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Passover Day 7 & 8 5776
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Cleaving to the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

ובני ישראל הלכו ביבשה בתוך הים

"And so Moshe and Israel sung this song unto HaShem and so they said: I will sing unto HaShem for He is lofty, chariot and horseman He drew into the sea..."

The Zohar states that this Song upon the Sea is sung at the end of psukei dezimra, because its level of praise is so great that it deserves to be the culmination of all the praises before the Shema (and its blessings) and  the Amida, when one unites with the Holy Presence in prayer. We have discussed in the past how uniting to the Holy Presence in our Holy Land is compared to the unity between husband and wife by the prophet Isaiah and the teachings of our Sages. This correlation is heightened when we study our Sages teaching that this unison between husband and wife is compared to the parting of the Red Sea (Sota 2a).

Aside from our Sages' proof-text for this concept we can also find that this correlation fits perfectly with the perception of Israel as husband and the Holy  Land as wife, as the splitting of the Red Sea was a decisive step in the Exodus of Israel towards the Holy Land. This image of passing through two separate parts strikingly reminds us of the Covenant of Pieces with Avraham which involved a covenant between HaShem and Avraham by Avraham's walking through two lines of severed animals. Indeed, it is at this very Covenant of Pieces that Avraham is taught by God about the future Exodus of his descendants from a foreign land, to occur 430 years later. This Covenant of the Pieces also fits perfectly with what we just mentioned that the passing through the Red Sea, hinted to by the Covenant of Pieces, is itself a motion of "covenant" between husband and wife, between Israel and the Holy Land. In other words, just as HaShem forms a covenant between Him and Israel, so to a covenant is formed between Israel and the Land of HaShem's Holy Presence. In fact, this is exactly the content of the Covenant of Pieces - "on that day HaShem formed a covenant with Avraham saying to your descendants I have given this Land..."

According to the commentators it becomes apparent that this covenant was formed with Avraham in Hebron after his return from the battle with "the four nations" (to which he set out to from Hebron). Indeed, Hebron, which means "unity" is strongly connected to the concept of "covenant". Here we can pray unto HaShem so naturally: "and the covenant to our Forefathers to their descendants may You remember". Here is formed the covenant between HaShem and Israel, between Israel and the Holy Land, and also with Israel between themselves, as it says "and King David formed a covenant with them in Hebron before HaShem..." - a covenant uniting all Israel under one dominion, the regal line of David, forerunner of Mashiah.

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Real Stories from the Holy Land #167

"Recently, I had opened a kollel at "Nachshon's Gallery" next to Maaras HaMachpela which had a kollel, headed by Rabbi Ashlag zt"l, running within it 22 years ago, but had since then been stopped from holding a kollel in its auspices for political/security reasons since the Goldstein affair at Maaras HaMachpela. One day, my wife told me to go to Maaras HaMachpela at about 10 am, an hour I am usually not there (I usually pray there at sunrise). Surprisingly there I saw the Hasidim of the Ashlag community (from Telstone-Kiryat Yaarim) and was able to excite them with the recent news of the re-opening of their Bait Midrash in "Nachshon's Gallery". M.G

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