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By Rabbi Tuvia Bolton, Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim, Kfar Chabad, Israel

This week’s Torah reading praises the Land of Israel by saying (11:12): “A land that G-d watches constantly, the eyes of G-d are on it from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.”

Then later (11:21) it says if the Jews follow the Torah, then G-d will raise Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob from the dead and give them the Holy Land that He promised them (see Rashi there).

At first glance, all this is strange. First, what does it mean that G-d looks at Israel from the beginning of the year to the end? Why doesn’t it just say “constantly”?  And why does it say that if Jews do the commandments G-d will give Israel to Abraham etc. Won’t G-d give it to all the Jews? And what do the commandments have to do with raising the dead? And what will the dead do with Israel?

To understand this, here are two stories:

For the last 2,000 years Jews longed to live in Israel — the only real place for a Jew to live. But for 99% of them it was impossible.

Indeed, even the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Chassidut, and later the first Rebbe of Chabad, Rebbe Shneur Zalman, desired to move there (as did Moses in last week’s Torah portion) but they weren’t able to.

Once when a Chassid entered the room of the third Lubavitcher Rebbe; the ‘Tzemach Tzedek’ (around 200 years ago) and begged for permission to travel to the Land of Israel.

The Rebbe replied: “Make HERE (in Lubavitch) the Land of Israel!”

This seems to make no sense. Everyone knows that Israel is the holy land and Russia is definitely not. So how could the Rebbe tell his Chassid to treat Russia like Israel?

Everyone knows that Lubavitch is NOT Israel.

This next story might explain.

One of the most outstandingly holy rabbis of all time was the famous Moroccan-born Tzadik, Rabbi Yisroel Abuchatsera (a.k.a Baba Sali), of blessed memory, who lived in Israel and passed away some forty years ago.

He was an outstanding genius in all branches of the Torah but was famous for his miracles.

There are many stories of how his blessings made the blind see, the crippled walk, barren women fertile, and thousands of Jews to become truly G-d Torah observant.

Every day hundreds of people lined up at his door for blessings and one of them was Rabbi Shlomo Chazan.

Rabbi Chazan was a Torah genius with an unusually productive background in Morocco. When he moved from there to Israel, he was immediately chosen to be the dean (Rosh Yeshiva) of a well-known Torah institution in Haifa called Yeshiva Od Yosef Chai where he taught and raised hundreds of pupils that today are spiritual leaders all over the Holy Land.

Then he decided that the time had come to begin working with all types of Jews. He left his prestigious position and became the rabbi of the simple Israeli town of Shlomi and succeeded in transforming the entire place to a center of Torah and brotherly love.

But then, at the height of his career, tragedy struck.

He began feeling weak with terrible head and stomach pains. At first, he thought it was just flu or an allergy but the pain increased, spread through his entire body and only with the greatest difficulty was he able to function.

His doctor sent him to the hospital for thorough examinations and the diagnosis was the worst . . . he had an incurable disease and only a short time to live; in a matter of months, perhaps weeks his life would all be over.

He tried other experts and professors but they all said the same thing; the only thing that could be done was to alleviate the pain so his remaining time on earth would be bearable.

But as every Moroccan Jew knows; Tzadikim are more potent than doctors. So, with his last energy he asked his son Shlomo to take him to the great Baba Sali (Rabbi Abuchatsera) in the city of Netivot to ask for a blessing.

They stood in line and finally their turn came to approach the holy Tzadik. Rabbi Chazan spoke, making sure to stress the doctors’ prognoses and waited for an answer.

The Baba Sali looked at him deeply for several eternal seconds as though searching the Upper Worlds for an answer and finally replied:

“I can add one year to your life. One more healthy year.

“If you want more than that, then go to the Lubavitcher Rebbe in Brooklyn. He is the leader of this generation. He can certainly pray for you.”

His son bought two tickets, called the Rebbe’s office long distance to arrange a private meeting, and within a few days they were in Brooklyn entering the Rebbe’s room for a private audience with the Rebbe called “Yechidut”

Rabbi Chazan’s son told what happened next:

“When we entered the Rebbe’s room, I was overwhelmed in a way that I had never felt in my life. The Rebbe looked like an angel and his eyes were so penetrating that I was afraid to look into them. I was almost shaking but at the same time, I felt strangely at home. He listened closely to what my father said, then took a small stack of dollar bills, began handing them to my father one after another until he had given him seven, and concluded with “Blessings and Success!” Then, as we were about to leave, he counted out seven additional dollars into my hand and we left.

“Almost as soon as we were out of the Rebbe’s room, I could see a change in my father. He was happy, filled with life. At first, I thought it was psychological but it wasn’t just that.

“By the time we returned to Israel, my father was a new man; he was filled with energy and there was color in his cheeks. Before we went home, the first thing we did straight from the airport, was go to the Baba Sali and tell him what happened. And after few days, we returned to the doctors.

“The doctors simply couldn’t believe what they saw; the disease had completely disappeared! I remember them looking at the old reports and the new ones and scratching their heads in confusion. But my father just wrote a letter of thanks to the Rebbe, and went back to work.

“He understood he was living on a miracle and made use of every second. He wrote several books, built a new, large Mikveh for the people of Shlomi, and was even offered the position of being the chief rabbi of the third largest city in Israel, Haifa, which he considered taking.

But one day he unexplainably felt weak, was forced to lie down in bed, and a few hours later passed away. It was a shock to his family and to the people of Shlomi, but not a total shock:

He passed away precisely seven years to the day (!) that he received those seven dollars from the Rebbe’s hand.

This answers our questions about Israel, the Torah and the Jews.

The Land of Israel is special; it is the Holy Land, the eternal land. It is not just part of the Creation but reveals the Creator Himself. It is the foundation point from which the world was created, from which man was made, where the holy Temple will be built, and where even the dead will rise (see Rashi on Gen. 47:29).

Even today, all Jews face Jerusalem when they pray because it is the source of blessing and life for the entire world.

But as holy and alive as the Land of Israel is, the Jews are even more so.

That is why Moses broke the tablets and was willing to risk the entire Torah with everything in it, including G-d’s promises of the Holy Land, just to save the Jews. (And idolatrous ones at that)!

That is how the Tzadikim in our stories; Rabbi Abuchatsera and the Rebbe, could promise life and defeat death.

Adam, the first man, was created to live forever and again the Jews would have lived forever after Mount Sinai had they not sinned with idolatry; because the Creator is pure life and leaving the Creator is the opposite.

And so it is with every Jew potentially.

That is why the Torah says G-d’s eyes are on the Land of Israel from the beginning of the year to the end; it is referring to this new blessing of life begun each Rosh HaShana.

Every year, when Jews around the world sound the shofar at Rosh HaShana a new revelation of infinite life is drawn to the Land of Israel for the coming year and from there to the entire world (see Tanya, pg. 239).

And why will the Patriarchs be revived in Israel? Because as the ultimate Jews they will link and reveal the holiness of the G-d of Israel and the people of Israel to the Land of Israel.

But this will only happen through our efforts. We must try to make Israel everywhere (as the Tzemach Tzedik told his Chassid) and prepare the world for Moshiach. Because Moshiach and ONLY Moshiach will bring the Jews to Israel when the Great Shofar will be sounded by G-d Himself.

And the Lubavitcher Rebbe says this should happen at any moment. We are standing on the merits of thousands of years of Jewish hopes, prayers and suffering.   Now it could be that just one more good deed, word or even thought can bring …

Moshiach NOW!!

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