A Little in the Land of Israel is Worth More than the Abundance of Abroad


The Medrash Yalkut Shimoni teaches: 105

               It is better to have dry bread and serenity in there than a house full of offerings of strife. Rav Yochanan said: This means that even if one eats only bread and salt every day, but lives in the Land, he will merit the World to come – as opposed to one who lives outside the Land, which is full of strife, robbery and theft. 


The work Zimrat HaAretz 106 on the above Medrash teaches us the greatness of dwelling in the Land of Israel – even though more physical abundance may be found abroad:

This means that at the current time, due to our sins, the lowly servant girl – namely, the area outside the Land of Israel – has assumed all the abundance of blessing, while her mistress, the Land of Israel, receives only a little bit.  Yet despite this, the small amount that comes to the holy air of the Holy Land is much preferred over the abundance in chutz laaretz via the defiled air under the auspices of the Ministers of the Gentiles.  The is the meaning of “it's better to eat dry bread” - because the world's very  existence is due to the merit of whatever Torah study and good deeds are done in Israel, while all the Torah and deeds that are accomplished outside the Land are stolen and waylaid by the impure ministers.  This is the meaning of the verse, "The gold of the Land is good" 107 – there is no Torah like the Torah of the Land of Israel, and there is no wisdom like the wisdom of the Land of Israel.


  1. 105.Medrash Yalkut Shimoni, Mishlei 17, 956

  2. 106.The Bounty of the Land, page 4

  3. 107.Breishit 2,12




FOOTNOTES

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