Is G-d’s watchful providence actually different in the Land of Israel? And what does that mean for us?
According to Ramban, the Land of Israel is, indeed, entirely different from the rest of the world and this carries important ramifications for how we think about our spiritual lives and pragmatic problems.
Israel’s unique status arises in our Torah portion, when Avraham sends his servant to find a wife for Yitzchak. As we know, Avraham is dead set against Yitzchak marrying a Canaanite woman; only a woman from his own birthplace will do. To that end, Avraham makes his servant swear to keep to this plan.
“And I will make you swear by the G-d of heaven and the G-d of the land that you will not take a wife for my son from among the daughters of Canaan, amongst whom I dwell” (Bereishis 24:3).
Avraham’s description of G-d of Heaven and earth is very interesting. On the one hand, G-d governs everything, so it doesn’t seem necessary to highlight “Heaven and earth.” On the other hand, perhaps it was a way of according Hashem honor, by highlighting the completeness of His sovereignty, or a way of threatening his servant and reminding him to keep his promise because there is nowhere he can go to escape G-d’s justice and watchful eye. Or perhaps Avraham was highlighting, as Rashi suggests, that Avraham has wrought a revolution and the G-d of the Heavens has been made familiar to the denizens of earth through his actions.
Ramban, however, takes Avraham to be making a more subtle comment on providence:
“The Holy One, blessed be He, is called G-d of the Land of Israel… and there is a secret here that I will write in the future, with G-d’s help.”
While it is true that Hashem is referred to as the G-d of the Land of Israel specifically at times (2 Kings 17:26, 2 Chron. 32:19), it is not immediately clear why Ramban thinks this notion is being highlighted here instead of some plainer explanation of the text. However, Ramban has a reason: Avraham, being careful with his words, made his servant swear by the G-d of Heaven and “the land,” but when he instructed his servant, he says something subtly and importantly different:
“And [his servant] said to him, ‘Perhaps the woman will not want to follow me to this land. Shall I then bring your son to the land that you left?’
Avraham said to him, ‘Be careful, lest you bring my son there. Hashem, G-d of Heaven, Who took me out of my father’s house and from my birthplace, and Who spoke to me and swore to me saying ‘to your children I will give this land,’ will send His messenger before you and you will take a wife for my son from there’ (24:5-7).
Perhaps read the verse again carefully to see how Ramban, a subtle and helpful teacher, adduces his evidence. When Avraham describes Hashem to his servant, he calls G-d only the G-d of Heaven. Why the inconsistency? What does it point to?
Note as well Avraham’s next words to his servant. He does not tell his servant that G-d will be with him and guide him towards a wife for Yitzchak. Instead, he tells him G-d will send a messenger to help. Why so?
Ramban takes Avraham’s words as a hint. In Israel, G-d helps; outside of Israel, He sends a messenger. In Israel, we may refer to G-d as G-d of the Land; outside of Israel, subject to indirect providence, we are akin, as the Sages say, “to one who has no G-d.” Avraham is not praising G-d as G-d of earth; he is communicating a secret of providence; his phrasing is not merely a matter of rhetoric but a window into a metaphysical structure of Divine governance. This is the secret that Ramban refers to, which he elaborates on much later in the Torah.
When Moshe teaches the laws of Jewish sexual propriety, he highlights an unusual connection between those laws and the Land of Israel. Hashem tells the people:
“Do not become defiled through any of these. Because through these the nations that I am sending away before you were defiled. And the land was defiled, and I visited its sin upon her, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. So, guard these laws and statues and do not perform these perversions… so the land will not vomit you out when you defile it as it threw up the nation before you” (Vayikra 18: 24-29).
Ramban comments there at length and it is worth reading in full. However, we will cite him in short to make the point. Responding to the odd connection between the Land and laws of sexual propriety, Ramban writes:
“Now, the laws of sexual morality are obligations of the body and they are not dependent on the land. But the secret of this matter is… that G-d created everything and placed the power of the lower beings in the higher beings, and He appointed over each and every people and land a governing power in Heaven, and above those highest angels to be authorities over them…
And while G-d is the source of all power and master over all authorities in the world, only the Land of Israel… is the portion of G-d, special to Him; He did not place any angel, appointee, officer, or sovereign over it when He gave it to His people.”
In other words, G-d’s providence is direct in the Land of Israel and it is directed through messengers outside of it. In Israel, due to G-d’s closeness, sin is less tolerable and so the land may spit us out (again).
This is a fascinating notion. As my teachers told me as a child, back when this example would have still made sense to children, being in Israel is like making a direct call; being outside of Israel is like making a long-distance call. We can only assume that nowadays, teachers tell students something more like “being outside of Israel is like trying to Zoom with an iffy connection.”
In truth, G-d can always be called out to directly, it is a mitzvah to do so, and it is forbidden to pray to angels or whatever providential messengers Hashem has created, be it spiritual beings or the laws of physics. So, this notion is not really about prayer as much as it is about how we are governed. Does Hashem deal with us directly? Or more indirectly? Should we sense His interest most closely? Or should we sense some distance? Concomitantly, when we sin, is it like sinning in the room with our Father? When we perform a mitzvah, do we feel as close to Him?
All of this is hinted at, according to Ramban, in Avraham’s words to his servant. Indeed, once we see Ramban’s comments in Vayikra, it is easier to understand why he thought his tradition regarding Hashem’s relatively direct or indirect providence was being referred to.
So, what shall we make of this? Let us consider the following ideas.
For many people, Ramban’s notion of Hashem’s special interest in the Land of Israel may explain why they feel a special kind of spiritual uplift when they are there but not when they are outside of the Land. Furthermore, we may have the sense, in the rest of the world, that there is something incomplete in our spiritual lives and mitzvah observance, something that can only find full manifestation within Israel. Israel is much more than a homeland, in this view, it is the “land that G-d always investigates; the eyes of Hashem, your L-rd are always on it from the beginning of the year until the end” (Devarim 11:12).
On the flip side, it is interesting to reflect on life in Israel. G-d’s special closeness does not mean that everything is rainbows and ice cream, that we need not work, fight, build, invest, and struggle. Anyone with two eyes to see knows that being in Israel does not mean that we can simply pray for success at work, in marriage, in parenthood, cultural and economic development, or physical safety. In Israel, we experience more direct providence. This does not prove to be, however, some kind of shortcut or guarantee of ease or success in life. Indeed, we all know how hard things can be; perhaps being in the Land requires more of us, or life is just a series of challenges to be met with wisdom no matter what the context.
Israel, then, is a place of Divine closeness, spiritual elevation, even special wisdom; at the same time, it is a place that most truly brings home how hard we need to work to succeed in this world. We must be extraordinarily wise, of great character, and make only good choices. Wisdom comes only through Torah study, honest prayer, and the habits and culture of mitzvah observance. This is true no matter where we are. And if we are cognizant of our many challenges, we will see that we need to get to work, to become people of action, organization, strength, influence, and power. If we do a good job of crafting ourselves and our society, then, with G-d’s help, we may break through our many struggles and find redemption.