of the names of God is the Omnipresent, which means that God is everywhere. What does it mean, then, to say, as it does in the verse above, that the tribes of Israel came into the Promised Land before God? Isn’t everything we do before God?

The answer is that although it is true that we are always in God’s presence, we are not always aware of it. And therefore, we act according to our own ideas and desires, regardless of what God may want of us. Those who were about to receive the Promised Land were declaring their intention that they would be doing so with full consciousness that it was before God. That the Land of Israel is a gift from Him, and that we realize that the laws of the land are unlike anywhere else. For if we do not keep Torah and mitzvot we are subject to eviction, which is exactly what happened twice in our history, when the First and then the Second Temples were destroyed.

This same principle explains a similar anomaly in the text of Birkat HaMazon (Blessing after Meals). The second paragraph is essentially a prayer of praise and thanksgiving for the Land of Israel. (We thank you, God, for giving to our forefathers a desirable, good and spacious land…) Why, then, does it include thanksgiving for Your covenant which you sealed in our flesh, for your Torah whch you taught us…?

The Talmud Yerushalmi (Brochot 1:6) answers that it was only in the merit of Torah that the Land was given to Israel. As it says in Tehilim (Psalms 104:44-45): And He gave them the lands of the nations…that they might observe His statutes…

The author of the blessing on the Land was Joshua, who led the ancient conquest by prophetic command. Who better than Joshua would know and appreciate the greatness of the Land of Israel? Joshua was not chosen because of any military or political background. He stood at the head of no party, had no power base or fundraising organization (the Federations came later). The Sages say that he was chosen to succeed Moses as the leader of the Jewish people because he had been his faithful disciple, never leaving the tents of Torah. And he chose to put the Torah scholars ahead of the lay leaders…because he needed [the former] to conquer and divide the Land (Yerushalmi Horios 3:5).

Thus, one who fails to mention the covenant of circumcision and Torah study in Birkat HaMazon has not fulfilled his obligation (Brochot 49; Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 187). In other words, the recognition that Israel is a land of spirituality is so important that thanking God for the land without that recognition is worthless.

It’s as if someone gave you a book for a gift and you thanked him for the beautiful cover and the fine paper on which it was printed. If you don’t appreciate the content of the book, you’ve missed the point. So too, the Land of Israel is a beautiful place, with mountains and valleys and forests and streams like other countries. But if you don’t appreciate it as a place to serve God, to strive for a more Jewish life, of Torah and mitzvot, then you’ve missed the point.

In these trying times, when we are once again fighting for right to live in the Land of Israel, we have to remember that the fight has to be before God.

Sources: Avnei Azel, quoted in Maynah shel Torah, Mattot.

No related posts.