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Parshat Chukat
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

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Uniting with the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

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"Blessed are You HaShem our God Master of the Universe Who erects the borders of the Widow ('matziv gvul almana')”. This blessing is said, at least on principle, on seeing houses of Israel 'settled', as brought in the Talmud. 'Settled' has various interpretations amongst the poskim. According to Rashi 'settled' refers to the same stature and beauty as was present at the Second Temple Era, while Rif limits this blessing to synagogues and batei midrash which represent the holy settlement of Israel. Nevertheless, neither do the Rambam or the Shulhan Aruch mention the Rif's stipulation.

Much of the Poskim are also of the opinion that this blessing should be said only in the Land of Israel, the Homeland of the Jewish People. The explanation of this blessing is that Israel in Exile are called a widow (see Lam. 1), and therefore when one sees the return of settlement in the Land of Israel one is to bless HaShem on the return of Israel to their Land. For many years of Israel's Exile it was hard to bless this blessing, since it was hard to define the settlement of Israel in the Land of Israel as being properly 'erected' or established or as being a comfort to the 'Widow Israel'. However, since the greater return of Israel to the Land in the past century we find more and more poskim who have they themselves blessed this blessing. For example, Rabbi Shmuel Salant blessed this blessing upon seeing Petah Tikva. Rabbi Mordechai GimpelYafe blessed this blessing on 'Yehud'.

Nevertheless, this does not mean that one should bless this blessing on every building or city one sees for the first time. The reason for this is due to the general principle in blessings upon sighting special phenomena that one is to bless only on something novel. Therefore, since, with HaShem's kindness, many parts of the Land of Israel have been settled for numbers of generations, the building of a new building and/or city in those areas does not present much novelty or excitement to the observer, and therefore one does not say this blessing there.

However, according to Rabbi Eliezer Melamed based on the teachings of his master R. T.Y Kook,  one is to bless this blessing on a settlement in a location that noticeably still needs to be settled in order to secure it in the hands of Israel and not to be controlled by a foreign power or left desolate. In such a location where one is aware of the novelty of this settlement and rightly has reason to be excited about such, one is to bless upon such a settlement even if one is not so excited about such. If this settlement is already settled for a long period of time, only the first time of sight one is to bless. After the first time, only if there are 30 days between sightings and in addition one is also personally excited about seeing such a settlement can one bless this blessing. Of course, these laws bring us so naturally to Hebron of today. This is Hebron – one of the foremost frontiers of Jewish settlement in our Holy Land today.     

Real Stories from the Holy Land #:

At our home we operate a gemach which does the service of depositing checks for people and giving them cash the next day to the sum they deposited. One day, a man came to me saying that he needs the cash urgently and cannot wait to the next day. I answered that I would very happy to help him, but that I have no money at all one me. To prove this I put my hands in my pockets, turning them inside out. However, to my surprise, in my pocket there was cash from someone who had just deposited cash by me minutes before, so after all I did offer this cash to the man before me. It 'turns out' that the sum I 'happened' to receive and pull ot from my pockets was identical to the sum on the check...” B.H

Sources: Orah Haim 224, 9 Piskei Tshuvot ibid (only on beautifully built shuls and beit midrash in Eretz Yisroel), Maharsha Brachot 58b, Pninei Halacha Brachot 336-340 (also see 'Harhavot Lepninei Halacha')