In his prolific essays and letters, Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook repeatedly stresses that in our time of the ingathering of our exiles and the rebuilding of the Israelite Nation in the Land of Israel there is a pressing obligation to learn Torah in all of its depth and all-encompassing horizons. He states that anyone who teaches Torah without recognizing the stirrings of Redemption pushing the Jewish People forward today, will not be able to understand the truth of the Torah.
He asserts that it is the dry, mechanical learning of Gemara and Halakhah which characterizes the Torah study in galut (known as “four cubits of Halakhah”) and the alienation from Eretz Yisrael which has brought the Jewish People to a spiritual low, resulting in the many crises facing the Jewish Nation.
An example of this can be seen in essays on the Torah portion of “Lech Lecha” written by Torah Scholars in the Diaspora. This past week, scanning Torah sites on the Internet, I found many essays which removed Eretz Yisrael from the portion. The meaning of the command “Lech lecha,” they professed, was to journey to your inner self. No geographic command was intended. The journey of Avraham was meant to teach people to get in touch with themselves and to be who you are. For instance, a popular Rabbi in America writes:
"Yes, Avraham traveled - but God was telling him that the journey that mattered most wasn’t geographical. It was existential. Lech lecha - “Go to yourself.” Wherever you go, don’t lose sight of the true destination - you. Every step on the road was really a step inward. Modern science backs up this ancient truth. Psychologists refer to it as the “geographic cure” - the mistaken belief that a new city, a new house, or a new job will magically solve life’s frustrations..."
Altthough this may be so, it seems to be usinng the verses of the Torah in order to justify Jewish life in Brooklyn, Boca, Beverly Hills, or Berlin. Perhaps, to judge this perspective in a favorable light, we can understand this “existential” explanation. After all, for some two-thousand years the Land of Israel was an unreachable dream for most Jews. So philosophies developed to make the miserable homeless Jew feel that he could serve Hashem in foreign, spiritually-polluted lands as well as in the Land which Hashem chose for the Jewish People. “Make Jerusalem wherever you are” became one slogan.
But now that any Jew can board an airplane and fly to Medinat Yisrael in a matter of hours, there is no longer a need for existential abstractions. “Get thee forth to the Land that I will show you!” Eretz Yisrael is a real geographic location! Hashem wants His children to live in the Land of the Jews - the Land of Israel - in the Holy Land!
Certainly, it is important to travel inward to oneself. But for a Jew, this can only truly be done in the Holy Land. If a Jew sets out on a journey which leaves him in California or Florida then he or she hasn’t traveled home all the way. Just as our forefathers were Israeli, returning to ourselves means returning to be Israelis - in the Land we came from before we were ousted by the Romans.
The final stop in the voyage to our innermost soul is the Land of Hashem - not Australia or Brazil. This should be obvious. Unfortunately, for many, including Torah Scholars, our love affair with gentile lands is stronger than our yearning for Zion - may Hashem have mercy. The Torah Giant, the Gaon of Vilna taught that the sin of the Spies in the Wilderness haunts the Jewish People throughout all generations and that many people are caught in its web, including Torah Scholars:
"Many of the transgressors in this great sin of, ‘They despised the cherished Land,’ including many of the guardians of Torah, will not know or understand that they are caught in this sin of the Spies, will not sense that they have been sucked into the sin of the Spies in fostering many false ideas and empty claims. And they cover their beliefs with the already proven fallacy that the commandment of settling the Land of Israel no longer applies in our day, an opinion which has already been proven false by the Torah giants of the world, both the early and later halachic authorities" (Kol HaTor, Ch.5).
He further states:
“The Geula (Redemption) will only come about through the learning of Torah, and the main factor of the Geula depends on the learning of the inner secrets” (Even HaShelma 11:3).
These inner secrets are found in the writings of Rabbi Kook, Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi, the Maharal, and in esoteric works such as they Zohar which explains that as a young man, Avraham searched to discover Hashem. In their very first encounter, Hashem’s initial words to Avraham were “Lech lecha!” If you want to come close to Me and discover your mission in life then go to the Land I will show you.
Only there, in that specific geographical location, will you understand what I have to tell you. Only there can you discover your true self and the source of your soul without the interferences and barriers (klipot) of polluted foreign influences. Only in the Land that is the ladder to God can your offspring become the Nation destined to bring Redemption to the world. Journey forth to the Land of Israel!
Tzvi Fishman was awarded the Israel Ministry of Education Prize for Jewish Culture and Creativity. Before making Aliyah to Israel in 1984, he was a successful Hollywood screenwriter. He has co-authored 4 books with Rabbi David Samson, based on the teachings of Rabbis A. Y. Kook and T. Y. Kook. His other books include: "The Kuzari For Young Readers" and "Tuvia in the Promised Land". His books are available on Amazon. Recently, he directed the movie, "Stories of Rebbe Nachman."