Wed the Land

“It will no longer be said of you (Zion) ‘The Forsaken One,’ and of your land it will no longer be said ‘Desolate Place’; for you will be called ‘My Desire Is In Her,’ and your land will be called ‘Inhabited.’ For Hashem’s desire is in you, and your land will become inhabited. As a young man takes a maiden in marriage, so will your children settle in you; and like a bridegroom rejoicing over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you” (Yeshayah 62:4–5, ArtScroll translation).

לֹא יֵאָמֵר לָךְ עוֹד עֲזוּבָה וּלְאַרְצֵךְ לֹא יֵאָמֵר עוֹד שְׁמָמָה כִּי לָךְ יִקָּרֵא חֶפְצִי בָהּ וּלְאַרְצֵךְ בְּעוּלָה כִּי חָפֵץ יְהֹוָה בָּךְ וְאַרְצֵךְ תִּבָּעֵל. כִּי יִבְעַל בָּחוּר בְּתוּלָה יִבְעָלוּךְ בָּנָיִךְ וּמְשׂוֹשׂ חָתָן עַל כַּלָּה יָשִׂישׂ עָלַיִךְ אֱלֹהָיִךְ (ישעיה סב:ד–ה)

Here in the final Haftorah of the Shiva d’Nechemta, the Seven Haftorahs of Consolation, we encounter Yeshayah’s curious use of the verbal root בָּעַל (to engage intimately, to take in marriage) in prophesying the Jewish people’s return to Eretz Yisrael in the geulah sheleimah, the final redemption.

Chazal and commentators, from Targum Yonasan ben Uziel on down, regard Yeshayah’s phraseology as symbolically expressing “to inhabit” or “to settle,” and ArtScroll follows this approach.

Yet and still, the shift between verses from the figurative (וְאַרְצֵךְ תִּבָּעֵל – “and your land will become inhabited”) to the literal (כִּי יִבְעַל בָּחוּר בְּתוּלָה יִבְעָלוּךְ בָּנָיִךְ – “as a young man takes a maiden in marriage …”) is striking and unmistakable.

Addressing this transition, the Malbim pushes the boundaries of symbolism and perceives verse 5 as expressing that we will not return to an old and desolate land—like one who remarries the woman he once divorced, when he is now no longer young and she is no longer a maiden—but to a fresh and flourishing region that bears no signs of our expulsion and that we’ll resettle with elation, like a young man first encountering his bride.

In that vein, perhaps we can venture yet further toward the literal, for if the Navi intended to speak purely allegorically in employing בָּעַל with regard to land occupancy, why then, in verse 5, promptly reach well past that merely suggestive realm into outright depiction of a groom and bride consummating their marriage? What is it about our settlement in and relationship with Eretz Yisrael that calls for such imagery?

All affiliated Jews, in varying degrees, regard Eretz Yisrael as a special place, yet that is precisely the mistake we all equally share. In truth, Eretz Yisrael is as much a mere place as chalk is cheese. It is, rather, a being—a sensitive, impressionable and, if necessary, wrathful being, which is why it responds to its occupants’ sin by vomiting them out: “Let not the land vomit you out for having defiled it, as it vomited out the nation that preceded you” (Vayikra 18:28).

The Navi moves seamlessly from the symbolic to the literal because he’s simply depicting the polar opposite of that indignant, violent ejection—namely, the land’s embrace upon our reunion with it and our unequivocal acceptance of God’s will that it demands. A pristine, elating reunion that is the final and fundamental consolation.

Return, and wed the land. Take a step, and feel its touch. Breathe its air, and deepen. Seed it, and entwine your being with its own.

People and land then become one, a wholesome maiden, in effect, whom God himself weds: “And like a bridegroom rejoicing over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.”