I. Holy People, Holy Land
THE CORE IDEA
The Question: I had been engaged in dialogue for two years with an imam from the Middle East, a gentle and seemingly moderate man. One day, in the middle of our conversation, he turned to me and asked, “Why do you Jews need a land? After all, Judaism is a religion, not a country or a nation.”
I decided at that point to discontinue the dialogue. There are fifty- six Islamic states and more than a hundred nations in which Christians form the majority of the population. There is only one Jewish state, 1/25th the size of France, roughly the same size as the Kruger National Park in South Africa. With those who believe that Jews, alone among the nations of the world, are not entitled to their own land, it is hard to hold a conversation.
Yet the question is worth exploring. There is no doubt, as D. J. Clines explains in his book The Theme of the Pentateuch, that the central narrative of the Torah is the promise of and journey to the land of Israel. Yet why is this so? Why did the people of the covenant need their own land? Why was Judaism not, on the one hand, a religion that can be practised by individuals wherever they happen to be, or on the other, a religion like Christianity or Islam whose ultimate purpose is to convert the world so that everyone can practise the one true faith?
The best way of approaching an answer is through an important comment of the Ramban on this parasha. Chapter 18 contains a list of forbidden sexual practices. It ends with this solemn warning:
“Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. The land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you must keep My decrees and My laws…. If you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you” (Vayikra 18:24–28).
Ramban asks the obvious question: Reward and punishment in the Torah are based on the principle of midda kenegged midda, measure for measure. The punishment must fit the sin or crime. It makes sense to say that if the Israelites neglected or broke mitzvot hateluyot baaretz, the commands relating to the land of Israel, the punishment would be exile from the land of Israel. So the Torah says in the curses in Beḥukotai, “All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the sabbaths you lived in it” (Vayikra 26:35), meaning: This will be the punishment for not observing the laws of Shemitta, the Sabbatical Year. Shemitta is a command relating to the land. Therefore, the punishment for its non-observance is exile from the land.
But sexual offences have nothing to do with the land. They are mitzvot hateluyot baguf, commands relating to person, not place. Why is the Torah’s punishment for their transgression exile from the land?
QUESTIONS TO PONDER
1. Why do you think the world struggles to understand why Jews need a land?
2. What is the basis of Ramban’s question?
IT ONCE HAPPENED…
President Yitzchak Herzog began serving as Israel’s eleventh president on July 7, 2021. His service of the State of Israel followed in the footsteps of both his father, Chaim Herzog, who was Israel’s sixth president (1983–1993), and his grandfather, Rabbi Yitzchak Halevi Herzog, who was Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi between 1936 and 1959.
After the passing of Rabbi Sacks, President Herzog spoke often of how Rabbi Sacks had been an inspiration to him, reading many of his books (he was especially fond of Lessons in Leadership: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible, from which he drew weekly inspiration for his own leadership from the week’s parasha).
In his message to mark the first yahrtzeit of Rabbi Lord Sacks, President Herzog said, “Few figures in our history have shaped our global Jewish conversation as much as Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, zt”l. His call for a Judaism engaged with the world, his appeal to respect the dignity of difference, his cry to heal the fractured world, all these have inspired me personally and so many Jews all around the world.”
In his comments upon presenting the Genesis Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously to Rabbi Sacks, President Herzog said that “Rabbi Sacks became a masterful articulator of the Jewish foundation of universal values, while unapologetically verbalising a proud, dignified Jewish identity. His innate, God-given power of expression gave voice to the contribution of Judaism and the State of Israel to humanity at large” and that he “represented the history, the moral code, and the spirit of Judaism with dignity and adoration” and “valiantly advocated for the State of Israel.”
How fitting a tribute, from the president of the Jewish state, for which Rabbi Sacks was such an adamant supporter and advocate, and which he saw as central to his philosophy and critical to the fulfilment of the Jewish national mission.
QUESTIONS TO PONDER
1. Why do you think Rabbi Sacks was so proud of “the contribution of Judaism and the State of Israel to humanity”?
2. Why is it important that the values of Rabbi Sacks that President Herzog mentioned (a Judaism engaged with the world, respecting the dignity of difference, and the responsibility to heal the fractured world) are implemented in Israeli society?
