Born?

A fellow was filling out a questionnaire. He came to  ‘Name,’ and he wrote his name. At ‘Address’ he wrote his address. Then he came to ‘Born?’ He thought a moment, and then wrote ‘Yes.’

We were all born. It’s how we got here. It’s how the miracle of life unfolds.

But the questionnaire wanted to know where he was born. Our place of birth forms part of our identity.

A newborn has three partners, the father and mother and G-d.

When Adam, the first person, was created, and he was formed from the earth of the ground, G-d blew into him a soul of life. Because the physical body is not enough. In order to be alive, we need a soul.

People might be born in New York or Chicago or Toronto. But the soul, the G-dly breath of life, is also part of one’s birth and existence.

“And to Zion it will be said, this person and that person was born there, and He will establish it from on high.” (Psalm 87)

The Holy Land is the birthplace of G-d’s chosen nation. The Jewish people have, since their exile, been wandering from land to land. But their true birthplace, the place that manifests their essential source of life, is Zion, the Land of Israel.

It’s the land that G-d gave to Abraham. It was bequeathed as an inheritance to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And it is where the Jewish people will all return, to serve G-d on the holy mountain in Jerusalem, where Abraham brought Isaac as an offering to G-d, where Jacob dreamed of angels rising to heaven and coming down to accompany him, and where two Temples were built and destroyed, only to be rebuilt again a third time, only this time forever.

Zion is the eternal birthplace of the Jewish nation.

And soon the entire world will acknowledge and appreciate G-d’s holy nation, and the world will be at peace, for there will be no more wars, and “the entire world will be filled with the knowledge of G-d, just as the waters cover the sea.”

May it happen very soon.