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Mizrachi Educators

Rabbi Reuven Taragin Rabbanit Shani Taragin

This Land is

OUR LAND

“We have not taken a foreign land, we do upon entry, but also to those who had Creation narrative as a rebuff of these
not hold the property of others. Rather, received the promise in Egypt. attacks. We are here because G-d put us
the Land is our ancestral inheritance here. Our mandate comes from Him.
taken from us lawlessly. When G-d gave Taken Lawlessly
us the strength, we returned it to us.” Tosafot (Bava Batra 44b) explain that, As we know, despite Rashi’s foresight,
(Maccabees 1:15:33-34) much of the world (especially those
even in exile, all Jews own a portion who do not recognize G-d as Creator)
his was Shimon HaMaccabee’s in the Land of Israel. Even though the does not accept his argument. Rabbi
response to Antiochus, who had Land had been physically taken from us, Tzvi Yehuda Kook said that Rashi’s
T demanded that the Maccabees the law is that ‘land cannot be stolen.’ explanation aims not to convince others
cede territory to him. (Sukkah 30b) but to fortify our own confidence in our
claims to Eretz Yisrael. This is implied
Much of the Torah is about the Jewish When G-d Gives Us Strength by the verse Rashi quotes: "The basis of
struggle to return to and settle in Eretz Ultimately, what makes the Land our His actions, He explained to His people."
Yisrael. But perhaps it is only after ancestral inheritance and not that of
the return from the first exile and the other nations, is that G-d destined it for Although we may not be able to
Maccabean struggle for independence us. Shimon HaMaccabee hints to this convince others of our Divinely-destined
that we fully appreciate the eternal ancestral home, our faith in this fact
nature of our relationship with the Holy by emphasizing that the retaking of the should buttress our confidence in the
Land is not the result of brute force or
Land. face of such claims.
political opportunity, but G-d giving us
Ancestral Inheritance the strength and capability. Shimon HaMaccabee knew this well.
This Chanukah let us too remember the
Jews may have been exiled and our This claim is supported by Rashi’s first heavenly historical basis of our return to
“
Land may have been taken from us – comment on the Torah: …If other and relationship with our Land and may
first by the Babylonians and then again nations accuse the Jews of being thieves it give us the strength to continue its
by the Romans – but it remained ours for taking the Land of the seven nations, redemption with G-d’s help and through
because it is our ancestral inheritance. they should respond by explaining that our own efforts.
This is the way G-d described the Land all the Land belongs to G-d. He created
of Israel to the Jewish people while it all and gives it to whom He sees as
they were still slaves in Egypt – v’natati deserving. Just as He once gave it to 1 “According to the names of the tribes of their
lachem morasha – I have given the Land them, He now took it from them and fathers they shall inherit” (Numbers 26:55), which
”
to you as an inheritance. (Exodus 6:5) gave it to us. teaches that the Jewish people would inherit Eretz
Yisrael according to the names of their fathers ie
Morasha actually means something you Living in a period where almost all Jews those who left Egypt (Bava Batra 117).
pass on to the next generation. Even lived far from Israel and where Muslims
before arriving in Israel, the Jewish and Christians were battling for its Rabbi Reuven Taragin is Educational
people owned it in a way that they could control, Rashi foresaw a time when Director of World Mizrachi and Religious
bequeath it to future generations. This Jews would return to Israel, control it Zionists of America–Mizrachi. He is also
is why upon entering the Land it was and be accused of thievery. Rashi sees Dean of the Yeshivat HaKotel Overseas
apportioned, not only to those alive G-d’s choice to begin the Torah with the Program

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