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Orchard of Delights Va’eira
£Elevating the Land of Israel Elevating the Land of Israel Elevating the Land of Israel recorded prayer in the Torah takes place as Abraham prays to
save the wicked people of Sodom. His prayer seems to go virtually
££
and the Entire Worldorldorld
and the Entire W
and the Entire W unanswered – God will save the city if there are ten righteous men,
which there are not – and the verse states that Abraham “returned
to his place” (Genesis 18:33). But what should interest us is the
following: what does Abraham do after he has reached the heights
The Torah concludes the story of Abraham’s purchase of Sarah’s
burial plot by stating that the field with its cave “rose up … unto of prayer and seen his prayers essentially rejected? A literal or peshat
Abraham for a purchase” (Genesis 23:17-18; 23:20). Rashi explains reading of the verse would teach us that Abraham gave up, leaving
that the phrase “rose up” literally means “entered the possession the place where he had been talking to God, but a deeper reading
of.” However, he also explains the phrase metaphorically, citing the taught by Rabbi Carlebach sheds further light on the matter:
Midrash from Bereishit Rabbah 58:8: the land was elevated because Abraham, despite his seeming failure, returned to his original stance,
it left a commoner’s possession and entered a king’s. On a sod or “his place,” and continued to pray. Though the text seems to indicate
mystical level one might say that Sarah’s burial elevated the land as that Abraham’s prayers go unanswered, Abraham’s prayers not
her soul was raised to a higher level of being: although she was now only helped save his nephew Lot, but even the eventual spark of the
in a different dimension, her soul was still connected to this world Mashiach, who is descended from Lot through Ruth. Furthermore,
and to the land itself; thus, she raised them up. in this first recorded prayer, Abraham modeled for all time what
prayer means to us as individuals and Jews: Abraham implanted in
When Abraham bought the cave and field to bury Sarah he began the Jewish people the importance of praying for the rectification of
the process of not only acquiring the land but of elevating it as well. the world, even when it appears to be so far away.
While the land certainly possessed great holiness long before Abraham
first set eyes upon it, like a “fountain sealed up,” its real spiritual Indeed, even though God sent angels to save Lot before Abraham
depths had not even begun to be tapped (Song of Songs 4:12). Thus, prayed, it was Abraham’s prayers that saved the spark of Mashiach
the Torah states that when Abraham took possession of the Cave within Lot. For Abraham wanted to believe that nothing was beyond
of Machpelah, “it rose up, the field of Ephron which is Machpelah, redemption, nothing was so broken that it could not be repaired,
which was before Mamre, the field and the cave which was in it, and even the evil Sodom. This core optimism and faith that good will
all the trees that were in the field in the borders around”(Genesis ultimately triumph is the very energy of Mashiach.
23:17). But how did Abraham know this great secret – that he should
constantly pray for others? The Torah itself answers this question in
This “rising up” is the key to the spiritual connection between
the Jewish people and the Land of Israel. For the Land provides a remarkable series of verses that reveal God’s actual thoughts:
the Jewish people with their own rightful place in which to ascend And God said: “Shall I conceal from Abraham what I intend to do.
in holiness and produce physical as well as spiritual fruit, while the And Abraham surely will become a great nation, and all the nations
Jewish people elevate the Land by providing it with their tender love of the earth will be blessed through him. For I know him that he
and the care it needs to bring forth its holy bounty. This relationship will command his children and his household after him and they will
is alluded to by the numerical equivalency between the Hebrew keep the way of God to do justice and judgment, that God may bring
letters comprising the phrase “and it rose up” and the word “Zion”: upon Abraham that which He has spoken of him.” (Genesis 18:17-
both are 156. This mathematical remez, is a beautiful example of how 19)
“the actions of the fathers are a sign to their children” (Sotah 34a).

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