Parsha Bechukotai: Fingerprints of the Link: Hashem, the Jews and Eretz Yisrael.

By Moshe Burt

Here's a question which occurred to me a couple of weeks ago, by Yom Ha'tzma'ot, as I travelled to and visited in Gush Katif. 

Does Arik Sharon and his whole flock of anti-Torah Left Wing rocket scientists really think that the land that they would hand over to the Arabs will flourish and produce agriculture for anyone else but the Jews?  Do they really believe that those expelled from Gush Katif will first hand over to the cowardly murderers of Jews the technology which made a formerly fallow land flourish?  I think NOT!

And lo and behold, an email appeared on my log forwarded by a friend who received an email from National Council of Young Israels head, Rabbi Pesach Lerner which contained an account of Gaza resident Mayan Yadai's speech before the 93rd Anniversary Dinner of the NCYI.  

Rabbi Lerner wrote that Mrs. Yadai is a young mother of Croatian descent who converted to Judaism, and happily resides in Netzar Hazani in Gush Katif, Israel with her husband and two children.

"It is difficult for me to believe what the old-timers of Gush Katif tell me: When they were encouraged to move here by the Yitzhak Rabin government only 30 years ago, this now-flourishing area was filled with bald, empty, sand dunes with no birds, insects or even weeds. Even the amount of rain was small compared to today's rainfall measurements."

"It is difficult for me to believe that this obviously blessed area is the very same area that our Moslem neighbors called the "cursed land "of El G'erara. They have told me that nobody lived in this area from the time that the last Jews left because there was not enough rain, and nothing could grow properly. They were happy when the Jews returned because the rain started again, and the land began to produce."
 
"Yet it is so easy for me to believe and feel from deep within, that this is in fact, the very same 'Gerar' where our forefathers, Avraham and Yitzchak lived. It is the very same claim of Shevet Yehuda that Yehoshua conquered, and where Jews have lived throughout the generations of our history."  (Rabbi Pesach Lerner's account of the talk given by Mrs. Mayan Yadai)

Then, as I rifled through my papers and sources in preparing this Parsha HaShevua, I came across an old National Council of Young Israel Parsha Sheet for Parsha Bechukotai penned by Rabbi Meyer Fendel in 1995.

Rabbi Fendel brings a posuk from amidst the terrible tidings of the Tochocha (the reproof); "I will make the land desolate; and your foes who dwell upon it will be desolate." (Parsha Bechukotai, Sefer Vayikra, Perek 26, posuk 32)  He then brings a Rashi on the posuk, "This is good tidings for Israel, that her enemies will not find happiness in the Land and she will remain ... barren from her inhabitants."

Rabbi Fendel then reasons that a question may be asked; "How will Israel benefit if her enemies will... be unable to inhabit the land?"  He brings a Ramban which concurs with Rashi but which adds something more; "This is also a great proof and promise, for in the whole inhabited world, one cannot find such a goodly land which was [once] inhabited and yet is as ruined as she is today, for since the time that we left her, she has not accepted any nation or people, and though they all try to settle her, their efforts are in vain."

In essence, Rabbi Fendel expresses that the Ramban tells us that the Land 'went into Galut' along with the B'nai Yisrael and could not bear harvest to strangers on her soil.

"Herein lies the good tiding, in which ... Chazal found a source of hope: the Land would never produce for strangers -- but for Klal Yisrael returning home, she would.  Eretz Yisrael lay dormant for 2,000 years, ... simply because she was awaiting the return of her children."

"... The Land was so barren and so desolate that one could not fail to see this as fulfillment of the Biblical "I will lay waste to the land." (Another translation; Parsha Bechukotai, Sefer Vayikra, Perek 26, posuk 32)

And yet Chazal saw the hope and foresaw the return of B'nai Yisrael to the land: "The Land will wait and remain desolate, as a sign both of the sins of Israel and it's guaranteed return." (Parsha Bechukotai, Rabbi Meyer Fendel, National Council of Young Israel Parsha sheet, 27 May, 1995)

A commentary in Sefer L'lmode Ul'lamed (page 126) adds another dimension to the words of Mrs. Yadai of Gush Katif and to Rabbi Fendel's Parsha HaShevua. 

