EKEV: Why the Land?
Why is there such an emphasis in the Bensching (blessings after a meal)
on thanking G‑D for the Land of Israel?
The mitsva to bensch after food is learned out from this week’s sidra. However the seven choice items of produce listed, including wheat and barley from which bread is made, are products which the Torah clearly identifies particularly with Erets Israel. “For G‑D your G‑D is bringing you into a good land… of wheat, barley, vines, figs, pomegranates, oil-filled olives and dates” (Deut 8:7-8). Moreover the subsequent verse giving rise to the mitsva proclaims: “So eat, be satisfied and bless G‑D your G‑D for the good land which he has given you” (8:10).
Unlike the mitsva of prayer – also learned out from a verse in this week’s sidra “Him you shall serve” (Deut 10:20) – which, on a Torah level, has no fixed measure or specification, there is a Torah requirement in bensching to enunciate three blessings making mention of (a) the food enjoyed (b) the Land of Israel (c) the Bet Mikdash (Temple) and Jerusalem. Before the destruction of the Bet Mikdash all three blessings were in the nature of thanksgiving; now only the first two are of thanks while the third is petitionary, importuning G‑D to “rebuild Jerusalem” replete with the third Bet Mikdash.
Why this deep connection of the Land to physical needs?
The question is intensified when we peruse the third blessing. “Never allow us” we declare “to be in need of the gifts of mortal men, nor their loans, but only of Your helping hand… so that we may not be ashamed or embarrassed ever. And rebuild Jerusalem the holy city speedily in our days.”
At first glance the two parts of this berakha seem mismatched. What has material independence to do with rebuilt Jerusalem?
The answer – a great deal! For the last 2,000 years we have constantly been dependent on the goodwill of the host nations among which we have been dispersed. Often we have convinced ourselves that such goodwill comes to us as a “gift” and that we have found a true goldeneh medineh. Tragically we discover too late that what we imagined to be a “gift” was really a “loan” and that our time in that land of our sojourn is up. Even in open, democratic countries such as the USA, the UK and Australia where we are among the beneficiaries of policies of equality and tolerance, we would be essentially powerless if those ‘gifts’ turn out to be the ‘loans’ of yesteryear.
We are witnessing with deep pain and anguish, that even in our own land we are at the ‘mercies’ of terrorist forces that seek to make Israel judenrein. Pre-Mashiakh, even in Israel we find ourselves in needs of the ‘gift’ of foreign support – or is it only a loan?
Can there be any more suitable follow-up cry to the prayer “Let us be able to depend only on Your helping hand” than the plea “Rebuild Jerusalem!” Then, in the messianic era of the Third Temple, will we witness the direct, palpable and open protection of G‑D’s “helping hand” unaided or unhindered by the gifts of man.