The Great Mitzvah of Living in the Land of Israel


It is written in the work Birkat Haaretz: 111

...We have written already that there is no mitzvah [Torah commandment] that applies every place, at all times, at every hour and minute of the day and night, whether he is awake or sleeping – other than the mitzvah of living in the Land of Israel. Similarly, there is no good deed that is comparable to this one… (See there at length.)


And so did the Gaon of Vilna write as well:

There are no mitzvot into which a person places his entire being, except for two: being in Jerusalem, and living in a Sukkah on Sukkot. The sign for these is the verse 112 ויהי בשלם סוכו, alluding to Shalem, an early name for Jerusalem, and the next word suko, referring to Sukkah.


Who can hear these ideas and still remain living in chutz laaretz, bound up with the sitra achra, the Other Side?  How fortunate is the man who merits to personally fulfill this verse:


מי יתן לי אבר כיונה אעופה ואשכונה

Would that I had wings like a dove to fly and live 113


-- to fly and live in the Land of Israel.  Let us see what is written in the the work Shaar HaHatzer (Gateway to the Courtyard):

The Medrash teaches that G-d originally told Abraham to go just to see the Land of Israel and then return - and after he returned, G-d did not allow him to go back for another five years.  Throughout those five years, Abraham longed to go back to the Land, reciting these verses:  “Would that I had wings like a dove to fly and live; I would wander far, and lodge in the wilderness” – meaning, "It is better to sleep in wilderness of the Land of Israel, and not in the palaces of chutz laaretz."  Abraham was most anxious to return to the Land, and when he was finally given permission, the Torah tells us, “Abraham went, as he was commanded to by G-d.”  Before he first saw the Land, he did not lust for it, but after he arrived and saw prophetically the grandeur of its holiness, his longing was aroused.  Therefore, let us learn from him, for all generations: We, Abraham’s descendants, must long for the Land just like he did – even though those who presently dwell there are enduring difficulties, we will still be happy and accept the Land's tribulations with joy.


  1. 111.The Blessing of the Land, page 23

  2. 112.Tehillim 76,3

  3. 113.Tehillim 55,7




FOOTNOTES

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