Earlier in our Parsha, the Tochochah, the admonishment, the reproof, is explicit as to the punishments that will befall B'nai Yisrael if they violate Hashem's Torah.

"I (Hashem), will set my face against you and you will be smitten before your enemies.  They that hate you will rule over you." ((Parsha Bechukotai, Sefer Vayikra, Perek 26, posuk 17)

The commentary is as follows;

"The text implies that included among the enemies will be those from Yisrael, enemies from within.  Thes enemies say our Rabbanim, are the most vicious of adversaries."  They are the most dangerous of all enemies.  "They are traitors against their own kind who know where their fellow men are most vulnerable."  (Sefer L'lmode Ul'lamed, Parsha Bechukotai, page 126)  They are Jews who seem to deny their roots and do not accept their Judaism.  They put their "Emunah" in mortals -- in the prowess of man, in themselves and their self-interests and self-enrichment, in the super-power of the time while seeking to destroy their fellow Jews, Jewish roots, laws, history and heritage.

It is tragic that often the worst enemy of the Jewish people, and those most dangerous to the Jews, are the Jews themselves.

As a result, the B'nai Yisrael is often deceived, into feeling that all is helpless and that there is no Divine being, by it's own evil rulers; those who seek to subvert Torah, our history and our traditions to suit their own ends and self-interests.

But B"H the B'nai Yisrael is awakening.  The consequences of ch"v the attempt to expel Jews are being contemplated.  The people are becoming aware of the dangers that their irresponsible, evil governmental leadership is attempting to thrust upon them.  These dangers include Kassams all up and down the coast and inland from Ashdod, Ashkelon, Rechovot clear up to Tel Aviv and maybe even as far inland as Beit Shemesh; the tears, heartbreak, demoralization of tens of thousands of Jews in places beyond not only Gush Katif and the 4 Shomron towns as the bulldozer follows ch"v on "the day after" by taking down more of the Shomron, Chevron and parts of Jerusalem; more Jewish blood, dying and maiming and the economic impact and damage of all of the above.   And what about the government's precious sensitivity to world opinion -- what the goyim will say if the Arabs, should they ever again ch"v have Gaza,  try to develop agriculture, but the Land lays fallow?   What will that do to "hasbara" as the Arabs accuse us before the world of sabotage?

The link, Hashem, the Jews and Eretz Yisrael is alive and well.  Hitnagkut, Expulsion -- Never happen.  Follow history.  We have but to do our physical and spiritual parts.

In the merit of B'Ezrat Hashem, our collective unity -- "Adat B'nai Yisrael", our emunah and actions, and the proper motivations for them, may we ALL be zocha to have our Tefillah reach Shemayim, unimpeded, ungarbled.  And in recognition that if we all emulate Aaron HaKohen and his consistency and constancy of Avodat Hashem, may we be zocha, as Rabbi Moshe Ungar would say each Thursday evening at his Gemara Shiur back in Philadelphia, in "the old country",  B'Ezrat Hashem, to demand, to compel HaKodosh Borchu to do "what he wants to do, to bring us the Moshiach and the Ge'ula Shlaima, "bimhayra v'yameinu -- speedily, in our time." 

May we see an end to low, dirty politics, political equivocation, perfidy and false cheshbonot; freedom and long life in Eretz Yisrael for Jonathan Pollard and special merit for our brethren currently subject to police harrassment, political interrogation and political persecution. 

IY'H, may it be that come this Rosh Hashana, that we pray thanks to Hashem for the Ge'ula Shlaima and for keeping our Brethren in Gush Katif and the Shomron in their homes and neighborhoods and away from the horror and Chillul Hashem of expulsion.

May we see the "Yom Hashem Al Kol HaGoyim" Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad,
Etmol!!

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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of the Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh