Land of Yearning

I’Msitting on an El Al flight listening to the captain introduce himself over the PA system. He rattles off the flight details, then concludes in Hebrew, “and then we’ll be home.”

I relate completely. This summer marks 14 years since the Meichin Mitzadei Gaver led our family to the United States, in Far Rockaway, but Eretz Yisrael will always be home. The thought of not living there still moves me to tears. When I look at the Atlantic, less than a mile from my current residence, I imagine how a long swim would bring me to my real home.

Land of Milk and Honey

We’re entering the time of year when we make an extra effort to feel the absence of the Mikdash, to sense our exile from our Land. What’s different about Eretz Yisrael that Jews throughout the ages have pined to kiss its dust?

It features beautiful mountains and stunning scenery (not to mention the ubiquitous ice coffee on every corner and the fabulous spas), but that isn’t what draws Jews here. Eretz Yisrael is the land where the mitzvos are meant to be kept; it’s here that they’re most pertinent and natural. In fact, this phenomenon goes so far that the pasuk in Vayikra (18:28) exhorts us to stay away from the immoral acts of the nations who lived there before us so that “the Land shall not spit you out.” There’s no other land that has an anthropological response of disgust for errant inhabitants.