Dedicated in Memory of Matt Fenster z”l
The Midrash Sifrei on the Book of Devarim states that it is
a Mitzvah to settle the Land of Israel and to dwell there as it says in Devarim
12:29 (Parshat Re’eh) “and you shall drive them away and live in their Land”.
The full pasuk states: “When Hashem your God will cut down
the nations (yachrit… et hagoyim) whom you are coming to inherit from before
you (lareshet otam mipanecha) and you shall drive them away and live in their
Land”.
Rav Saadia Gaon points out that when it says “their land” it
is referring to the place that the enemies are living in. The
eternally ours.
Rosh asks why it says that God will drive away our enemies
followed by the words that
We know that God is the one who will drive out our enemies
but He wants to give the people credit as they will be physically fighting for
the Land as well.
The Gemara in Brachot 5a quotes a Braita which states: Rabbi
Shimon Bar Yochai said: The Holy One, Blessed be He, gave three good gifts to
gave all of them only through suffering. They are: Torah, the
Are we still acquiring the
B.Z Meyer, in the book To Dwell in the
Palace-Perspectives on Eretz Yisrael says that although Israel is no longer
the wasteland that it had been in the past such as in the days of Rabbi Yehuda
Halevi, there is suffering that one would probably not have in many of the
countries where the immigrants come from such as bureaucratic headaches and
employment crises.
This past week, the suffering has escalated above the
regular trials and tribulations of living in
with rockets being shot into
from
during a so called cease fire. With God’s help and the Israeli army’s “Kippat
Habarzel” (Iron Dome) many of the rockets have been intercepted and the damage
has been kept to a minimum.
May we go back to the suffering of overpriced backpacks and
cottage cheese and may the only kippot that we have to know about be knitted
verses velvet.
