Zvi Fishman for Israel National News
When we hear the term ‘Buddhism’, images appear in our minds of a monk meditating passively in a secluded monastery located on a faraway mountain in Tibet.
In contrast, Torah is a code of life highlighted by action, and one of those actions, the most important one in fact, is that we are commanded to live in the Land of Israel and to do everything in our power to live in the Land of Israel.
‘Wait one minute’, you say. ‘Where are we commanded to live in the Land of Israel?’
The answer lies in the Torah Portion of Mas’e which we read two weeks ago. The Torah states in Bamidbar, the book of Numbers, ‘And you shall dispossess the inhabitants of the Land and dwell in it.’
Let me quote the words of HaRav Tzvi Yehuda Kook, of blessed memory, late head of the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem, the father of the settlement movement, and one of the most important Rabbis of modern times. Year after year he taught–
‘The commandment to settle the Land of Israel is a positive mitzvah of the 613 commandments of the Torah. All of the Poskim (the arbitrators of Torah Law), the Rishonim and Achronim (Early and Later Authorities) agree that the precept of conquering the Land applies IN ALL GENERATIONS, and all of them agree that it is a commandment of the Torah, i.e. ‘And you shall dispossess the inhabitants of the Land and dwell in it.’
‘We are therefore enjoined with two tasks: first, to possess the Land through conquest; and secondly, to dwell in the Land.’ This Land, which Hashem has promised to our forefathers, must be kept under our control and not under the control of any other Gentile nation. This is clearly meant in a national sense, for everyone understands that ruling a land means the establishment of a State in that land. Thus the establishment of Jewish sovereignty over the Land of Israel is a fundamental precept of the Torah.’
The Torah wasn’t given to us Jews so that it could be followed in Russia or America. The Torah isn’t a ‘religion’ like Buddhism or Christianity, God forbid. The Torah isn’t some abstract spirituality floating like a cloud in the sky. The Torah has an EARTHLY BASE, but not in Europe and not in the United States. The Torah is the DIVINE CONSTITUTION of the NATION OF ISRAEL, and every NATION needs its own LAND. And the holy CHILDREN OF ISRAEL have their own unique HOLY LAND.
What is the first and fundamental message that Moshe explains when he teaches the Torah to Am Yisrael? Not Shabbos. Not kashrus. ‘Do you want to know what Torah is?’ he asks them. ‘GO IN AND POSSESS THE LAND!’ That’s the basis of Torah. Only in the Holy Land will you be able to understand what the Torah is all about, and only there can all of the Torah be kept.’
This is the teaching which Moshe wanted to sink into our hearts, that we are to be our own HOLY NATION with our own HOLY LAND, and not to live as a minority in someone else’s country performing a small handful of religious precepts. That may be the Judaism of the exile, but it isn’t the Judaism of real Torah.
How fortunate we are that we now have the ability of carrying out this Torah commandment in our time, a mitzvah considered equal in weight to all the commandments of the Torah combined.