THINKING MORE DEEPLY
The Answer: Ramban answers by stating that all the commands are intrinsically related to the land of Israel. It is simply not the same to put on tefillin or keep kashrut or observe Shabbat in the Diaspora as in Israel. In support of his position he quotes the Talmud (Ketubbot 110b), which says, “Whoever lives outside the land is as if he had no God,” and the Sifrei, that states, “Living in the land of Israel is of equal importance to all the commandments of the Torah.” The Torah is the constitution of a holy people in the Holy Land.
Ramban explains this mystically but we can understand it non-mystically by reflecting on the opening chapters of the Torah and the story they tell about the human condition and about God’s disappointment with the only species – us – He created in His image. God sought a humanity that would freely choose to do the will of its Creator. Humanity chose otherwise. Adam and Ḥava sinned. Kayin murdered his brother Hevel. Within a short time “the earth was filled with violence” and God “regretted that He had made human beings on earth.” He brought a flood and began again, this time with the righteous Noaḥ, but again humans disappointed Him by building a city with a tower on which they sought to reach heaven, and God chose another way of bringing humanity to recognise Him – this time not by universal rules (though these remained, namely the covenant with all humanity through Noaḥ), but by a living example: Avraham, Sara, and their children.
In Bereshit chapter 18 the Torah makes clear what God sought from Avraham: that he would teach his children and his household after him “to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just.” Homo sapiens is, as both Aristotle and Rambam said, a social animal, and righteousness and justice are features of a good society. We know from the story of Noaḥ and the ark that a righteous individual can save themselves but not the society in which they live, unless they transform the society in which they live.
Taken collectively, the commands of the Torah are a prescription for the construction of a society with the consciousness of God at its centre. God asks the Jewish people to become a role model for humanity by the shape and texture of the society they build, a society characterised by justice and the rule of law, welfare, and concern for the poor, the marginal, the vulnerable, and the weak, a society in which all would have equal dignity under the sovereignty of God. Such a society would win the admiration, and eventually the emulation, of others:
“See, I have taught you decrees and laws...so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. Observe them carefully, for this will be your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’... What other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?” (Devarim 4:5–8).
A society needs a land, a home, a location in space, where a nation can shape its own destiny in accord with its deepest aspirations and ideals. Jews have been around for a long time, almost four thousand years since Avraham began his journey. During that period they have lived in every country on the face of the earth, under good conditions and bad, freedom and persecution. Yet in all that time there was only one place where they formed a majority and exercised sovereignty, the land of Israel, a tiny country of difficult terrain and all too little rainfall, surrounded by enemies and empires. Only in Israel is the fulfilment of the commands a society-building exercise, shaping the contours of a culture as a whole. Only in Israel can we fulfil the commands in a land, a landscape, and a language saturated with Jewish memories and hopes. Only in Israel does the calendar track the rhythms of the Jewish year. In Israel, Judaism is part of the public square, not just the private, sequestered space of synagogue, school, and home.
Jews need a land because they are a nation charged with bringing the Divine Presence down to earth in the shared spaces of our collective life, not least – as the last chapter of Aḥarei Mot makes clear – by the way we conduct our most intimate relationships, a society in which marriage is sacrosanct and sexual fidelity the norm.
That contains a message for Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike. To Christians and Muslims it says: If you believe in the God of Avraham, grant that the children of Avraham have a right to the land that the God in whom you believe promised them, and to which He promised that after exile they would return.
I believe to Jews it says: That very right comes hand in hand with a duty to live individually and collectively by the standards of justice and compassion, fidelity and generosity, love of neighbour and of stranger, that alone constitute our mission and destiny: a holy people in the Holy Land.
QUESTION TO PONDER
Do you think the modern State of Israel fulfils this role today?
FROM THE THOUGHT OF RABBI SACKS
Let us renew our attachment to the land and State of Israel. For there, in the land where we were born as a people, we have been reborn as a people. Because of Israel, after two thousand years Jews have taken up their destiny once again as a sovereign people. Because of Israel, there is some place that every Jew whose life or liberty is threatened can call home. Because of Israel, Jewish learning flourishes as never before and as nowhere else. Without sidestepping any of the dilemmas Israel faces, let our love for it be unequivocal and our attachment to its people unbreakable.
