FOR THE COMMANDMENT THAT I COMMAND YOU THIS DAY:

IT IS NOT TOO EXTRAORDINARY FOR YOU,

IT IS NOT TOO FAR AWAY!

IT IS NOT IN THE HEAVENS, FOR YOU TO SAY:

WHO WILL GO UP FOR US TO THE HEAVENS AND GET IT FOR US

AND HAVE US HEAR IT, THAT WE MAY OBSERVE IT...

RATHER, NEAR TO YOU IS THE WORD, EXCEEDINGLY,

IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART, TO OBSERVE IT!

(Devarim 30)

 

"It Is Not In the Heavens - Near to You Is the Word"

"It is not in the heavens... And it is not across the sea" - "It is not in the heavens" - if it is in the heavens, you must climb up after it, and if it is across the sea - you will have to cross it to attain it.

Rabba said: "It is not in the heavens" - You will not find it in whoever sets himself above it like the heavens [i.e., not needing a teacher] and it will not be found in who sees himself wider than it like the sea.

Rabbi Yochanan said: "It is not in the heavens" - it will not be found among the arrogant, "and it is not across the sea" - it will not be found among merchants and peddlers.

 (Bavli, Eruvin 55a)

 

"It is not in the heavens" - The understandings and the actions to which it refers are not in the realm of the superhuman, the celestial; all the divine revelations necessary for its understanding and observance have already been given in full, and nothing remains of them in the heavens. Therefore you cannot say: Where can be found that man with superhuman spirit who will penetrate for us the secrets of heaven, or will bring down from heaven a new revelation which will complete our comprehension...

"For near to you is the word, exceedingly" - The subject and the substance of Torah is very close to you; it is closer to you than anything else, for you yourself are the subject of Torah, and your worldly life is its substance. If you wish to understand the two, delve deep into your inner heart and see with open eyes your worldly-human relations...

Three times these words "They are not in the heavens" guard the Torah against whomever claims that he has merited a supernatural enlightenment or a divine revelation, and, on the basis of that enlightenment or revelation, he presumes to influence the Torah and its students.

 (Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch, Devarim 30:12-14)

 

 

 

ERETZ YISRAEL: THE HOLY LAND,

OR A LAND WHICH IS AN OBSTACLE TO HOLINESS

Danny Statman

At the end of his life, before Israel's entry into the Land - denied to him - Moshe reemphasizes the reward awaiting those who observe the Torah:

"See, I set before you today life and good, and death and ill: in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments, his laws and his regulations, that you may stay alive and become many and the Lord your God may bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. Now if your heart should face about, and you do not hearken... Perish, you will perish, you will not prolong days on the soil that you are crossing the Jordan to enter, to possess." (Devarim 30:15-18)

Eretz Yisrael is promised here as a place where God's blessing will rest upon the Jewish people, provided they walk in the ways of the Torah and observe its mitzvoth. To be more accurate: The land itself is a source of blessing - "flowing with milk and honey"(Parashat Vayelach, 30:20); it is also the place where the blessings (longevity, victory over enemies, rain in its season, etc.) will be realized. The wonderful qualities of the land described by the Book of Devarim are underlined in the well-known verses from Parashat Ekev:

"When the Lord your God brings you into a good land, a land of streams of water, springs and subterranean flows, issuing from valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, fruit of the vine, fig, and pomegranate, a land of olives, oil and honey. A land in which you will never eat bread in poverty, you will not lack for anything in it - a land whose stones are iron, and from whose hills you may hew copper: when you eat, and are satisfied, you are to bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you."

It seems that because of the severe water problems in Israel, and the influences of the political and economic situation, we tend to interpret these descriptions metaphorically; it is difficult to be impressed by the abundance of water in the streams and springs in the land, especially when we compare them with other countries. There are other countries much richer in agricultural and mineral resources. But there is no doubt that in the view of the Bible, these descriptions of abundant water, thriving agriculture, and rich mines, are to be taken literally. Eretz Yisrael is a wonderful country, flowing with milk and honey, which is promised to the nation as a fine reward if it fulfills the laws of the Torah and its commandments. Eretz Yisrael is a "good land", in the simple meaning of the words: a land that everyone would be happy to live in because of its physical qualities.

