In his connection to the nation, the Oleh to Israel becomes a more complete Jew. He becomes a co-builder of the Jewish nation. He becomes a soldier in the Israeli Defense Force, in the army of God. He speaks the language of his Forefathers. He becomes independent in his own JEWISH LAND. His aspirations are filled with idealism. He becomes an architect of history, an active partner of Redemption. His outlook and psyche are exponentially expanded by his new identification with the national aspiration and will.
Because he is living in Israel, his whole life is a mitzvah. A mitzvah which is equal in weight to all of the mitzvot of the Torah. Divine life flows and flows into his being through the infinite channel of his new mitzvah life. His house is a mitzvah, his job is a mitzvah, every step which he takes in the Holy Land is a mitzvah, every four cubits earns him a greater share in the world to come. Every holy breath he takes fills him with holy life. Letters and letters of Torah pour into his soul.
Rabbi Kook quotes a verse from the book of Isaiah:
“And it shall come to pass, that he who is left in Zion, and he that remains in Jerusalem, they shall be called holy, everyone in Jerusalem who is written to life” (Isaiah, 4:3)
In Eretz Yisrael and Jerusalem, the letters of our souls are inscribed for eternal life.
Like the Land’s giant letters, the mitzvot of the land are giant mitzvot too, performed where God’s commandments are supposed to be performed. They burst with energy and life through the full force of their value. In Israel, the performance of the mitzvot is pure, without static and pollution, performed in the land of God. In Israel, each mitzvah reverberates through the myriad of souls in the Clal, multiplying beyond measure, echoing through the universe, filling the world with harmony, completeness, and order. When the nation is living its true Torah life in Israel, God’s will for the world is fulfilled. The vaults of heaven spread open, and Divine blessing flows uninterrupted to all of creation.
So too, the Torah of Eretz Yisrael is the complete Torah. As our Sages teach: “There is no Torah like the Torah of Eretz Yisrael.” The Torah in Israel is the all–encompassing Torah, the Torah of the nation, the Torah of the Clal, none of whose mitzvot or letters are missing. In the Land of Israel, the Torah is in its true place, radiating its influence in intimate pleasantness, its heavenly letters glowing with the light of the Shechinah.
“The yearning to see the glory of the cherished Land; the inner longing for the Land of Israel, increases the letters of holiness, the letters of independent Israeli life that are at the depth of our essence and being; it increases their inner spiritual growth. `One who is born in it, and one who yearns to see it’ – `And to Zion it shall be said; a man, and a man who is born in it, and He will establish it in exaltation, the Lord will count in the writing of the nations, this one has been born there, Selah.'”
Rabbi Kook tells us that not only by being in Israel can this heroic life be achieved, but also the soul which aspires to live in Israel is invigorated with increased holy energy. The Diaspora Jew who logs on to The Jewish Press website first thing in the morning, and sincerely yearns to be in Israel, is influenced by its greatness. In yearning to link himself with the Land, he too is like someone approaching a mitzvah, running to embrace his beloved. His pulse quickens, and the letters of his soul expand to receive a giant new infusion of life. He grows spiritually bigger in his attachment to Eretz Yisrael and to the aspirations of Clal Yisrael. Both “One who is born in it, and one who longs to see it,” both of them share in her blessing; both attain wholeness by living the maximum life of a Jew.
So you too my Facebook friends and Jewish Press readers, you too have GIANT LETTERS in your yearning to be in Israel. But you and your letters could grow even bigger if you were here, in the LAND OF GIANT LETTERS, GIANT MITZVOT, and GIANT JEWS, adding your letters to the NATION.