The Power of Ideas, 27–28
AROUND THE SHABBAT TABLE
How are the mitzvot “a prescription for the construction of a society with the consciousness of God at its centre”?
Why can Jews only build this society in their own homeland?
Can Jews fulfil the national mission of the Jewish people while living in the Diaspora?
EDUCATIONAL COMPANION TO THE QUESTIONS
IN A NUTSHELL
The symbolism of this ritual is that the sins of the Jewish people are “placed on the goat” which was then sent away into the wilderness as a kind of sacrifice. As the goat is sent away, the sins “go with it” and are absolved and disappear. A scapegoat is someone (or a group of people) who are blamed for something that is not their fault, in much the same way as the goat did not actually commit the sins it is being sent away for.
THE CORE IDEA
Religions that are purely a belief system, even if they have a normative and practical element to them, can be practised by anyone anywhere. Christianity is an example of this. Although there are many Christian countries, where the dominant faith is Christianity, the Christian faith of the inhabitants is not dependent on them living in those countries. The faith of the people practising Christianity there is no different from a Christian living in a Muslim country as part of a minority community. However, Judaism is a religion for one specific people (it is not a private faith like other religions), and is designed to be practised by that nation in a nation-state. In its fullest version, Judaism must be practised in a Jewish state.
The basis of the Ramban’s question is the understanding that punishments in the Torah are always connected to the sin. He is expecting this punishment to be midda kenegged midda, measure for measure, and fitting for the sin. But in this case there seems no connection between sexual immorality and exile from the land.
IT ONCE HAPPENED…
Rabbi Sacks believed that God gave the Jewish people a national mission, to improve the world through national modelling of the core values of the Torah. When Jews model these values, and especially the State of Israel (as a true national expression of the values of the Jewish people), making a contribution to humanity, Rabbi Sacks felt deeply proud of this. He believed it was a fulfilment of the Jewish national mission.
If these values can be integrated into Israeli society, then Israel will be the light unto the nations as a nation that models the values of the Torah and a fulfilment of the Jewish national mission.
THINKING MORE DEEPLY
The State of Israel is by no means perfect. There is much hard work to do to perfect Israeli society and ensure it becomes a “light unto the nations” in fulfilment of the Jewish national mission. But we can be proud, as Rabbi Sacks was, that on the whole the values of justice, compassion, fidelity, generosity, and love are at the heart of Israel as a society.
AROUND THE SHABBAT TABLE
Judaism’s genius was to take high ideals and translate them into everyday life by simple daily deeds, through mitzvot. Performing mitzvot, we come close to God, becoming His “partner in the work of creation.” Judaism is a series of truths that only become true by virtue of the fact that we have lived them. By living them we turn the “ought” into the “is.” We make a fragment of perfection in an imperfect world and create a living truth, a life of faith. By keeping mitzvot, we help transform the world that “is” into the world that “ought to be.” Judaism is the code of a self-governing society. Because Judaism is the code of a society, it is also about the social virtues: righteousness, justice, loving-kindness, and compassion. These structure the template of biblical law, which covers all aspects of the life of society, its economy, its welfare systems, its education, family life, employer-employee relations, the protection of the environment, and so on. (These ideas are based on Future Tense, 135–136.)
The building of a society based on these values is not possible without a land. Judaism is the constitution of a self-governing nation, the architectonics of a society dedicated to the service of God in freedom and dignity. Without a land and state, Judaism is a shadow of itself. In exile, God might still live in the hearts of Jews but not in the public square, in the justice of the courts, the morality of the economy, and the humanitarianism of everyday life. Jews have lived in almost every country under the sun. In four thousand years, only in Israel have they been a free, self-governing people. Only in Israel are they able, if they so choose, to construct an agriculture, a medical system, an economic infrastructure in the spirit of the Torah and its concern for freedom, justice, and the sanctity of life. Only in Israel can Jews live Judaism in anything other than an edited edition. (These ideas are based on Future Tense, 135–136.)
They can as individuals, modelling in an individual and personal way the values and ideals of the Torah. But as a nation, building a society based on these values, this can only happen in Israel. “Without a land and state, Judaism is a shadow of itself. In exile, God might still live in the hearts of Jews but not in the public square, in the justice of the courts, the morality of the economy, and the humanitarianism of everyday life” (Future Tense, 136).