• | Print |
•  Email

Parshat Eikev

By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron                                                                                             בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Connecting to the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

"וברכת את ה' א-היך על הארץ הטובה אשר נתן לך"

"Blessed are You HaShem on the Land and on the sustenance." This week's parsha is especially descriptive about the blessings and praises of our Holy Land, and in turn the Rabbinic commentaries on this parsha, as in the Sifri and more, explain at great length the great value of this Land. Indeed, one of the mitzvot of this parsha we have discussed in the past is the Birkas Hamazon, which must have explicit praise for this special Divine gift, the Land of Israel.

In various laws in halacha it seems that our Sages continued to raise recognition as to the uniqueness of this Land. Even when we examine these laws closely we find that by essence, they can also apply in the Diaspora or not apply in the Land of Israel. Let's take one example of many: In the laws of Yom Tov Rambam and Shulhan Aruch rule, according to Talmud Beitza 14a, that in the Land of Israel one is not to use even a small grinder to grind vegetables (or the like according to some poskim) on Yom Tov, even though such an activity in the Diaspora is permissible, since doing so is considered an alteration ('shinui') of regular grinding which is usually done with a large grinder. The reason there is a difference between the Diaspora and the Land of Israel is explained by the Rambam, due to the fact that the 'produce of theirs (the Land of Israel) is good and if it be grinded before Yom Tov there is no lessening (of its quality)'.  This is in accordance with the rule that if a particular labor does not significantly enhance a food's quality if done on Yom Tov instead of the day before, then halacha does not permit this labor to be done on Yom Tov.

As we noted before, when we examine this law closely we find that if there were to be produce in the Diaspora that also retains its quality even after grinding before Yom Tov, this produce would also be prohibited from being grounded on Yom Tov just like the Land of Israel. Thus, we can conclude that the stipulation 'the Land of Israel' in this instance is not so much an essential stipulation of this law as in the many laws we have brought in the past, but rather a general indicator and example where such good produce may be found.

This said, the fact that Rambam takes pains to explain in his extremely concise work, the Mishneh Torah, that the reason for this law is due to the goodness of the produce of the Land of Israel, does teach us a very valuable lesson on the way our Sages and the Rambam with them take pains to add praise to the Land of Israel, even as a side point among a corpus of laws. From these laws and those similar to them we learn, that even though the stipulation of the Land of Israel in these laws is not so essential, nevertheless the fact that the essential principles are tied to the Land of Israel shows the honor set aside for the Land of Israel.

Ultimately, one of the primary sources on praising the Land of Israel even on minor levels and side-points can be linked to Hebron. It is upon Hebron which the Torah teaches that it pre-existed even before Zoan of Egypt to show, according to our Sages, that even the 'rubble' (of course on a physical level – not spiritual, as proved many times before) of the Land of Israel, used as a graveyard at Ma’arat HaMachpela, is greater ('pre-existed') than the 'paradise' of the Diaspora – Zoan of Egypt. In this way we can say that even the, so-to-speak, 'rubble' of praises on the Land of Israel, i.e  references that are not intrinsically connected to this Land, yet still shed light, in a unique way, on the high value of our Holy Land. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Real Stories from the Holy Land #131

"One day I got a notice in the mail on which was written that I must pay 6730 NIS on a purchase in payments upon which I was a guarantor 8 years before. Since this letter arrived on my birthday, an auspicious day for prayer, I prayed to HaShem that He help me cover this expense easily, especially since I hardly manage making a living. One day, I heard one man talking to another at the school I teach that he had just bought a new car, and his old car was up for sale. When I saw the price, I decided to try earning money by buying my friend's car and re-selling it as kind of an agent. The next day, when I drove with this car in my city I was stopped by a business-man who was interested in buying the car. We settled on a price, and he purchased the car. When I realized my profit, I was astounded: exactly 6730 NIS…" M.K

Sources: Beitza 14a