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Shabbat Chol HaMoed Pesach
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Discovering the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

אילו הכניסנו לארץ ישראל - דיינו!

If He had brought us into the land of Israel and had not built us the 'Chosen House' [the Temple; it would have been] enough for us.”

This phrase, in addition to other such phrases in the Hagaddah, requires an explanation. How could it be that it would have been sufficient to bring us to the Land of Israel without the Temple? The building of the Temple is mandatory and includes about 200 Torah commandments - how could it ‘be enough’ without it? An answer to this question is that in the Hagaddah we are not saying ‘it would have been enough’ in the sense that the additional blessing is not needed. Rather, in this passage we are thanking HaShem for each increment of His goodness upon us, appreciating each step of our redemption.

Thanking God is not only a mitzvah, and a matter that brings us to a consciousness of joy, but also carries potential to bring Divine blessing through one’s gratitude. To what can this be compared? One who thanks another for some matter, the other individual might say, ‘you are happy and grateful for what I have already given you? - let me give you even more, so you may be even happier!’ Indeed, many have already recounted their personal stories of salvation from simply thanking HaShem for all they have and even for what they don’t have, with the faith that what they don’t have is also part of the Divine plan. We may say that if thanking God brings blessing on an individual level, this is the case on an ever grander level, in regard to thanking HaShem on the collective level. In this way, when we thank HaShem for our redemption from Egypt in the past, we are actually also bringing blessing towards our future redemption.

We find, according to the Arizal, that David’s spiritual work in Hebron lead to his development of Jerusalem and the Temple at a later stage. Also, according to our title quote from the Haggada, which thanks God for the Land of Israel just before thanking God for the Temple, that essentially the Land of Israel is also a spiritual prerequisite towards the Temple. According to this, we may say that by the spiritual ‘work’ of thanking God for Hebron in specific, and the entirety of the Land of Israel in general, we may merit to bring blessing towards the development of Jerusalem and the re-building of the Temple. 

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Real Stories from the Holy Land #215

While driving to Ma'arat HaMachpela my car engine started to heat up. Because of this, my car made a sudden stop in the middle of driving, as the engine was exhausted. However, it just ‘turned out’, that just as this happened, I had just arrived at the Ma'arat HaMachpela parking lot...’

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