Devar/5770/Ekev
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< Devar | 5770
עברית
English
For the LORD your God brings you into a good land (Deut 8:7)
It continues: a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths, springing forth in valleys and hills (ibid). a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig-trees and pomegranates; a land of olive-trees and honey (ibid 8). a land wherein you shall eat bread without scarceness, you will not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you may dig brass (ibid 9).
Moshe, who had never seen the land which the Children of Israel were to inherit, depicts it by means of God's words. Therefore, his testimony is more accurate than that of the spies, who saw the Land with their own eyes but did not gain any wisdom from what they saw. And our own people today who are still scattered to the ends of the Earth -- a substantial portion of them still see the Land through the spies' eyes rather than through God's. That is to their great detriment and -- God forbid! -- ultimately their destruction. Because there is only one single place in the entire world which is set aside for the Children of Israel -- the Land of Israel. Everywhere else we wander and migrate and cannot find a resting place -- and the reason is simple: none of those other places belongs to us in any way!
When we contemplate Moshe's description of the Land we need to pay special attention to two items. To the promise that "you shall not lack anything in it", and to the precondition to it all: And thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, to walk in His ways, and to fear Him (ibid 6). The word "For" in our verse connects between this condition and the beautiful description, informing us that if we become wise and follow His commandments, may He be blessed, then we will inherit the good Land. Therefore it is important for we who follow the Torah to help our fellow Jews to return to the Torah, and even more importantly that we be very careful regarding all God's commandments -- so that we may sit securely, forever, on our Land.
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