A Special Land

Avraham Avinu was rewarded for his intense faith in G-d. While the rest of the world, including his own family, were steeped in idol worship, he defiantly taught the idea of monotheism.

He was told to come to Israel where he would become great and flourish. It was necessary to not only separate from his family, but he needed to live in the Holy Land.

This is truly a special land. Rav Kook describes a spiritual person as one who is able to feel the inherent difference between Israel and anywhere else in the world. He wrote that any Jew who does not feel something seriously lacking in his service of Hashem without a connection to Eretz Yisrael, possesses only a superficial understanding of Judaism.

On numerous occasions, I was told stories of how certain individuals could not stop weeping when they first walked the streets of Jerusalem. In one instance, this experience was his motivation for converting to Judaism.

Avraham eventually understood that he could only reach his personal spiritual potential, in Eretz Yisrael. He needed to be in the best position possible to fulfill his role as “the father of many nations.”

The Talmud writes that it is preferred to live in Israel in a city of idol worshippers, rather than live outside of Israel in a city of religious Jews.

We must also realize that Israel is special not because of its materialism, but because it is the only place one can achieve his highest spiritual potential.