BRAISHIS
LANDING INTO THE HOLY LAND.
It is one of the world’s most covered stories: Israel. It seems that Israel is in the news every day about something or other. Even internal issues, developments, or strife do not escape the pens of endless streams of writers. Each one tries to outdo the other, many spinning outrageous tales with unfair bias.
Does Israel have its issues and problems? Why, of course, as does every other country. The coverage, however, is widely disproportionate in the way the global coverage of Israel is disseminated.
One would think that this is a massive country with tens of millions of people – as are most countries in the world. Instead, Israel is one of the world’s tiniest countries, with well under ten million citizens. A country of this size anywhere else in the world is hardly known at all.
And there are the enemies of Israel, on every one of its borders, relentlessly seeking any opportunity to inflict harm, in any nefarious way. No man, woman, or child is immune. Every person there is a target. And not just there, but the enemies of Israel have used the Israel excuse to inflict harm on Jewish people at large, and even on American and other Western nations across the globe.
And this has been going on for as long as modern Israel has been a country, and even way before such thoughts entered the minds of the Jewish people.
What is the problem? Why would the nations of the world – whose representatives, in the mid-twentieth century understood and agreed that the Jewish people should have a country of their own – be so obsessed with the happenings in the tiny Jewish country? And why are enemies threatening to take away the Land from the Jewish people, when so many abounding alternatives exist for them?
The answer involves the first verse of the Torah – which is the first verse of this week’s Torah portion, “Braishis”: “In the beginning G-d created the heavens and the earth.”
In one of the more incredible predictions, the Talmudic Sages stated the following: “The Torah, a book of commandments and instruction, should have begun from the words, ‘This month shall be for you…’ (Sh’mos (Exodus) 12:2), which is the first commandment given to the Jewish people. Why does the Torah begin with ‘In the Beginning’?
“The reason is [conveyed by the verse]: ‘He declared to His people the power of His works in order to give them the inheritance of the nations’ (Tehillim (Psalms) 111:6). If the nations of the world will say to the Jewish people, ‘You are robbers, for you seized the land of the seven nations [who inhabited Canaan prior to its conquering by the Jewish people],’ they (the Jewish people) will reply: ‘The whole earth belongs to G-d. He created it and granted it to whoever was deemed fit in His eyes! It was His will that they (the seven nations) should have it; and, by His will, He took it from them and gave it to us!’”
There are many stories associated with the historical time of the biblical narrative that are not recorded in the written Torah. These are available in the words of the Sages, and were passed down orally through all generations.
In other words, not all stories, even those associated with the Torah’s stories, appear in the written Torah. Only select stories with critical lessons regarding Jewish law, history, and behavior appear in the written Torah.
The reason the Torah chooses to begin its teachings with the description of the Almighty’s creation of the world is so that, for all eternity, the nations of the world who will criticize the rights of the Jewish people to their Land will be told the eternal response of the Jewish people: the Land of Israel was granted, bequeathed to, and bestowed onto the Jewish people by the One who created it.
The above, though, still requires clarification: The entire world, at some point, was conquered and occupied by foreign and sometimes hostile countries. It is normal and acceptable conduct that countries sometimes fall into the hands of other countries. Why should anyone be irritated, even irate, about a phenomenon that exists everywhere else in the world?
The answer is about the unique status of the land of Israel. It is true that countries routinely have passed from one hand to another over history, and such conquests through military gains are considered perfectly legitimate. The holy land of Israel, though, cannot be considered in the same category. As soon as it became “the Holy Land,” when the Jewish people settled it as a nation, it could never be considered as anything else other than the Holy Land. Even in the event that the Holy Land be conquered by others – which occurred repeatedly in historic times – it can never forsake the designation of the “Holy Land of Israel,” or the land of the Jewish people. Even after the exiles, the Jewish people have never given up, and will never give up, or give away, this privileged piece of the world.
And this is what could potentially irk the nations of the world: Why should this piece of Land be treated differently than the rest of the world? Why can they not conquer this land and turn it into their own territory? You are robbers, for you have steadfastly held onto this land, disregarding the rules of engagement for other lands!
It is for this reason that the Torah opens with the story of Creation. The message is: This is the Almighty’s world. He can choose to do what He wants with it. And what He wants the Torah states repeatedly: this Land belongs to the Jewish people, for all eternity, as the Holy Land.
The aforementioned, however, raises another question: If the Almighty desired the Jewish people to keep this Land for all eternity, why did He not do so at the beginning of Creation? Why did He first give it to the seven nations, forcing the Jewish people to conquer it?
The answer involves the mission of every single person in his or her personal “Holy Land.” The Almighty desired that the Jewish people conquer the Land and transform its very physical atmosphere into the “Holy Land.” Transforming the Land from a regular land to the Holy Land was part of the divine plan.
And this was to impress an important message: A person may tend to consider one’s personal life and spiritual life as two separate entities. There are times, such as during prayer or Torah study, when an individual serves the Almighty. Then there are times when people are engaged in mundane physical activities, such as eating, sleeping, business dealings, and so forth.
At its very beginning, in Genesis, the Torah is clear about the mission and focus of this world: One must “conquer” all parts of one’s personal “land” and transform all of it into a “holy land.” In reality, no separation exists between the physical and spiritual. They work in tandem.
It is true that the Almighty created a world that seems, on the surface, to have a division between the physical and spiritual. In reality, though, the Almighty created them both so that the human being can infuse spirituality even into the most mundane situation.
There is nothing stolen and nothing robbed. All is by Heavenly design.
The nations of the world, however, also want a part of the spirituality of the Holy Land. While on the surface their claim is how that this land was “stolen” from other nations, in reality, it has never not been the Holy Land and the Land of Israel. If the nations of the world would only get more in touch with their spiritual side, they would, instead, appreciate the spirituality and holiness of the Land, and translate it into a positive message in their own lives.
Very soon the time will come when all the Jewish people, still scattered throughout the world, will be gathered together and taken to the Holy Land, the Land of Israel, when the ultimate transformation will occur, as the entire world transforms into what it was designed to be: A place for the holiness of the Almighty to shine and permeate at its strongest.
SUMMARY: After the nation of Israel settled the Holy Land of Israel, it has always remained the Holy Land of Israel. It is up to all people to transform their own ‘land’ into ‘holy.’