Page 3 - HaMizrachi #14 2019 Chayei Sarah USA

TORAT HAMIZRACHI

Rabbi Doron Perez

THE OBSESSION

WITH LAND

was not born into a religious G-d commands him to walk around singling out of the Land. They are
family but grew up in a warm and the Land, look in all directions and inseparable.
I traditional South African Jewish promises the whole Land to him and
home. To the great credit of my dear his progeny once again. G-d makes two I also noticed that in the book of Bere-
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parents, and through the influence of a distinct and dramatic covenants with ishit, one city in the Land – Hebron –
young dynamic rabbi, we began going him, promising that his children will stands out more than any other, in three
to shul on Shabbat on a regular basis, return after Exile and that the Land will distinct ways. First, it is the site of the
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which sparked the beginning of a be an ‘Eternal Inheritance’ for them. first legally purchased part of the Land,
spiritual transformation. I was 12 years the Cave of Machpela, which Avra-
old when this family odyssey towards G-d forbids Yitzchak from leaving the ham acquires to bury Sarah. Second,
more serious Torah observance began. Land, despite famine, and he spends despite our forefathers’ many travels
his entire life there. G-d promises the and sojournings, Hebron is the main
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A good place to start studying Torah Land to him and his children. area in the Land where all three of them
was from the very beginning, so I To escape his brother, Ya’akov has no lived. And third, it is where all three
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began with the book of Bereishit. As choice but to leave the Land, but his sets of our forefathers and mothers are
I began learning about Avraham, I whole life revolves around it. In his buried. 9
was totally perplexed. The very first dream on departure, G-d assures him
time G-d speaks to the very first Jew, that he will return and 20 years later Hebron, therefore – more than any
He commands him to leave wherever commands him to return. Upon his other place – represents our founding
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he is and to journey to another land return, Ya’akov is promised the Land fathers’ and mothers’ extraordinary
to fulfill his destiny. This baffled me. for him and his children. Then after connection to the Land.
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After all, was this really the most being pushed into Exile once again, to As I was finishing high school, I
important thing for Avraham to do reunite with his son Yosef in Egypt, made a further amazing discovery.
in order to begin his mission? What Ya’akov pushes Yosef to swear to bury One of the world’s leading historians,
about studying Torah, keeping mitzvot, him in the grave of his forefathers in Paul Johnson, had just published his
committing himself to total obedience the Land. 7 monumental work, “A History of the
to fulfill the will of G-d? Jews,” in which he highlighted the very
The book of Bereishit ends
Incredibly, the more I studied the book counterintuitively with Yosef, despite same reflections about the Land in
of Bereishit, the more I realized that his meteoric success in Egypt, making general and Hebron in particular.
this original encounter between G-d his family promise to bury him in In his opening chapter, he emphasized
and Avraham was not an exception but the Land of his fathers. Remarkably, the remarkable centrality of the Land
rather the rule. It seemed as if G-d had the last verse of the book conveys his from the dawn of Jewish history: “The
some type of obsession, so to speak, death, embalming and placing him in election of Abraham and his descen-
with this Land. It was clear that the a coffin. No burial is mentioned. The dants for a special role in G-d’s prov-
new spiritual mission of Avraham and message is clear – he is waiting, no idence, and the donation of the land,
his children was somehow inextricably matter for how long, to return to the are inseparable in the Biblical presen-
linked to this tract of land. Land with the Children of Israel and to tation of history.” 10
be buried there.
This conclusion is inescapable. As soon Strikingly, Johnson traces the very
as Avraham arrives, G-d promises to The singling out of a person, a family beginning of Jewish history to Hebron
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give the Land to his children. As he and a people for a unique mission is
returns from Egypt after the famine, interlocked at every stage with the Continued on page 4

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