The Slow Road to Kedusha
A Blueprint for Settling Eretz Yisrael
Mishpatim is an interesting parashah.
It begins by outlining the laws that are essential for governing a society. These laws are a complex and legal framework that appears vital for teaching not only to the nations of the world, but particularly to our immediate neighbors. The parashah then transitions into discussing the mitzvos of Shemita and the major holidays.
The parashah proceeds to detail the blessings that will be bestowed upon those who adhere to these commandments:
הנה אנכי שלח מלאך לפניך לשמרך בדרך ולהביאך אל־המקום אשר הכנתי. השמר מפניו ושמע בקלו אל־תמר בו כי לא ישא לפשעכם כי שמי בקרבו. כי אם־שמוע תשמע בקלו ועשית כל אשר אדבר ואיבתי את־איביך וצרתי את־צרריך…. ועבדתם את יהוה אלהיכם וברך את־לחמך ואת־מימיך והסרתי מחלה מקרבך. לא תהיה משכלה ועקרה בארצך את־מספר ימיך אמלא… ושלחתי את־הצרעה לפניך וגרשה את־החוי את־הכנעני ואת־החתי מלפניך. לא אגרשנו מפניך בשנה אחת פן־תהיה הארץ שממה ורבה עליך חית השדה. מעט מעט אגרשנו מפניך עד אשר תפרה ונחלת את־הארץ. ושתי את־גבלך מים־סוף ועד־ים פלשתים וממדבר עד־הנהר כי אתן בידכם את ישבי הארץ וגרשתמו מפניך
I am sending a messenger before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have made ready. Pay heed to him and obey him. Do not defy him, for he will not pardon your offenses, since My Name is in him; but if you obey him and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes.
When My messenger goes before you and brings you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I annihilate them, you shall not bow down to their gods in worship or follow their practices, but shall tear them down and smash their pillars to bits.
You shall serve your God, who will bless your bread and your water. And I will remove sickness from your midst. No woman in your land shall miscarry or be barren. I will let you enjoy the full count of your days.
I will send forth My terror before you, and I will throw into panic all the people among whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn tail before you. I will send a plague ahead of you, and it shall drive out before you the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites.
I will not drive them out before you in a single year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply to your hurt. I will drive them out before you little by little, until you have increased and possess the land.
I will set your borders from the Sea of Reeds to the Sea of Philistia, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hands, and you will drive them out before you. You shall make no covenant with them and their gods. They shall not remain in your land, lest they cause you to sin against Me; for you will serve their gods—and it will prove a snare to you.
These pesukim have resonated deeply with me, and I must admit, it's not something I remember learning about previously. The question arises: Why, despite being deemed worthy of making Eretz Yisrael our home, did we not acquire the land all at once? Why was it that the land was only granted to us bit by bit? Additionally, how does this connect with the earlier part of the parashah, the mishpatim – the laws that lay the foundation for a healthy society and people?
I would like to suggest an explanation based on the words of Rav Moshe Dovid Vali and Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik.
Rav Vali raises a compelling question about the pasuk: "I will not drive them out before you in a single year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply to your hurt." Why can't the same Divine force that expels the nations from the land also eliminate the threat of wild beasts?
Rav Vali offers an insightful explanation. The power to sanctify the land and drive out evil stems from our own merits, accrued through dedication to Torah and Tefilla. As we accumulate these merits, we gain the capability to inherit more of the land and expel the negative forces within it. This process is gradual, reflecting our spiritual journey and growth.
In his 1956 essay Kol Dodi Dofek, Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik zt’l profoundly addressed the Jewish relationship with the land of Israel. He observed that the lack of Jewish settlement in areas like the Negev was a primary reason for the State of Israel's geopolitical vulnerabilities.
He wrote:
“All the trembling and fear for the geographical integrity of the State of Israel, all the suggestions of our enemies which are directed at territorial concessions by the State of Israel, and all of the brazen demands of the Arabs for boundary changes are based on only one fact: the Jews have not populated the Negev and established hundreds of settlements there. Had the Negev been settled with hundreds of thousands of Jews, even Nasser would never have dreamed of the possibility of rending it from the State of Israel. Wide and unpopulated expanses constantly and perpetually endanger the tranquility of the State.
Rav Soloveitchik connected this contemporary issue to our parashah, writing:
The Torah has already emphasized this notion when it states, “You shall not be allowed to quickly destroy them, so that the wild animals will not overwhelm you”1. The fact that the Jews have conquered the Negev is not enough, its settlement is what is important. The great sage Maimonides ruled that the first sanctification of the Land of Israel was not a lasting one because it was the result of a military conquest, which was annulled by the violent attack of an enemy whose army was vast and armaments numerous, who conquered the Land and took it from us. The second sanctification of the land, which was carried out through occupation and settlement by Divine sanction, through toil and sweat, was never annulled. The sanctity that is based on the settlement of the Land is, simply stated, for now and for all time!
