More than a space to simply reside, a home is where a person is entirely comfortable. It’s where the CEO kicks off his shoes and the boss lets down her hair after a day of back-to-back meetings, the hiker sheds his gear and takes a good foot-soak after a week on the trails, where the adolescent can pick through a plate of their favorite snacks when returning from a weekend sleepover.
In addition to holding unique spiritual significance in Jewish law and lore, the Land of Israel is where Jews feel a deep sense of belonging. This is the place where a Jew can be fully Jewish, without inhibition.
Since its inception, the Jewish nation has been tied to the Land. Avraham, the first Jew, is given his first mission by G-d: leave your hometown, birthplace, and extended family behind to travel to an unknown land that I will show you. Then, at every step, G-d reaffirms His promise of the Land to Avraham. He instructs him to walk its length and breadth, and links its acquisition with his most important life events and commitments, an enduring bond passed down through generations, from Avraham to his son Yitzchak and grandson Yaakov.
An Ever-Evolving Promise
Ramban explains that by constantly invoking the promise of the Land, G-d is expanding and elaborating its connection to Avraham’s destiny. First, He made a general statement: I will give you the land. Then He defined its borders and promised to make it Avraham’s and his descendants. Further in his commentary, Ramban explains that later in Avraham’s life, G-d even said, “I gave it,” declaring that the land already belongs to Avraham and, by way of inheritance, to every Jew.
Avraham’s progeny may be driven from the land through persecution and threatened with extinction, but through it all, they will endure and remain connected to their eternal homeland, where they will eventually return.
Following an excruciating exile in Egypt, Moshe led the Jews on a forty-year journey through the wilderness, accompanied by Divine intervention and extraordinary miracles, to the precipice of the Land promised to their forefathers hundreds of years before. Yehoshua finally takes them across the Jordan River, to battle and eventually settle the territories of the seven nations of Canaan. Is this the moment when G-d’s promise to Avraham is fulfilled? What of the remaining three promises?
Back Better than Ever
Israel flourishes today under the renewed presence of the Jewish nation in their homeland, a miracle of G-d’s care and safekeeping. This, however, does not sufficiently reach the many milestones outlined in biblical and halachic sources describing the times of Moshiach, which will usher in a whole new dimension of living on the holy soil.
On the level of observance, the Holy Temple will be rebuilt in the days of Moshiach, enabling the Jewish nation to perform all the mitzvot that relate to the Holy Land that cannot be fulfilled today. The political landscape will drastically change as the Davidic monarchy will be restored. And geographically as well, the parameters of the land will expand to the territories of the remaining three nations promised by G-d to Avraham, as quoted in the above commentary by Rabbi Saba.
Who are “Keni, Kenizi, and Kadmoni,” the nations whose lands the Jewish people will inherit in the future? Included in the names offered by various Jewish sages are Carthage, Thrace, Arabia, and Asia Minor, all territories that neighbor Israel. According to a majority of opinions, these three designations represent the non-Jewish nations that are related to Avraham. These are Edom, descended from Avraham’s grandson Esav, and Moav and Ammon, who were children of Lot, Avraham’s nephew and brother-in-law.
The Grand Finale
The stages of the promise of ever-expanding borders of Israel by the Jewish forefather Avraham, and the manner that this is reflected by the actual, historical attainment of these lands by his descendents, represent a unique spiritual exercise that every individual Jew can practice.
Jewish mysticism compares the human psyche to underdeveloped terrain. The seven lands conquered and settled in pre-Messianic times tells the story of a person’s struggle with working on their character: seven internal attributes (middot) that can be transformed from their potential for negative emotion—such as misplaced passions and fear—to healthy, G-dlike traits of wholesome love and veneration.
The final and most elusive traits of “Keni, Kenizi, and Kadmoni” represent the work of grappling with the mind: channeling three levels of mental processing (wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, known in Kabbalah as mochin) that are driven by prejudice and the limits of the human experience to a Divinely influenced consciousness. This most difficult—and rewarding—endeavor is a Messianic feat.
G-d’s promise to Avraham of the Jewish people’s settlement in their homeland is yet to be fulfilled in its entirety; Israel of the future will expand to encompass the lands of all ten nations.
With the coming redemption from exile, the neighboring lands will be transferred to the Jewish people—ungrudgingly and peacefully.
You can build the ultimate Land of Israel in your heart—and also in your own home. The secret to this miniature Israel is to create an environment where it is natural to act Jewishly. Put up a mezuzah, study Torah books in the office or den, introduce a charity box in every room—make your home Divine.
SOURCES & FURTHER READING:
- Bereishit Rabbah, Parsha 44:13
- Talmud Yerushalmi, Masechta Challah 2:1
- Maamarei Admur Haemtzai Vol. 11, Al Tatzeir Et Moav
These lands were entrusted to those nations until the coming redemption from exile, when they will be transferred to the Jewish people—ungrudgingly and peacefully—for it will be a time when the world will recognize the abiding nature of G-d’s word.
Dedicated by Yossi and Yael Michelashvili In memory of his father R. Avraham ben R. Eliyahu 25 Elul, 5780
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