This image of the land is totally different from another prevalent image, the image of Eretz Yisrael as the Land of the Holy, or The Holy Land. According to this image, what is unique about this land is not its physical attributes (abundance of water, agriculture, mines) but its religious properties. According to this conception, Eretz Yisrael is not in the category of a reward, or bonus, for living a Torah life; it is an integral part of this life. According to the "good land" model, Eretz Yisrael is given as reward for living by God's word, and certainly this life is not dependent upon the land. In contrast, according to the "holy land" model, it is impossible to walk entirely in the ways of God without living in Eretz Yisrael. According to "the good land", the yearning for land has no more religious value than the yearning for health, victory in war, or rains in their seasons; there is no religious value in desire for the reward which the Torah promises for observance of the mitzvoth. In "The Holy Land" view, however, longing for the land clearly has religious value, for the land has unique religious and spiritual qualities which make possible or reinforce the observance of mitzvoth.

The verses in our parasha, as in many other places, highlight the fact that in the Bible, the prevalent model is not that of the "Holy Land", but that of the "good land". The term "land of holiness" does not appear even once, nor does "the holy land". We do find "the holy city" in reference to Yerushalayim (Isaiah 1), and "holy soil", that earth upon which Moshe stood before the burning bush. But Eretz Yisrael does not appear as the Holy Land: it appears as the good land - in the most earthy and physical sense of the term.

And yet more: not only is Eretz Yisrael not described as being permeated with sanctity, as preparing for, or making possible, a life of holiness. On the contrary - its physical excellence is presented as an obstacle to a life of holiness. Following the verses from Parashat Ekev quoted above, the Torah continues:

"When you eat and you are satisfied, you are to bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you. Take you care, lest you forget the Lord your God, by not keeping his commandments, his regulations, and his laws that I command you today, lest when you eat and are satisfied, and build goodly houses and settle there, and your herds and your flock become many and silver and gold become much for you, with all that belongs to you becoming much - that your heart become haughty and you forget the Lord your God, the one who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of serfs."

The physical blessings of Eretz Yisrael, the good houses, the herds and the flocks, the fine food, all these are more an impediment to a life of holiness than a condition for such life. The obstacle is tied to the danger of sinking into materialism, and even more, into haughtiness, "and your heart become haughty", which flows from the thought that "My power and the might of my hand have produced all this wealth for me" (8:17) This haughtiness is not distant from a phenomenon whose dangers the world learned on its own flesh in modern times, arrogant and ruthless nationalism. Excessive pride in material accomplishments and in the physical properties of the land in which one dwells is liable to lead to hubris and a lack of respect for other nations. In our case, it may interfere with the realization of the Torah's demands for law and justice, and for concern for the orphan and the widow. In this sense, too, the chosen land may turn into a kind trap from a religious point of view.

Throughout the generations, various approaches regarding the land have been offered; the holiness model prevailed, was developed, and gained many adherents. What I have attempted to show is that in the Bible it is davka the "good land" model which holds sway. And if this is the correct model for understanding the place of Eretz Yisrael in the Torah conception, then granting inherent value to Eretz Yisrael - certainly making it a central or supreme value - is, from a religious standpoint, a total aberration. To what may this be compared? To ascribing intrinsic religious value to the proliferation of sheep and cattle, or to the erection of lovely homes, or to the realization of any other blessing promised by the Torah. These blessings are supposed to be the reward for the real thing required, i.e., the observance of the mitzvoth; the blessings themselves have no independent value.

The 'good land' model has ramifications regarding religious expectations for the distant future. Since the most important thing, according to this model, is the occupation with Torah and mitzvoth, it is, then, this pursuit which fills the Geula picture and not material abundance, or national honor. Rambam phrased this idea in his well-known lines at the end of his "Laws of Kings":

"The Sages and the Prophets yearned for the days of the Messiah, not so that they may rule the world, not so that they reign over peoples, not so that they be uplifted by the nations, not so that they may eat, drink, and be merry, but so that they be free to engage in Torah and its wisdom, without a taskmaster to interfere, so that they merit the life of the World to Come, as we explained in "The Laws of Repentance" (13:4)."