We are terribly guilty for this gross negligence. American Jewry could have certainly accelerated the process of colonization. Yet, why should we examine the faults of others and place the responsibility on the shoulders of nonobservant Jews? Let us admit our own faults and confess to our own derelictions. Among the Jews of America, Orthodox Jews bear the most blame for the slow pace of the conquest of the Land through settlement. It was for us, the loyalists of Judaism, to heed the call of the Beloved more acutely, and to respond to it immediately with extraordinary effort. In commenting on the verse “And I shall lay desolate the land”2, Rashi states in the name of Midrash Torat Kohanim: “This is a boon to Israel, that its enemies will not find tranquility in its land when it shall be bereft of its true inhabitants.”
The Land of Israel cannot be built by any other nation or people. Only the Jewish people have it within their power to settle the Land and make its desolation blossom. The Creator’s promise was turned into a wondrous reality in different periods in the annals of the history of the Land of Israel. We cannot forget even for a moment, that the Land of Israel, like a magnet, attracted the nations of the world — both Christians and Muslims. The Crusades in the Middle Ages were undertaken with the purpose of conquering the Land of Israel and populating it with Christians. All the toil of the Crusaders was for naught. They did not strike roots in the Land. Even the indigenous Muslims did not succeed in properly settling the Land. It remained a barren desert, as is said, “And your land shall become a desolation”3. Even in modern times, when European nations, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, settled and populated entire continents, the Land of Israel remained desolate and in a more primitive state than its neighboring Arab lands: Egypt, Syria, and the Lebanon. Had the Land been settled by an industrious, successful, and cultured people, had the Land been properly populated and developed, our attachment to it would have been eroded by the course of events, and no Jewish foot would have trod upon it. Strangers would have eaten its bounty and its fruit, and our rights would have become null and void.
However, the Land of Israel did not betray the Jewish people. It was loyal to them, awaiting redemption throughout the years. Logic dictates, then, that when the Jewish community was given the opportunity to return to its Land — which had withheld its treasures from foreigners and stored them for us — Orthodox Jews should have hastened to perform so great a mitzvah, to plunge with joy and enthusiasm into the very midst of this holy work: the building and settling of the Land. However, to our regret, we have not reacted that way. When the “desolate one,” which longingly waited for us from era to era, invited us to come and redeem her from her desolation, and when the Beloved who watched over the desolation for almost nineteen hundred years, and decreed that during this time no tree should grow, and no wells should fructify the Land, beckoned at the door of the Lover, we the Orthodox Jews — the Lover — did not bestir ourselves from our beds to open the door for our Beloved. If we had contiguous settlements throughout the Land from Eilat to Dan, our situation would be very different.
Let us publicly and frankly confess: we complain about certain Israeli leaders and their attitude toward the values of our tradition and religious practice. The complaints are justified. We have serious charges against the secular leadership of the Land of Israel. However, are only they to be blamed, and are we as faultless and pure as the heavenly angels? Such an assumption is without foundation. We could have extended our influence and done something to shape the spiritual character of the Land if we had but hurried to awaken from our slumber and open the door for the Beloved who is knocking. I fear that we Orthodox Jews are still enveloped in sweet slumber.
If we were to establish more religious kibbutzim, if we were to build more housing for religious immigrants, if we were to establish an extensive system of schools, our situation would be completely different. Then there would be no need to come forward with complaints against the leaders of other movements… We must build not just a few small nooks, whose impact is unfelt, but central institutions throughout the length and breadth of America and the Land of Israel…. We have an obligation to purify those who are “outside the encampment,” who are situated in the huge camp of ignorance…
Do we not hear in our trembling over the safety and tranquility of the Land of Israel in our day, the beckoning of the Beloved who begs the Lover to let Him in? He has already been beckoning for eight years, and still He has not been properly responded to. Nonetheless, He continues to beckon. To our good fortune, our inherited Land has become more beautiful. The Beloved has not shown the Lover any favoritism, but He has compassion for her. The Beloved beckoned for only a short moment that night and disappeared, yet with us He has exhibited extraordinary patience. It is eight years that He has continued to beckon. Hopefully, we will not miss the opportunity!!”
By embracing the powerful ideas of Rav Soloveitchik and Rav Moshe Dovid Vali, we can understand that the blessings we yearn for will become accessible to us when we fully engage with the opportunities presented in Eretz Yisrael. As a people, we are rich with merits accumulated over generations. Rav Dessler4 quoting Rav Tzadok of Lublin5 suggests that by tapping into these collective merits, even a single, modest action on our part could be pivotal in achieving the necessary tikkun that we need.
Settling in Eretz Yisrael carries a profound responsibility. It is just about settling in the entire land, it is also about the responsibility to guide those who are distant from Torah and mitzvos towards a closer relationship with Hashem. Our mission is to help others comprehend the true essence of being a Jew, educating them about mitzvos and the mishpatim. By cultivating and inhabiting a society centered around Torah, we can bring a smile to the face of God. As we increase our merits through these endeavors, we pave the way for peace, security, and blessings in our cherished land.
Exodus 23:29
Leviticus 26:32
Leviticus 26:33
Michtav M’Eliyahu Vol. 4 Pg. 302
Sefer Poked Akarim
This was really stellar, Shui.