When we hear the term Buddhism, images appear in our minds of a monk meditating passively in a secluded monastery located on a faraway mountain in Tibet. In contrast, Torah is a code of life highlighted by action. When we ask for Hashem to grant us knowledge three times a day in the Amidah prayer, we don’t leave it at that. We open Torah texts and put great effort into learning. When we pray for Hashem’s forgiveness for our misdeeds, we set out upon a determined path of correcting our character traits and behavior. When we prayer for good health, we make sure to have yearly medical check-ups, take medicines, and undergo surgery when needed. When we pray for sustenance, we buy food at the supermarket, cook it in the tastiest fashion, and with fork and knife, put the food in our mouths to be chewed in the proper manner. Similarly, when we pray three times a day for the ingathering of the exiles from the four corners of the earth, we don’t close our prayer books and go about business as usual, the Torah expects us to call Nefesh B’Nefesh and hop on the first plane to Ben Gurion that we can. Likewise, when we pray for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and the return of the Jewish Sovereignty in the Land of Israel, and for the rebuilding of the Temple and the return of the Shechinah to Zion, we don’t merely mumble the words and carry on our lives wherever we may be in the Diaspora, we strive to do whatever we can do to make these yearnings come to actual physical fruition.
While Judaism has philosophical and even meditative aspects, it is first and foremost a clear and precise code of commandments. We are commanded to keep the precepts of Shabbat, therefore we keep its precepts as meticulously as we can. We are commanded to observe the laws of Kashrut, therefore we dutifully carry out each and every letter of the law. We are commanded to live in the Land of Israel, therefore we do everything in our power to live in the Land of Israel.
Wait one minute you say. Where are we commanded to live in the Land of Israel? The answer lies in the Torah Portion of Mas’e which we read last Shabbat. The Torah states: “And you shall dispossess the inhabitants of the Land and dwell in it,” (Bamidbar, 33:53). Lest you rightfully say, who is Fishman to determine the commandments of the Torah, let me quote the words of HaRav Tzvi Yehuda Kook, of blessed memory, former head of the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem, the father of the settlement movement, and one of the most important Rabbis of modern times. Year after year he taught:
“The Ramban was one of the most outstanding Sages and Kabbalists, two things which go hand-in-hand. The Ramban concluded that the commandment to settle the Land of Israel is a positive mitzvah of the 613 commandments of the Torah. All of the Poskim (the arbitrators of Torah Law), the Rishonim and Achronim (Early and Later Authorities), decide the law in this fashion on the basis of the Ramban, that the precept of conquering the Land applies IN ALL GENERATIONS – and all of them agree that it is a commandment of the Torah, (Shulchan Aruch, Even HaEzer, Pitchei Tshuva, Section 75, sub-section 6). He based his ruling on the language of the verse, ‘And you shall dispossess the inhabitants of the Land and dwell in it,’ which is stated in the language of a command. We are enjoined with two tasks: first, to possess the Land through conquest; and secondly, to dwell in the Land. The Ramban clearly establishes that this Land, which has Hashem has promised to our forefathers, must be kept under our control and not under the control of any other nation. This is clearly meant in a national sense, for everyone understands that ruling a land means the establishment of a State in that land. Thus the establishment of Jewish sovereignty over the Land of Israel is a fundamental precept of the Torah. ”
To emphasize this basic understanding of the Torah, every year when Parshat Devarim came around, HaRav Tzvi Yehuda would remind the students of the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva that the Torah was given to be lived in the Land of Israel.
“Get ready to hear the Torah explained by the greatest Torah teacher of them all – Moshe Rabeinu, as we begin his review of the Torah in the Book of Devarim. In this week’s parsha, Moshe goes over the teachings of the Torah as the Israelite Nation stands poised to enter the Promised Land. At the very beginning of the Book of Devarim, Moshe begins to expound the foundation of the Torah, as it says, ‘Moshe began to explain the Torah….’ (Devarim, 1:6). And what is the very first thing Moshe teaches the Nation, who is waiting to hear the essence of the Torah from Moshe himself? ‘Moshe began to explain the Torah, saying, the Lord our God spoke to us in Horev, saying, You have dwelt long enough in this mountain – TURN AND TAKE UP YOUR JOURNEY – go to the Land of Israel! BEHOLD, I HAVE SET THE LAND BEFORE YOU, GO IN AND POSSESS THE LAND THAT THE LORD SWORE TO YOUR FATHERS, AVRAHAM, YITZHAK, AND YAACOV TO GIVE THEM, AND TO THEIR SEED AFTER THEM’ (Devarim, 1:6-8).
“The Torah wasn’t given to be kept in Sinai, nor in Russia or America. The Torah isn’t a “religion” like Buddhism or Christianity, God forbid. The Torah isn’t some abstract spirituality floating like a cloud in the sky. The Torah has an EARTHLY BASE. Not Sinai. Not Europe. Not the United States. The Torah is the DIVINE CONSTITUTION of the NATION OF ISRAEL, and every NATION needs its own LAND. And the holy CHILDREN OF ISRAEL have their own unique HOLY LAND.
“What is the first and fundamental message that Moshe explains when he teaches the Torah to Am Yisrael? Not Shabbos. Not kashrus. ‘Do you want to know what Torah is?’ he asks them. “GO IN AND POSSESS THE LAND! That’s the basis of Torah. Only in the Holy Land will you be able to understand what the Torah is all about, and only there can all of the Torah be kept.”
“This is the teaching which Moshe wanted to sink into our hearts in order to uproot the tragic error of the Spies. We are to be our own HOLY NATION with our own HOLY LAND, and not live as a minority in someone else’s country performing a small handful of religious precepts. That may be the Judaism of the exile, but it isn’t real Torah.
“How fortunate we are,” HaRav Tzvi Yehuda declared, “that we have the privilege of carrying out this Torah commandment in our time, a mitzvah considered equal in weight to all the commandments of the Torah and which is incumbent upon all of the Jewish People. We don’t choose between mitzvot like certain ‘Orthodox’ Jews do, saying, ‘I agree with this precept but not with that one.’ We perform everything we can in the Torah, with a whole heart and Emunah shelema – complete Emunah.”
