Rabbi's Corner

We read the following in this week’s parashah, Parashat Ekev: “Keep, therefore, all the commandment that I command you today, so that you may have the strength to enter and take possession of the land that you are about to cross into and possess, so that you may long endure upon the soil that Hashem swore to your fathers to assign to them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. For the land that you are about to enter and possess is not like the Land of Egypt from which you have come…but the land you are about to cross into and possess, a land of hills and valleys, soaks up its water from the rains of Heaven. It is a land which Hashem your G-d looks after, on which HaShem your G-d always keeps H-s eye, from year’s beginning to year’s end. If, then, you obey the commandments that I command you today, loving HaShem your G-d and serving H-m with all your heart and soul, I will grant rain for your land in season, the early rain and the late. You shall gather in your new grain and wine and oil. I will also provide grass in the fields for your cattle --- and thus you shall eat your fill.” (Devarim 11:8-15) Rashi comments that HaShem’s principal attention is focused on feeding Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) only secondarily feeding the rest of the world. Rambam stresses that all the nations of the world eat only by virtue of the “personal” attention HaShem gives to Eretz Yisrael. Rebbe Nachman of Breslov explains Rambam’s statement as follows: “There is an intellectuality of Eretz Yisrael and an intellectuality of the other nations. The intellectuality of the other nations feeds from the intellectuality of Eretz Yisrael, for the main wisdom and intellect are in Eretz Yisrael.” (Likutei Moharan, II:71) Perhaps this concept can be clarified by way of the following parable:

A great and magnificent King lived in a large, beautiful palace with his only daughter, the Princess. She was the “apple of his eye” and his heart’s greatest love. The Princess was lovely, both on the inside as well as the outside, and she was blessed with intelligence, kindness, and compassion. She also had a razor-sharp intellect, an endless thirst for learning, and a phenomenal ability to understand and retain everything she learned. There was not a wise man or a minister in the entire kingdom whom the King could entrust with the education of his beloved daughter. Therefore, he educated her himself thus ensuring that her intellectuality would be an extension of his own intellectuality. In fact, the Princess learned from texts that her father the King himself had composed. She was so engrossed in her learning, satisfying her intellectual “hunger,” that she neither ate or drank anything while her father the King instructed her. But, each day, after five straight hours of learning, her delicate body would cry out for its minimal needs to satisfy her physical hunger.

There was a firm palace statute no one dared violate stating that until the King himself ordered food and drink for the Princess, all palace servants had to make due with the previous day’s leftovers. But once the King ordered food and drink for the Princess, cries of joy would be heard throughout the palace. The servants knew that when the Princess ate and drank, they would be able to do the same as well. If the Princess was hungry, the King would order the royal butcher to slaughter an entire bull just to feed the Princess her favorite delicacy: roasted tongue in mustard sauce. Then, the servants would feast on what was left over. If the Princess requested a small drink to quench her thirst, the King would order the royal wine master to open a barrel of the palace’s best wine whereupon she would barely sip half a goblet. The rest of the barrel would then be given to the servants. Because the King loved to surprise his daughter, he would command the royal baker to bake a ten-layer, four-foot high chocolate cake filled with almond and pistachio nougat. The Princess would eat a mere spoonful in obvious delight and then bless and thank her beloved father the King. The cake would then be given to the servants who were waiting to enjoy it. In other words, whenever the King ordered food for the Princess, the palace servants would have a feast.

You may ask: “Rabbi, what does this story have to do with the passage from the Torah with which you began?” Merely this: The King in this parable is Hashem; H-s beloved daughter is Eretz Yisrael; the servants are the nations of the world. Thanks to HaShem’s “watching eye” gazing upon Eretz Yisrael, the nations of the world thrive. If you doubt what I say, all you have to do is look at what Eretz Yisrael has done both for itself and the rest of the world since that day in May of 1948 when the Homeland of the People Israel was reborn. Because HaShem cares both for and about Eretz Yisrael, the People Israel both care for and about the rest of the world. After all, what other nation would offer aid and comfort to its enemies as the People Israel has done within the past few days following the catastrophic explosion that took place in the city of Beirut by offering aid and comfort to the people of Beirut, the capital city of the state that harbors and is controlled by an enemy of both the People Israel and the State of Israel? The answer to this question is obvious: Eretz Yisrael, Medinat Yisrael, Am Yisrael all comprise not just “any nation.” This is the Land, this is the State, and this is the People all watched over by Hashem. May we continue to merit H-s ever-present gaze.