A Jew can only be a free person in the Land of Israel, as we learn from the very beginning of the Pesach Haggadah: “This year, we are here; next year, in the Land of Israel. This year, we are slaves; next year, free men.”
What is so special about the Land of Israel? Why can we be free only there, and not in Egypt, Germany, or America?
Shabbat was Rosh Chodesh Nisan, the first day of the month of Nisan, which is also the birthday of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov. To honor his memory, let’s take a look at some of his teachings about the Land of Israel. In our next piece, we will study some of the teachings of Rabbi Kook regarding the Land of Israel, and thus, hopefully discover the answer to the mystery why we can only be free men in Israel.
(From the book “Likutei Etzot” (Advice), recorded by Rebbe Nachman’s student Rabbi Natan, and translated by Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum.)
1) Prayer is bound up with the concept of bring about miracles. To attain this level of faith is only possible in the Land of Israel, for it is there that prayer ascends to the worlds above. With faith such as this, one can accomplish with one’s prayer whatever is necessary: one can work real miracles and wonders in the world.
2) If we abuse Eretz Yisrael we go down into exile. Prayer goes into its own exile, and then it is impossible to pray and bring about miracles in the world.
3) To be a member of the Jewish People is to move always to higher and higher levels. To do this is impossible except through the sanctity of the Land of Israel. Every upward movement which we have to make towards holiness can only be accomplished through the Land of Israel. The same is true of prayer. The ascent of prayer comes only about in the Land of Israel.
4) It is through the power of the Torah that we draw into ourselves that we can attain to the level of the Land of Israel.
5) It is impossible to come to the Land of Israel with difficulties and suffering. The root of all the difficulties and suffering lies in the slanderous image of the Land which is put forth by the wicked. They are the source of all the obstacles. But the power which we draw into ourselves enables us to overcome all the obstacles, the difficulties and suffering. The more profound a person’s grasp of the Torah and the greater the tikun he brings about through his attainment, the greater his victory over the obstacles, and he will succeed in reaching the Land of Israel.
6) When a person attains to the level of the Land of Israel, he is worthy of being called, “a man of strength and valor.” Before he attains this level, “Let him not who girds on his armor boast himself as he who puts it off” (Melachim 1:20:11). But when he has gone through the battle successfully he is worthy of the name “man of war.”
7) When people give charity to causes in the Land of Israel, they become merged in the air of the Land of Israel, which is holy breath that has no taint of sin. Through this breath the forces of severity and darkness are banished from the world. This is also how it is possible to escape from the distracting, alien thoughts which come during prayer. The mind and the thoughts become clear and refined. This is a tikun habrit – a rectification for abuse of the sexual covenant.
8) The lives of the Patriarchs were completely bound up with the Land of Israel, as is our faith. Through genuine prayer, therefore, it is possible for us to feel the sanctity of the Land of Israel today (in Rabbi Nachman’s time over 200 years ago) when we are in exile, and the Land is under the dominion of the forces of the Other Side (gentile rule). Thus it is written in the Torah that even when the Jews are “in the land of their enemies, if then…their uncircumcised heart be humbled… then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham I will remember, and I will remember the Land (Vayikra, 26: 41-42). Through the revelation of the sanctity of the Land of Israel we will witness the destruction of the wicked. Not only will we be delivered from their hand; we will see them suffer the very evil they sought to inflict upon us.
9) The mitzvah of challah, separating the priestly portion of the dough, is also bound up with the Land of Israel, and the effect of the mitzvah is to reveal the radiance of the Forefathers and the holiness of the Land.
10) The motive for making the journey to the Land of Israel should be purely spiritual – to draw closer to G-d. A person who goes there with this as his aim will certainly benefit. Merely by stepping foot on the Land he will become merged with it and transformed by its sacred character. That is why even “one who walks four cubits in the Land of Israel will assuredly inherit the World to Come” (Ketubot 111A). On the other hand, if a person’s motive has nothing to do with devotion to G-d and cleansing himself of evil, then what help will the Land be to him? The Land will vomit him out “as it vomited out the nation that was before you” (Vayikra, 18:28).
11) Pray to G-d to give you desire and yearning for the Land of Israel. Then you will succeed in reaching there. And pray also that He should plant yearning for the Land in the hearts of all the Tzaddikim.
12) G-d repays man “measure for measure.” Nowhere is the repayment more exacting than in the Land of Israel. But this is really a great kindness. If we know that G-d repays us according to our deeds, then by thinking about the situations G-d sends us, we can gain an insight into our own behavior and learn how to improve.
13) The holiness of the Land of Israel is the epitome of holiness, encompassing all other levels of holiness. It is there that we can free ourselves completely of the materialistic viewpoint which claims that events take place naturally. We can come to know and believe that everything comes about only through the Hand of G-d. When man knows this, he resembles G-d’s power to divide light from the darkness. To be able to divide the light from the darkness requires that ultimate level of faith which can only be achieved in the Land of Israel.
14) Genuine enlightenment and wisdom come only in the Land of Israel. But those who insult the honor of the Almighty, G-d forbid, are cut off from the radiance of the Land of Israel, and they fall into the mentality of “outside the Land” which is one of conflict and divisiveness. This is the source of all of the conflicts and divisions which have become so rampant.
15) The enlightenment which can be achieved in the Land of Israel possesses the quality of pleasantness – the pleasantness of Torah, all of whose ways are peace. Giving charity, especially for the Land of Israel, forges a vessel with which to receive this pleasantness. Then one can rise above the mentality of “outside the Land.” But the more deeply people sink into this mentality of irreverence, the more difficult it is to extricate them from it, and the alien mentality can even begin to infect the Land of Israel itself. Instead of peace there is conflict, even in the Land. This is the reason why today the divisions in the Land of Israel are as deep as they are outside of it.
May we all merit to be free men next year in the Land of Israel, as we declare at the conclusion of the Pesach Seder: “Next year in Jerusalem!”