OUTREACH

Tazriah-Metzorah

Israel, G-d and Miracles

The Holy Land of Israel, besides being a sovereign country with its own political statehood and international independence, has a fundamental enigmatic identity that transcends every other nationality in the world. The central, foundational element that is unique and exclusive to Israel is not in its terrain, tourism attractions, geographic location, raw materials, size or population but in the fact that it is G-d’s Holy Land.

It is the Land about which our Torah states, “the eyes of Almighty G-d are upon it from the beginning of the year to the end of the year”- constantly and eternally. It is a land that was exclusively given by Almighty G-d to the Jewish people.

In the first verse of the book of Genesis, when we learn about the creation of the universe, the classic commentator of the Torah, Rashi, asks a very obvious question. Since the Torah is a book of law, literally a codex of how to conduct our lives by G-d’s direction, why do we start the Torah with the story of creation rather than with an actual practical Mitzvah? He quotes the answer from Rabbi Yitzchok that the purpose of this prologue to the Torah is to tell us the power of Almighty G-d in His granting part of the world to anyone He wants. He created it, He owns it, and He does what He wants with it.  So, if in history nations of the world will claim to the Jews “you have stolen this land from other people”, the response to them will be that G-d made the world and gives it to whomever He wants. He gave it to the Jewish people.

In our first introduction to the first Jew, Abraham, and G-d’s first communication with him, Hashem directs him to sojourn the land of Canaan (Israel) from north to south, east to west, around all of its borders, identifying and clarifying the actual landmass that He promised to him and to his progeny forever.

Even earlier on when the world was divided amongst the three sons of Noah, it was Shem - the patriarchal ancestor of Abraham and the Jewish people - that was given that land.  Other nations had occupied it and conquered it, but the Holy Land never relinquished its Jewish ownership.

Even as the United Nations recognized the international independent statehood of Israel as the homeland for the Jewish people, it was not a gift or benevolent grant.  It was always the Jewish People’s heritage.  There was never a moment since Joshua entered Israel that there was not a Jew living in the Holy Land, regardless of which diabolical regimes strategized by whichever means to eradicate them. The miracles that we experienced in 1948, in 1956, in 1967, in 1973 and so many more times nationally, individually and personally, are beyond anyone’s capacity to comprehend or to enumerate.

The simple miracle of a people returning from the ashes of desolation and genocide to build a land that has become a paradigm of innovation, morality, ethics, humanity and creativity, gaining international respect as a paradigm of goodness, kindness and success, is outside of the realm of any other country or civilization.  A miraculous, transformative move from the abyss of darkness to the pinnacle of achievement in such a short period of time.

Every soldier of the brave, beloved, selfless IDF who has been on the front lines defending the Holy Land and its Holy People, has a storage of miracles that they can tell you happened to them or their comrades.

Israel is imbedded in the essence of our being, somewhere deep within our conscious and subconscious. We yearn to go to Israel, have a home in Israel and enjoy its extraordinary atmosphere, but at the same time we also inter our beloved after their passing in Israel. It is the land that is timeless, spanning from the beginning of time to the coming of Moshiach and thereafter.

We pray at the Western wailing broken Wall, the last remnant of the Second Temple and the same place that Abraham brought his son Isaac to the top of the mountain, and we wait impatiently for the rebuilding of the Third Eternal Temple. It is a place in time that fuses the past, present and future into a single nuclearized moment of reality and internalized experience.

It is why the Rebbe cried and screamed with insistence that not a single millimeter of the Holy Land can be given away or given up as it is not ours to give away.  It is ours to nurture, build, cultivate and create a lighthouse of holiness that should light up the entire world, fulfilling the prophetic vision that “Israel should be a light to the nations.”

We must thank Hashem for the miracles that He granted us and continues to give us, particularly in our Holy Land of Israel, and reciprocate that kindness by fulfilling our holy, sacred mission for which we were put on this earth and for which G-d Almighty chose us.

Have a great Shabbos and wonderful week.

Rabbi Sholom D. Lipskar

For more information Click here