In 5627 (1867), the well-known American writer Mark Twain toured the Land of Israel. Known for his sharp pen and sober perspective, he found little here to admire. In his travelogue The Innocents Abroad, he described a land under fading Ottoman rule in stark and unsettling terms. He called it the “prince of depressing scenery." He saw barren hills, gray tones, and valleys that he described as “ugly deserts fringed with a thin vegetation that has an expression of sorrow and despair." He concluded that it was a “boundless, silent desolation."
Yet what Twain saw as the tragedy of an abandoned land was, in truth, the precise fulfillment of a Torah statement found at the heart of Parshas Bechukotai. On the verse, “I will bring the land into desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it," Nachmanides reveals a remarkable dimension of consolation. The Ramban explains that this is “good news" for all the exiles-that our Land does not accept our enemies. It is not natural for a land that was once broad and fertile to remain desolate for hundreds of years despite continuous attempts to settle it. This is proof that the Land remains faithful to its children and refuses to show favor to strangers.
The awakening of the Land from this long stagnation reached its height before my very eyes. I remember well the Israel of 5727 (1967), when I arrived here for the first time immediately after the Six-Day War. The sense of miracle was tangible. Only two decades had passed since the Holocaust, and the entire Jewish world was gripped by deep existential anxiety and the fear of another destruction. And then, in six days, everything changed. The victory did not only secure the borders of the State; it ignited an unprecedented revival of Jewish spirit and identity throughout the Diaspora. We moved from existential fear to the heights of national renewal, with the climax being the liberation and reunification of Jerusalem, together with the return to Yehudah and Shomron.
This process was not only spiritual; it required recognition of practical sovereignty. Already in 5724 (1964), when Syria attempted to strangle the young state by diverting the sources of the Jordan River, Levi Eshkol understood that water security is national security and established the National Water Carrier. The struggle over the water system ultimately led to control of the Golan Heights-that vital territory which makes defensible borders possible and enables economic growth.
Even today, in 5786 (2026), as we stand facing threats on multiple fronts, the lesson remains unchanged. Our resilience is embodied in figures of remarkable strength, such as Charlotte Roth, a Holocaust survivor of Auschwitz who endured the horrors and chose to make aliyah to Eretz Yisrael two months ago, at the age of 96.
The fact that a woman who passed through the crematoria chose to come “home" at nearly one hundred years of age is the clearest proof that the Land and the People are bound to one another. She and her descendants-already numbering five generations in the Land-are a powerful and decisive answer to all who seek our harm. When asked "Why Now during the war with Iran and her allies?" She replied: "The Germans weren't successful in killing me, the Iranians won't be successful."
The Shomron, too, is flourishing before our eyes, and we see fulfilled the words of the prophet Jeremiah (31:4): “You shall yet plant vineyards in the mountains of Shomron; the planters shall plant and enjoy the fruit." Today, wineries producing wine from the Shomron are receiving awards and medals in competitions around the world.
But we must look directly at the truth: all the technology and military sophistication are only the tools through which Divine providence operates. The events we witness today-when hundreds of missiles from Iran and its proxies are intercepted in ways that defy expectation-are nothing less than a clear manifestation of the “Finger of God." Just as in 5727 (1967), so too today the promise is fulfilled before our eyes: “The Lord will fight for you, and you shall remain silent."
The Golan Heights, Yehudah, Shomron, and a united Jerusalem are not merely strategic assets. They are the living proof that the Land flourishes only under Jewish sovereignty. Yom Yerushalayim is a time to give thanks for the transformation of Twain’s “wasteland" into a land of blessing-and to recognize that this process continues before our eyes, guiding us forward, step by step, toward the complete redemption.