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Rabbi Hershel Schachter

Kedushat Eretz Yisrael

he kedushat haAretz of Eretz longitude on the globe. The Rambam’s Rav Soloveitchik explained that there
Yisrael is the source of many opinion is that this kedushat makom was a major difference between the
Tof the dinim that make Eretz is an everlasting one. The edifice settlement of Eretz Yisrael in the
Yisrael unique – the ץ ֶ ר ָ א ָּ ב תֹויּול ְּ ת ַ ה תֹוו ְ צ ִ מ, of the Beit HaMikdash, along with kedusha sheniya as opposed to that
agricultural mitzvot dependent upon the vessels therein, may have been during the kedusha rishona. The First
the Land. These include the mitzvot stripped of their kedusha based on Beit HaMikdash was built many years
of terumah, ma’aser, shemitta, yovel, the verse, ָ הּו ֽ ל ְּ ל ִ ח ְ ו םי ִ צי ִ ר ָּ פ ּ ה ָ ב־ּוא ָ בּו – after the conquest of Yehoshua. For
leket, shichecha, peah, and challah. “And lawless people came into [the this reason, Yehoshua first endowed
Sanctuary] and profaned it.” Indeed, all of Eretz Yisrael with its kedusha,
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The Rambam writes that the original the Gemara applies this principle
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kedushat Eretz Yisrael, endowed by to the stones of the mizbeach, which and Shlomo, at a later time, endowed
Yehoshua bin Nun, was nullified when were defiled by the Greeks when they the Beit HaMikdash with its kedusha.
the Babylonian armies conquered the seized control of the Beit HaMikdash. Therefore, we understand that
Land at the time of the first churban. Yet, the kedushat makom of the kedushat Eretz Yisrael and kedushat
The Rambam explains that this was makom haMikdash endures. HaMikdash are two distinct kedushot.
because the original kedusha was a However, just the reverse was true
result of the kibbush (conquest) of the To account for the eternal nature of in the days of Ezra. First the Beit
Land, and this was undone upon the the kedusha of the makom haMikdash, HaMikdash was erected, and only
subsequent Babylonian conquest. the Rambam offers his famous then did the people settle around it.
explanation:
However, the kedusha sheniya, the The yishuv began in Yerushalayim
kedushat Eretz Yisrael effected by Ezra הָני ִ כ ְ ׁ ּ ש ַ ה יֵנ ְּ פ ִ מ םִי ַ ל ָ ׁשּורי ִ ו ׁש ָ ּ ד ְ ק ִּ מ ַ ה ת ַ ׁ ּ ש ֻ ד ְּ ק ֶ ׁש י ִ פ ְ ל and then extended further outward.
when the Jewish people returned from .ה ָ ל ֵ ט ְּ ב ּ הָני ֵ א הָני ִ כ ְ ׁשּו Therefore, the second kedusha of Eretz
galut Bavel, was everlasting, never to Because the kedusha of the Mikdash Yisrael was really an expansion of
be undone. The Rambam formulates and Yerushalayim is based on the [fact the kedushat haMikdash. This form
a reason for this difference based on that, in that place, G-d settled His] of settlement is what the Rambam
the fact that the kedusha sheniya did Shechina, and the Shechina cannot be meant with his application of the term
not depend on kibbush haAretz. In nullified. “chazaka” to Ezra’s kedusha sheniya,
fact, there was no kibbush at this time. and this is why that kedusha was not
An independent Jewish government in The verse states, ה ֽ ֹ ּ פ ד ַ ע י ֵ ד ֲ ע י ִ ת ָ חּונ ְ מ תאֹז nullified by the Roman occupation
Eretz Yisrael was not established until ָ הי ִֽ ת ִּו ִ א י ִּ כ ב ֵ ׁש ֵ א – “This is My resting of Eretz Yisrael. Just as the kedushat
the days of the Chashmonaim in the place forever and ever; here I will HaMikdash, based on hashra’at
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middle of the Second Temple period, dwell, for I have desired it.” The haShechina, remains even after the
200 years later. Instead of kedushat Shechina was unaffected by enemy churban haBayit, so too, the kedushat
haAretz resting on the conquest of conquest; it always remained in the haAretz of Ezra, an extension of that
the Land, it rested on “chazaka” – makom haMikdash. Therefore, the kedushat HaMikdash, is everlasting. 5
settlement, a term coined by the kedusha of the makom haMikdash –
Rambam himself. and of Yerushalayim as an extension Adapted from Rav Schachter on the Moadim.
of kedushat haMikdash – remains
Why is this a valid explanation of the intact.
difference between kedusha rishona 1 Hilchot Beit HaBechirah 6:16.
and kedusha sheniya? The Rambam, in juxtaposing these 2 Yechezkel 7:22.
two halachot – Shlomo’s hakdasha 3 Avodah Zara 52b.
When Shlomo HaMelech first built of the makom haMikdash and Ezra’s 4 Tehillim 132:14.
the Beit HaMikdash, he not only hakdasha of Eretz Yisrael – implies 5 See Nefesh HaRav, 1994 ed., pp. 76-77.
endowed the structure of the Beit perhaps that the reason the kedusha
HaMikdash itself with kedusha, but sheniya of Eretz Yisrael endures is Rabbi Hershel Schachter is Rosh Yeshiva
he also sanctified its geographic related to the everlasting nature of the and Rosh Kollel at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan
location – that particular latitude and kedushat HaMikdash. Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University
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