Our sedra is known as Parshat Eretz Yisrael. While virtually every sedra stresses the centrality of Israel, Ekev makes it crystal clear that G-d, Torah and Eretz Yisrael form the three-legged stool upon which the Jewish People rests.


Yet, there are numerous other subjects which Moshe Rabbeinu raises in the sedra. One of them is the Mahn, the Heaven-sent food which sustained us throughout our desert experience. Moshe says it was given to us "to test us." Yet if the Mahn fell every morning - with little or no effort from us - then what was the test? And how is the Mahn related to Eretz Yisrael?


The test of the Mahn lay in the fact that no matter how much we collected, it lasted only one day (except for the double portion - the LechemMishne - of Shabbat). No one could hoard the Mahn or save it "for a rainy day." Why? Because HaShem wanted us to "work" for our subsistence, with avoda sheh'b'lev - the work of the heart.

Mahn is closely related to money.



The fact that we did not know for sure where tomorrow's meal would come from - in the midst of a harsh wilderness where no other nourishment was available - prompted us to pray to HaShem and be thankful when the next day's food fell from Heaven.


In this sense, Mahn is closely related to money (mahn-ee?), which, if we have too much of it, can often lead us to believe more in ourselves than in G-d, and become less desperate and intense in our prayers to Him for parnasa.


And this is the connection to Eretz Yisrael as well. The parsha reminds us that Israel is not like Egypt, where the Nile overflows its banks and waters the land; where you look down and you see water. Israel depends upon the rain for its fertility. Here, one must look up to Shamayim for our deliverance.


The message? We have been given a marvelous land, unequaled on Earth, a land where every element of topography and geography can be found: desert, ocean, river, mountain, tropical sun and snow-capped peaks. You can scuba dive in the morning in beautiful Eilat, and slide on the snow of the Hermon in the afternoon.


But the performance of the land, and our ability to live here safely and successfully, depends upon our behavior. If we do not take Israel for granted, if we act morally and justly, if we acknowledge that this is truly "G-d's country," and daily cry out to Him for His divine protection and grace, if we are willing to sacrifice for the right to be here, then and only then will the rains come and we will merit eternal presence in our land.


Egypt or Turkey may have natural sources of abundant water at hand. But not Israel; we have to cry us a river.