Go and Take Possession of the Land 

And I am in the Exile 

In my latest trip to the Diaspora, I visited many communities in France. I met Jews who felt very persecuted and frightened, the ground under their feet unstable. This situation is shared by many Jews throughout the world. Antisemites have come to power in France, and in its neighbor, England, the change of government doesn’t bode well. 

Every place I came to, I did my best to strengthen the people and teach them the perfect emuna (faith) that Hashem will do only good for us and will never abandon the Jewish People, and that we have no one to depend upon except our Father in Heaven. But at the same time, I called to them there, and I will continue to call here to all Jews in the world, to immigrate to the Land of Israel. 

This message is true for all of us: We, too, who are living in the Holy Land, must participate in the great effort to bring all Jews to Israel. And the effort on our part is mainly through our obligation to pray, as we wrote last week. We must know that an inseparable part of prayer for the Jewish People is the prayer for diaspora Jews, that Hashem should protect them wherever they are, and that He should awaken them all to come on Aliyah to the Land of Israel and grant them the willingness and the ability, all the conditions and the agreement of all family members to come on Aliyah to Israel soon. It is not for nothing that we pray three times a day about the gathering in of the exiles. 

Because all of us must understand, on the one hand, the tremendous danger that is threatening Jews all over the world – both a material and a spiritual threat. Jewish institutions and shuls throughout the world are receiving the highest level of threats. On the other hand, we must understand the tremendous difficulty involved in coming on Aliyah. For many Jews this is an extremely difficult step to take. It is very hard to leave large and beautiful homes, and jobs, good living conditions, household help, institutions, society, language, and a familiar culture – and to move to the Land of Israel and start life anew. For us, too, who live here, it is very difficult to find apartments and jobs; for diaspora Jews it is certainly hard, then. And therefore, we must help them with our prayers! 

Love of the Land 

Therefore, the first thing to pray for is the desire to make Aliyah! On the one hand, we, in Israel, must pray that all Jews will have the desire to come on Aliyah, and we must pray for ourselves as well, that we will be able to appreciate the merit of living in the Land of Israel. And, on the other hand, the diaspora Jews should pray that they will long for the Land of Israel and will want to and yearn, to the best of their ability, to make Aliyah.  

Even someone who doesn’t see any chance of coming on Aliyah, even if he doesn’t see any way that he can make a living and purchase an apartment in Israel, and even if part of his family is totally against coming on Aliyah – still, in any case one can always want to! Who is preventing you from wanting? Who is preventing you from asking Hashem that you be given a strong and real will? True, it is forbidden to force things on other family members, and so one must pray that all family members, children included, will want to come on Aliyah.  

Don’t confuse ability and desire. Under no circumstances should you stop wanting. For sure, sooner or later the desire will produce results, because the way a person wishes to go is the way that he is led. And the yearning for the Land of Israel is a positive thing, and has tremendous segulas, affecting both material and spiritual things. In the material – it is brought in Sefer Hamiddot: “Thanks to the yearning that a person yearns to come to Eretz Yisrael – by that yearning one receives an abundance of parnasa (livelihood).” ¹ 

And, of course, the same thing is true about spiritual matters. There are countless sources for the fact that all the kedusha (holiness) and emuna (faith) and prayers, open Divine Providence and good middot (traits) are rooted in the kedusha of the Land of Israel. Because the Land of Israel is not a physical place; rather, it is the only spiritual place that can provide the Jewish People with the ability to thrive spiritually. 

Rabbi Nachman says: “Every person must ask from Hashem yitbarach (May He be blessed) that he feels yearning and longing for the Land of Israel. And, that all the tzaddikim should long for the Land of Israel, and this is a segula against anger and sadness… in other words, we ask for and long for the Land of Israel, and that way we are granted emuna…” ² 

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Bender would encourage the avreichim (married students) to remember every minute that they are in the Land of Israel and to be happy to have that merit, and to think: “I am walking in the Land of Israel, I am learning, praying, doing mitzvot, busy with chessed (acts of loving kindness), eating and sleeping – in the Land of Israel.” And he even said, “You can test me on this: When you think about the Land of Israel at every free moment – you will experience a great spiritual illumination and great success in all your service of Hashem!” 

We have a general rule, that anyone who yearns for something holy – even if he doesn’t actually receive it – that holy thing begins to illuminate him and influence him! And therefore, even someone who is still in the diaspora, if he manages not to distract himself and every moment that he does remember he yearns for the holiness of the Land of Israel – he too will merit a “shot” of increasing emuna and tefilla, and will produce real chiddushei Torah (new insights in Torah) and in everything connected with serving Hashem.

The Land is Very, Very Good 

Therefore, we must first of all pray for the will, but we must also pray for all the details and the details of the details, and ask Hashem to build us soon millions of apartments that will be ready to receive all those millions of Jews, and that all of them – parents, children, and youths – will have communities, shuls, educational institutions, good sources of income, jobs, and vessels to absorb the material good and the spiritual good; and that all the immigrants will be received with love and joy and welcoming smiles. And when they arrive here, all of them will merit, together with all the residents of the Holy Land, to connect to the holiness of the Land of Israel, and that the light of emuna and tefilla will shine upon them and us to a greater extent and with greater power. 

And it is clear as light that the Land of Israel is the safest place for Jews in the whole world. 

The more Jews who live in the Land of Israel, the more the Land’s kedusha shines, and this means that the holy emuna shines more, and that the tefilla shines more, and that we merit great, unnatural miracles, and then, of course, the Jewish People are much better protected. 

And that is the thing that brings the Geula (Redemption) closer the most, because “the main [cause of] galut (exile) is only lack of emuna”, and the Land of Israel and emuna, tefilla (prayer) and miracles are one thing, as brought in Likutei Moharan (Kitzur Likutei Moharan, 7): “Prayer and miracles and the Land of Israel are all one aspect and they all depend on one another… the main point of emuna, the aspect of tefilla, the aspect of miracles is only in the Land of Israel… and this is the way the Geula will come.” 

It comes out that when we pray for the diaspora Jews to immigrate to Israel, we are actually praying for the complete Geula! 

And that is what we see in our parasha. Moshe bids farewell to the Jewish People before they enter the Land, while he is not going to enter it. He stands facing the Land of Israel and begins his great speech with a great rebuke of the people about the Sin of the Spies. He calls them to repair the sin of their forefathers who spurned the cherished land, and throughout the Torah he praises the Land and longs for it and prepares the Jewish people to live in it with emuna and connection to Hashem and His Torah. 

The Sin of the Spies caused a weeping lasting through many generations. That means that all of us still need to correct this sin. And as they spurned the Land of Israel – we must fix that sin and yearn for and want that Land, and pray and long for the kedusha of the Land of Israel and to do what we can to observe the mitzvah of living in the Land of Israel devotedly. 

We see with our own eyes how Hashem is building and developing the Land, and how much blessing there is in the Land, and it will be much, much better, and more and more natural resources will be discovered here and tremendous abundance. 

Therefore, there is no reason to be afraid, and all Jews should come on Aliyah to the Land of Israel. And the more Jews who come, the greater the blessing will be, and they will all live in abundance and in happiness, and the Beit Hamikdash (temple) will be built, and the Three Weeks will become a joyous time, Amen. 

Editor’s Note:

¹ Sefer HaMidot, “Land of Israel”, second part, number 3 

² Likutei Moharan I, 155:3