"I implored HaShem at that time, saying: 'My L-rd, HaShem, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your strong hand, for what power is there in the heavens or on the earth that can perform according to Your deeds and according to Your mighty acts?'"


Moshe Rabbeinu is holding out against all hope, that maybe - just maybe - he would be

Why would our sages of old ask whether Moshe wanted to eat the fruits of Israel?

allowed to enter into the Land of Israel. Literally hundreds of prayers are set forth to Heaven by Moshe to break the degree against him not to enter the Land. Still, HaShem holds fast and the decree stands: Moshe is not allowed to enter the Land of Israel.


Our rabbis in the Talmud question the reason why Moshe wanted so much to enter the Land of Israel. They ask: Was it to eat of its fruits?


Here, though, we must take a moment and ask ourselves: Why would our sages of old ask whether Moshe wanted to eat the fruits of Israel? Certainly Moshe, the greatest prophet of all time, would not be in need of anything physical. Certainly, a nice pear or banana would not be on the top-ten list of a person like Moshe.


However, there is something to the question of our rabbis. The commentary of the Bach tells us that the Land of Israel is sacred, with a special holiness that is not dependent on any of the commandments that deal with the Land; rather, its holiness is from the beginning of time. If so, writes the Bach, how is this holiness manifested? The Bach answers: being that the Land is holy, and one cannot eat the soil of the Land, by eating the fruits of the Land of Israel one gets the special holiness whose sparks are in its fruit.


So, too, the Ramban writes about the year of Sh'mitah - the seventh year - that it is a positive commandment from the Torah, one of the 613, to eat the fruits of the Land of Israel from that year, as they have a special holiness in them. So we see that the question of the sages on the motive of Moshe to enter the Land of Israel - to eat of its fruits - does have value. In this light, we find the sages of Israel rolling in the dirt of the Land because of its greatness and holiness.


Still, the Talmud answers that Moshe wanted to enter the Land to fulfill the commandments of the Torah; not some of the commandments, but all of them. Our rabbis teach us that the commandments of the Torah were given to the Jewish people only in the Land of Israel. So, too, writes the Ramban, who tells us that the only reason one does commandments in the exile is so that upon one's return to the Land of Israel, the commandments will not be new to one. If not for this reason, a Jew would be exempt from performing the commandments outside the Land.


In this light, we can sympathize with Moshe only too well. During his whole life, Moshe was the faithful shepherd to the Jewish people, but now that he was so, so close to the Land, how could it be that he could not enter?


Our rabbis tell us that one who lives outside the Land is as if he has no G-d and as one that worships idols. For all who walk four amot in the Land have a place in the next world, and all who are buried in the Land, their sins are atoned.

Our rabbis tell us that one who lives outside the Land is as if he has no G-d.



However, what seems to have been bothering Moshe is not really bothering our brothers and sisters who live in the exile today. How can this be? Something so fundamental to the Jewish people does not bother the great numbers of Jews living outside the Land today. In previous years, over the past 2,000 years of exile, when it was almost impossible to get to the Holy Land and even harder to sustain oneself and family back then, it would be understandable, but what will one say after his 120 years in this world to the Master of the Universe? That it is difficult to live in the Land today? True, it might be a bit more difficult living in the Land than in the exile, but will that be a valid excuse in the next world? If so, then how is it that some 5.5 million Jews live here in the Land today?


How great will be the portion of those who daily walk the streets of the Land of Israel, who have become part of the Redemption process. And how totally embarrassed will be those who are only doing the commandments today so as not to forget them. And they don't even know what was bothering Moshe....