Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world, and He stood within it and created all its lands. He created Switzerland, Austria, Italy, and all the beautiful lands you know – Canada, the United States, and I cannot list them all because they are numerous. All the beautiful countries that everyone flocks to, only to then get stuck there in the end! Look at the beautiful Switzerland – Baruch Hashem everyone who travels there sees how beautiful that land is and how much water it has! Every courtyard there has a stream; here, you need to travel six kilometers to find a trickle of a spring. There, Baruch Hashem, every house has half of Niagara Falls!
So, this is what Hakadosh Baruch Hu created in the world. And from all that He created in the world, the Midrash says, Hakadosh Baruch Hu took a tithe and said, “Eretz Yisrael is Mine. This is the most beautiful land of all I have created in the world!” Chazal say that after He set aside Eretz Yisrael, He said, “Now I will set aside Yerushalayim from within Eretz Yisrael.” And after He set aside Yerushalayim from Eretz Yisrael, He set aside the place of the Beit Hamikdash. Chazal say He created the entire world with all that is in it, all the most beautiful things which you know, and He said, “From all that I created, the most refined is Eretz Yisrael.”
The Midrash continues and says that so too, He created all the nations. He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of Bnei Yisrael. How many were Bnei Yisrael when they went down to Egypt? Seventy. How many nations did He create in the world? Seventy. Very good. He created the Americans with Trump, together with Putin from Russia, together with Macron from France, who gets abused. All of them, one after another, created together. From all of them, whom did He choose? He chose Am Yisrael. Am Yisrael with all of its members, all together – leftists and rightists, and whatever you want, all of them together. He looked at them all together and said, “This is the best for Me.” This, everything you see here, is the best. This is what Hakadosh Baruch Hu chose for Himself. And from all of Am Yisrael, the Midrash says, He singled out whom? Shevet Levi. And from Shevet Levi, He singled out what? Aharon and his sons. And He sanctified them, anointed them, and honored them with the garments of the Kehuna, with the Tzitz, and with the Urim v’Tumim. Aharon would then stand before Hakadosh Baruch Hu and atone for Bnei Yisrael every year. It emerges, Rabbotai, that from all the nations He created, Hakadosh Baruch Hu chose Am Yisrael. And from all the lands He created, He chose Eretz Yisrael. (Additionally, He created seven days in the week and chose Shabbat.)
If so, Rabbotai, after we have reviewed this, the sefer Ohr HaTorah says something wonderful. After choosing the chosen land, Eretz Yisrael, what does Hakadosh Baruch Hu want to do now? To connect the chosen nation, Am Yisrael, to Eretz Yisrael, and unite them to dwell in one place. That is what Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants. To make a wedding, so to speak, connecting Eretz Yisrael with Am Yisrael. This is the will of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. He wants us to make a wedding – and where will the wedding be? In Eretz Yisrael! Where? Wherever you want!
Now Hakadosh Baruch Hu looks at everything happening around. The groom, Am Yisrael, comes and says, “Wait, I first want to see the bride.” “You want to see the bride?! I chose you from all the seventy nations and from all the seventy lands, I chose this one!” Rabbotai, you still go to see the bride? “I don’t understand what you’re doing here,” says Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Therefore, the Zohar says, one who speaks about Eretz Yisrael speaks about Hakadosh Baruch Hu Himself! When the spies spoke against the holy land, it is as if they spoke against Hakadosh Baruch Hu. One who speaks about Eretz Yisrael speaks about Hakadosh Baruch Hu, because this land is a desirable, good, and spacious land; a land that Hakadosh Baruch Hu desires above all other lands. And this people is the beloved people that Hakadosh Baruch Hu loves above all other nations. And you, who take Am Yisrael and connect it to Eretz Yisrael – this is the most perfect connection that can exist between them. The moment you speak about Eretz Yisrael, you are not speaking about trees and stones. It is as if you’re saying Hakadosh Baruch Hu chose for us a land that is not good. The harm in these words is to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, as if you are saying that He made a poor choice and gave us the worst land there is.