In the light of all this, look at the strange situation in which those who observe the Torah find themselves today. In a generation in which atheism and corruption are on the increase in the nation which dwells in Zion, a large part of this public devotes its might not to repairing the religious and moral breaches, but to holding on to the land which is supposed to be the reward for proper religious and moral behavior! The Torah states again and again that this reward will be taken away from the people if they abandon the covenant ["So the anger of God flared up against that land, to bring upon it all the curse... So God uprooted them from their soil in anger, wrath, and great fury" (29:26-27)], and behold! instead of striving, in trepidation, to strengthen society, this sector, with conceit and self-confidence, devotes its efforts to the strengthening of settlement in the land, under the assumption that if the stakes tying us to the land are strong enough, God will not be able "to cast them into another land, as is this day" (Ibid.) Settlement on every mountain and under every verdant tree is especially problematic when it is accompanied - as often is the case - by acts of provocation and injustice; not only is this moral corruption, it also endangers the entire nation. This was the subject of the Yirmiyahu's famous prophecy "Under every high hill and under every verdant tree, you recline as a whore" (Yirmiyahu 2:20). There is no exaggeration in saying that, from the view of the 'good land' model - which is the model which Moshe presents before the entry into the land - we are caught up in a chaos of priorities gone awry.

Danny Statman in Professor of Philosophy in Haifa University

 

 

Prideful Leadership Leads To War

Said R' Yehuda to Rav: When Moshe, our teacher, was about to pass on to the Garden of Eden, he said to Yehoshua: Ask me all things of which you are in doubt. He replied, Rebbi, did I ever leave you for an hour to go elsewhere? Did you not write about me (Shemot 33), "But his attendant, Yehoshua son of Nun, a youth, would not stir out of the tent!?" Immediately Yehoshua became weak, and he forgot 300 laws, and 700 doubts arose, and all Israel rose up to kill him. Said to him The Holy One, Blessed Be He: To tell you all is impossible; go and keep them busy with war, as is written (Joshua 1): "After the death of Moshe the servant of the Lord..."

(Bavli, Temura 16a)

 

 "Righteousness and Justice Are the Base of Your Throne,

 Steadfast Love and Faithfulness Stand before You"

 (Psalms 89:15, Slichot service)

 

The story is told of King Mumbaz who spent all of his treasures in years of famine. His brothers told him: Your fathers hid treasures and increased those of their fathers, whereas you wasted all your treasures and those of your fathers.

He replied: My fathers hid treasures below, I hid them above, as is written "Truth springs up from the earth"; my fathers hid treasures in a place under human control, but I hid treasures in places not under man's control, as is written "Righteous and justice are the base of Your throne"; my fathers hid treasures which bear no fruit, but I hid treasures which bear fruit, as is written, "Hail the just man for he shall fare well, he shall eat the fruit of his works"; my fathers hid treasures of money, but I hid treasures of souls, as is written, "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; a wise man captivates people'; my fathers hid treasures for others, but I hid them for myself, as is written, "And it will be to your merit before the Lord your God"; my fathers hid treasures in this world, but I hid them in the world to come, as is written, "Your righteousness shall go before you."

(Tosefta Peah, 4:18)

 

It is known that Justice is the base of the throne of glory, as is written: "Righteousness and justice are the base of Your throne", and whoever establishes justice, establishes the throne. And whoever casts aside petitions for judgement or blemishes it blemishes the throne, and therefore Scripture reminds us that one who is not good will not merit the good mentioned in Psalm 31, "How abundant is the good that You have in store for those who fear You". With this, Shelomo teaches us that whoever shows favoritism in judgment is punished both in this world and the next. Justice is the reason for peace, and therefore we find that Yitro, in his advice he gave Moshe regarding judgment, mentions peace, as is written: "If you do thus in this matter when God commands you further, you will be able to stand, and also this people will come to its place in peace." The world exists because of peace. Therefore, judgment was assigned to the Sages, for the Sages increase peace in the world.

 (Rabeinu Bechayeh, Shemot 20:22)

 

 

 

 

Editorial Board: Pinchas Leiser (Editor), Miriam Fine (Coordinator), Itzhak Frankenthal and Dr. Menachem Klein

Translation: Kadish Goldberg

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