Be Totally Faithful and Pure to Hashem


Given that settling and building the Land of Israel "builds His upper chambers in the Heavens" 30 and causes the unification of ze'ir v'nukba, as we wrote above in the name of Shaar HaPsukim, and causes unification in all the worlds, it is beyond man's ability to adequately explain the power and importance of this great matter.  Similarly, there is no way that a person can recount all the praise that we and the Land deserve when we live there.  Furthermore, it is even possible to superficially portray this matter in the opposite fashion, just like the student who can find 150 ways to deem a reptile kosher. 


We will therefore simply note here two passages from the Holy Zohar, and whomever G-d has granted understanding, and whose soul receives emanation from the source of holiness, will know and understand that everything is dependent upon our pure relationship with G-d and the fulfillment of the verse, "Be totally faithful and pure before Hashem" (Dvarim 18,13).


The first passage 31 tells us that G-d's began the commandments with a positive command, "I am the Lord your G-d," 32 that of belief, and similarly began his commands to Abraham with the positive command Lech Lecha, to go to the Land of Israel. 


The second passage is this: 33

Rebi said: The verse "One who walks purely," 34 juxtaposed with the command to know that "I am the Lord your G-d,"  35 teaches that a person must accept upon himself the yoke of G-d's kingship, and that he has no right to contemplate that which he cannot grasp. This is the implication of "I am the Lord your G-d" and you have no right to ponder that which you are not permitted. 


Based on these quotes from Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, we understand that the commandments of accepting G-d and of going to the Land, as well as the verse describing one who dwells in G-d's tent as one who "walks purely," are all interconnected.  He who does not walk purely can also not fulfill the command of Lech Lecha nor that of I am the Lord your G-d, for they are all interdependent.


The Medrash Rabba 36 states: "If your children enter the Land, they will receive My G-dship, and if they do not enter, they will not receive it." And the author of Ohr HaChama 37 explains why the Jews have no foothold outside the Land:

"This is why [the Sages teach that] one who lives outside the Land is like one who has no G-d - he is lower than a non-Jew, because a non-Jew at least has a ministering angel as his authority, under the auspices of external forces and the impure air of the nations' lands, where the external ministers rule.  But Israel can have no foothold outside the Land of Israel, because though he is holy, the land outside Israel is impure, therefore he has no ruler and no minister, and he is left powerless."


And the Gaon Ya'avatz wrote in the Siddur he published: 

"Israel is called the 'G-d's inheritance,' and the Land is also His inheritance, and the Torah is found in both - in G-d's people on G-d's land. In truth, he who abandons one, abandons the other."

  1. 30.Amos 9, 6

  2. 31.Zohar Shmot, page 276a

  3. 32.Shmot 20, 2

  4. 33.Zohar Chadash, Vayetze page 27

  5. 34.the description in Psalms 15,2 of one who dwells in G-d's tent

  6. 35.Shmot 20, 2

  7. 36.Breishit 46

  8. 37.to Zohar, Yitro 79



FOOTNOTES

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