Weekly Dvar Torah: Chosen People and Chosen Land
During the three weeks of mourning for the destruction of the Temple and for being exiled from the Holy Land for close to 2000 years, we learn about the Holiness of the Land and the connection of the Jewish people to the Holy Land.
There are some common denominators between the people and the land, in a way they are intertwined, and that’s why Hashem gave the Holy Land to the Jewish people.
What is the idea of the chosen people?
G-d chose the Jewish people from amongst the nations to be His people.
Obviously to choose one thousand dollars over one dollar is not much of a choice. Who wouldn’t choose one thousand dollars over one dollar.
To choose a child over someone who has no connection to you, is also not much of a choice. Who wouldn’t choose their child over a stranger.
So, when we say that G-d chose the Jewish people, it is clear that G-d chose among equals, because in front of Hashem, everybody is equal.
The same applies to the chosen land, when G-d chose the Holy Land, He chose this land from among equals in the eyes of G-d.
Why did G-d choose the Jewish people and the Holy Land?
There is no logical answer, G-d in His infinite wisdom decided to choose these people, and this land, this is one of the secrets of the creator which no mortal can comprehend.
And being chosen by Hashem, makes the people holy and the land holy.
But there is another aspect to the chosen people and the chosen land.
When G-d was peddling the Torah, so to speak, He offered it to all the nations, and after hearing what’s in the Torah, for their own reasons all the nations decided that the Torah was not for them.
The Jewish people when offered the Torah, immediately responded ‘Naase V’Nishma’, we will do what’s in the Torah unconditionally, only afterwards did they ask what’s in the Torah.
The chosen people chose to keep the Torah without questioning it.
The same idea applies to the Land, most of the Mitzvos of the Torah are connected to the land, how we live in the land, how we work the land, how we raise livestock in the land, how we grow our crops, how we eat our crops, tithing and supporting G-d’s servants, gifting the Kohanim and the Leviim, and everything about daily life in this land is based on the laws of the Torah.
In addition, in this land is G-d’s House, the Holy Temple, the Altar, the offering of sacrifices, the service of Hashem takes place primarily in this land, which makes the land Holy.
These are two reasons why this land and this people can be described as mutually chosen and mutually Holy.
There is an amalgamation of the land needing the Torah in order to absorb its inhabitants, and the people who accepted to live a life of Torah, so naturally they are the perfect Shidduch for one another.
A match made in heaven.
However, we shouldn’t confuse these two aspects of being the chosen and being holy, Hashem’s choosing the Jews and the land, comes from G-d’s infinite wisdom, this is beyond human comprehension, therefore this choice is eternal and can never be undone or interrupted.
This choice is not dependent on the Jews keeping the Torah or the Land being lived according to Torah, even when the Land is destroyed and desolate of its inhabitants, and there is no Temple, still it remains the Holy Land till this very day, ask anybody who ever walked into the UN and you’ll see how the entire world revolves around the Holy Land.
The same applies to the Jewish people, even when they don’t live up to their promise to follow the Torah unconditionally, still they remain G-d’s people, ask any anti-Semite and he’ll confirm this without blinking an eye.
So, while we mourn the destruction of the Temples and the long bitter exile which happened because of disobeying the Torah, still we are G-d’s everlasting choice looking forward to reunite with our counterpart, the chosen Land, where we will once again observe the Torah in the Holy Land, in the Third Temple, speedily with the imminent coming of Moshiach, NOW!
Choose a Holy Shabbos,
Gut Shabbos, and Gut Chodesh
Rabbi Yosef Katzman
