The Land of Israel

MyLife Essay Contest 2018

There are two burning issues facing the Jewish people today.
1-Those who seek to destroy us
2-How to hasten the coming of Moshiach

They are obviously intimately connected and herein is a solution to both, using Chassidus as the key.

Rashi, teaches, in his explanation of the first sentence of the Torah, that we, the Jewish people, have the power, through communicating with non-Jews, to establish ownership of the land of Israel. He explains why the Torah begins as history, “in the beginning Hashem created etc.” rather than with the first Mitzvah. He says the reason is that when a non -Jew comes to you and says that you have stolen the land, you will answer him that the world was created by Hashem and He can take it from whom he wants and give it to whom he wants. Therefore, it is an article of faith [that our response to the non-Jews who are telling us, in effect, that “you have stolen the land”] that it is our land as a birthright as sons of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Chassidus, in general, and Chabad Chassidus, in particular, allows us to internalize faith [EMUNAH] through our intellect. That we are able to answer the nations’ complaint is a nice debating point and even more is absolutely true. However, our faith in the truth of the Torah on this point must be internalized thoroughly enough that we are able to accomplish a complete agreement by the nations, of the truth of this matter. The land, the whole land of Israel is ours through a decree of the King and creator of the universe.

Chassidus explains that each country has a spiritual, heavenly minister, a type of angel that rules that country as sited in Iggres Kodesh of Tanya chapter 25, the Zohar and even in Chumash. At the splitting of the sea the Jews saw the heavenly minister -angel of the Egyptians coming to fight for them.

It is obvious these spiritual bosses descend and ascend in power and influence, probably according to the spinning of the constellations [MAZALOS]. Sometimes the minister of Egypt is ascendant and they rule the world, and sometimes the minister of Rome is ascendant and they rule the world. And so too, at one point, the minister of England was ascendant and they were very powerful and had the power to sign a paper giving Israel to the Jews. But now the minister of England has descended and those on the ascent do not recognize that English decree.

Chabad Chassidus, through the instruction and Torah of the Rebbe, allows us to internalize our faith to the point we can bring it down through our intellect so that it can be manifest in our thought, speech and action in order to perfect our personal life and the world around us.

The Rebbe tells us in his talk titled “On the Essence of Chassidus” that Chassidus is a new light from the inner level of the supernal crown, a very exalted level of G-dly revelation. Through the practice of Chabad Chassidus we can internalize the teaching and are able to accomplish great victory through it. Like a person who eats nutritious food is able to use it for strength and health. But it is essential to know that we are fed this nutrition by the Rebbe who stands in the place of Moses, the shepherd of faith, in each generation.

In a Sicha on Motzie Shabbos Bereshis 5738 the Rebbe said that the solution to peace in Israel is to announce to the non-Jews that Israel is ours because it was given to us by a decree of the Hashem, the King of the universe. The Rebbe said that when we do that, the heavenly princes who control those nations will bow down and accede to the will of the King. And that the physical leaders of those nations will go along with the acceptance of the decree of the King and even help us and nourish us, because they will see it as a benefit to themselves and their country whether politically or financially etc.

On Shabbos Bereshies 5724 The Rebbe tells a story which he heard from the previous Rebbe which further illustrates this point and explains it in more detail allowing it to be internalized to a greater degree. The point being that the Jewish people have the G-d given right and ability to claim full ownership of the land of Israel by stating the unvarnished truth to the nonJewish nations that the land is ours because it was given to us by the King of the Universe. Furthermore the story connects this point to hastening the coming of Moshiach.

The Rebbe related that when the Alter Rebbe first came from Medrtch to Liadi he was already crowned with the crown of strength and beauty as the first Rebbe of Chabad. One of the first Torah teachings he taught was a Torah the Baal Shem Tov heard from the palace of Moshiach. It was a Torah illuminating the very same first sentence of the Torah that Rashi explained. “In the beginning, the Lord [ELOKIM] created the heaven and the earth.”

The Alter Rebbe related that he was delivering this Torah in the name of both the Baal Shem Tov and Moshiach together with their blessing that it would be revealed in the inner reaches of every Jewish heart.

“In the Beginning” The Alter Rebbe related that the word “beginning” indicates the “beginning of G-dly service”. This “beginning of G-dly service” is indicated by the next phrase, “created” [BARA] which the Alter Rebbe interpreted as to “reveal” that the Lord [ELOKIM] who created the Heaven and Earth is no other than our G-d [HAVAYE] Hashem. The aspect of G-dliness indicated by the name HAVAYE is the G-dly manifestation which is higher than limitations of nature. So the beginning of G-dly service is to reveal that the Lord [ELOKIM] who is hidden in nature [the heaven and earth] is actually Hashem Who is not constricted by limitations of nature. The name HAVAYE is hidden in the phrase “the Heaven and the Earth” The first letter of each word of the phrase “the heaven and the earth spells out a very high construction of the name HAVAYE.

In our case this indicates that even though it appears, in the order of things, that the nations are very powerful and they say that we have no right to the land, our service is to reveal to them that our G-d, Hashem, is really the ruler of nature and his will is the essential fact of creation.

Torah says, that He gives his people the inheritance of the nations.

In explaining the inner significance of this story the Baal Shem Tov received from the palace of Moshiach, Our Rebbe points out the significance of the fact that the very beginning of the whole Torah [our spiritual and physical connection to Hashem] is an instruction about a conversation with a non-Jew. And he explains that Hashem gives to his people the inheritance of the nations. That in telling a non-Jew that Israel is ours because it is designated as ours by the creator and King of the universe, we are actually choosing and acquiring the G-dly sparks of good that fell and became mixed with not good through the incident of eating of the Tree of Knowledge. So by listening to the complaint of the non-Jew and answering him, we are not just stating our case for ownership of the land but actually acquiring the land
through an act of ownership.

It is not in the preview of this essay to suggest strategy for broadcasting this announcement in a public way. But in his explanation of the story the story sited above the Rebbe tells us that each of has a personal non-Jew, the animal soul, and the first step in acquiring the land is to internalize in that animal through its rational consciousness that Havaya is Elokim , that Hashem really rules nature. So that by strengthening our own assurance of our ownership of the land we will be able to manifest it in the reality of the greater world.

And when we accomplish this it will bring about the blessing of Moshiach and the Baal Shem Tov in the depth of our hearts. And, as is known and brought down in the Sicha from 5738 that words from the heart sink to the heart and accomplish their intention.