And what is the very first thing Moshe teaches the Nation, who are all waiting to hear the explanation of the Torah from Moshe himself? You can read the words yourself:
“Moshe began to explain the Torah, saying, the Lord our God spoke to us in Horev, saying, ‘You have dwelt long enough in this mountain – TURN AND TAKE UP YOUR JOURNEY – go to the Land of Israel! BEHOLD, I HAVE SET THE LAND BEFORE YOU, GO IN AND POSSESS THE LAND THAT THE LORD SWORE TO YOUR FATHERS, AVRAHAM, YITZHAK, AND YAACOV, TO GIVE THEM, AND TO THEIR SEED AFTER THEM” (Devarim, 1:6-8).
The Torah wasn’t given to be kept in Sinai, nor in Brooklyn or Beverly Hills. The Torah isn’t a “religion” like Buddhism or Christianity, G-d forbid. The Torah isn’t some abstract spirituality floating like a cloud in the sky. The Torah has an EARTHLY BASE. Not Sinai. Not Brooklyn. The Torah is the DIVINE CONSTITUTION of the NATION OF ISRAEL, and every NATION needs its own LAND. And the holy CHILDREN OF ISRAEL have their own unique HOLY LAND.
What is the first and fundamental message that Moshe explains when he teaches the Torah to Am Yisrael? Not Shabbos. Not kashrus. You want to know what Torah is? You want to keep it? GO IN AND POSSESS THE LAND! That’s the basis of Torah.
This is the teaching which Moshe wanted to sink into our skulls and our hearts in order to uproot the tragic error of the Spies. We are to be our own HOLY NATION with our own HOLY LAND, and not live as a minority in someone else’s country performing a handful of religious precepts. That may be the “Judaism” of the exile, but it isn’t Torah in all of its fullness.
What is this like? It’s like a Jew who returns home from shul on a clear Sukkot night and eats his Yom Tov meal in his home under the roof of his house. Obviously, he hasn’t performed the mitzvah. Why? Because there is a place where the seudah of Sukkah night must be performed. The same thing is true with the Torah.
You don’t have to listen to me. Listen to Moshe. Listen to the roaring echo of his words, resounding out today from every shul in the world:
YOU HAVE DWELT LONG ENOUGH IN BROOKLYN AND BEVERLY HILLS – GO IN AND POSSESS THE LAND!!!!