Parshat Ha'azinu
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Bonding with the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

יצב גבולות עמים למספר בני ישראל

בירור רוב יושביה עליה ושלטון העמים מסיבת ישראל בארצם

"One Who is pleased by prayer, One Who is appeased by penitence, aid me and save me so that I do not become silent... that I not stop from praying on this matter ever, only that I merit to supplicate and pray exceedinglyon this matter always till I merit to bring the manifestation of my request with compassion by You, so that I merit to come in my very life quickly to the Land of Israel...” (Likutei Tfilot I 20)

These days are days of prayer, days auspicious for the acceptance of prayers, as  our Sages taught on the verse 'seek HaShem when He is present, call out to Him when He is close' - these are the 10 days between Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur.' One of the most basic and essential types of prayer is the prayer for prayer, that is to pray that one be able to utter prayer, that one be able to have intent in his/her prayer, and so on and so forth. Such is the very first prayer of the Amida - 'HaShem open my lips', which means that my first prayer to You is that You aid me to indeed utter prayer.

Another preliminary to prayer is the direction of one's body and mind towards the Land of Israel. This preparation fits perfectly with the prayer to pray, for connecting to the Holy Presence of the Land of Israel is essential in drawing on the aid of this Presence for one's prayer before the Holy Presence that resides before every Jew in prayer. Just as in this preliminary prayer there is a distinction between an individual and also by minyan, large community and the like, so too we can say that in regard to the spiritual aid from the Holy Presence of the Land of Israel there is a distinction between smaller numbers of people connected to this Presence and larger numbers of People connected to this Presence.

This can clearly be seen in our Sages assertion from the verse of Blessing: '5 of you shall chase 100 (enemies in battle), and 100 of you shall chase 10,000' (Behukotai). Our Sages learn from the change of ratios between 100 being 20 times 5 while 10,000 is 100 times 100, that 'the value of many doing a mitzva (of battle) is different than few doing a mitzva'. It is also clear from the verse 'for HaShem Your God 'walks' in the midst of your camp to save you from your enemies' that it is the Holy Presence that resides with the legions of Israel that aids Israel in accordance with their numbers. Indeed, the numbers of Israel are mentioned in our title quote of this week's parsha as being a causing factor in the borders of nations. So the Midrash interprets this verse to refer to the allocation of nations in specific countries, so that these nations do not all covet to settle in the Land of Israel, in order that the Land of Israel be secured for the Jewish People.

This Midrash is clear in regard to the beginning of this verse, but is unclear in regard to the latter part of the verse. What does the numbers of Israel have to do with security if the Land of Israel is in the hands of the Jewish People? In regard to the mitzva of halla, the Torah stipulates that its commitment is 'when you come to the Land'. Our Sages remark that this phrase is not only a stipulation but also can be interpreted as a result of taking on the mitva of halla. In other words, if you take on the mitzva of halla, 'I will bring you to the Land'. In the past we have noted that the Biblical commitment of halla, as is also true of many mitzvot of the Land, entails the majority of worldwide Jewry living in the Land of Israel. In this way, the numbers of Israel, i.e. the majority of Jewry in the Land, is a deciding factor not only on the observance of halla, but also on the ability and the Divine aid to indeed settle this Land properly in the first place.

Let us follow in the footsteps of Kaleb who prayed in Hebron to retain his devotion to this Land of Prayer. This is Hebron, the place to seek this Divine aid in pursuing the settlement of this Holy Land.

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Real Stories from the Holy Land #138

"One week I had to pay a sudden un-expected expense, which diminished my money to such an extent that I did not know how to pay for food for Shabbos. I turned to God for help in prayer. Soon after, after one of the classes that I teach, one of the participants handed me an envelope, saying that this is money for Hanuka. In it was a sizable sum enough to get me by my expenses. I did not understand - it was almost Purim, and now money for Hanuka?! This participant explained that his father had wanted to give me money at Hanuka time but had forgotten about it. Just recently he 'happened' to hear a Torah lecture about Hanuka, and this reminded him that best to bring Hanuka gelt now than never..."S.M 

Sources: Rosh HaShana 18a, Yalkut Shimoni 942

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