A Mitzvah to Believe in the Goodness of the Land


In the above work 127 we also read as follows:

I will raise my voice and cry out: Why do we not seek out and study the great advantages of dwelling in the Land of Israel?  Hear the words of the Shelah HaKadosh:

One must read the account of the sacrificial offerings of the 12 Princes of the    

Tribes 128 very carefully, even though each sacrifice is the same as all the others.

Because if there were no special deep secrets and meanings for each one, the

Torah would not have listed them all separately, but would have rather written

one account for all – for the Torah does not have a single unnecessary letter.


Given this, the Kedushat Haaretz continues, let us now see how many times the Torah repeats that the Land of Israel is good:

  1. •To bring them to that Land, a good and broad land (Shmot 3),

  2. •Allow me to pass and see the good Land (Dvarim 3,25),

  3. •For you are passing through and you will inherit this good Land (ibid. 4,22),

  4. •So that it will be good for you and you will come and inherit this good Land (ibid. 6,18),

  5. •For Hashem your G-d brings you to a good Land (ibid. 8,7),

  6. •You will eat, be satiated, and bless Hashem your G-d upon the good Land He has given you (ibid. 8,10),

  7. •The good Land that G-d has given you (ibid. 11,17),

  8. •Keep and seek out all the commandments of Hashem your G-d, in order that you will inherit the good Land (Chronicles 1 28,8).


It is clear from these repetitions and the emphasis on how good our Land is that we must believe that living in the Land of Israel is good, just like we believe that sitting in a Sukkah or putting on tefillin is the eternal good. 


For this precisely was the sin of the generation of the 12 Spies, for sending the scouts and not believing in G-d Who said that He had given them a good land. This was such a terrible sin that Hashem vowed that that generation would not enter the Land.  And the same is true now for whoever does not believe the words of our Sages when they said that we must live in the Land even when it is desolate, and even in a town that is mostly Gentile, as opposed to living in a mostly Jewish town in chutz laaretz.


  1. 127.Kedushat Haaretz, page 11

  2. 128.Bamidbar 7


FOOTNOTES

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