Eretz Yisrael as the bridge for the Torah of Israel and the Nation of Israel

So where does Israel fit in to all of this?

Israel is the bridge for the Torah of Israel and the Nation of Israel. The Torah of Israel and the People of Israel can not be in harmony with each other anywhere but Israel. There are of course many different levels on which that can be argued. The simplest level on which this can be shown is that which takes into account the history and culture of the Jews. For how can a people develop properly in a foreign land? How is it possible to develop a Jewish culture in a non-Jewish environment? The answer to that is much more obvious and simple than we often like to admit, it isn't. Rav Kahane quotes an Arab women in his book They Must Go where he points out the popular awareness of this in the Arab sector of Israel in quoting a women who told him that "the majority culture is always oppressive, it can't be otherwise.

A case in point. I am writing this paper in English. But English is not the language of the Jews. English is a second language for God. And worse, much worse, because so many American Jews speak English, and only English, they are presented with a major stumbling block if they wish to try and discover their own heritage, religion, philosophy, history, and culture. Without a knowledge of Hebrew (among other languages) one cannot delve into Jewish texts, and so, having grown up in America, we speak English, and indeed, this is an example of the oppression of majority culture that we often don't even think about, and yet think about its consequences! Think about how many Jews can't follow davening (the prayer service)! Think about how many Jews can't read and understand the beauty and poetry in the Torah, the words of God and prophets to man! These are horrible things! In Israel, even the most secular Jew, even one who is very far removed from Torah is not under the oppression of a foreign culture (of course, that needs to be modified, and the influence of outside cultures on Israeli society will be addressed in time). A secular Jew in Israel can walk into shul and follow the davening/prayer service. This is no small thing! Let us not undervalue the blessing of living in a Jewish society!

Indeed, this very line of thinking is taken by some of the greatest commentators of the Medieval ages. Ya'akov avinu, Jacob our Patriarch, when God first appears to him in Genesis chapter 28 responds with a vow. Included in this vow are the words, "Then the Eternal shall be my God." Of course, at first sight, this seems like quite a problem, it seems as if Ya'akov/Jacob is saying that God will only be his God if this vow is fulfilled, but otherwise He (God) is not a God to him! How could this be? I quote the Ramban (Nachmanidies):

THEN THE ETERNAL SHALL BE MY GOD. This is not a condition, as Rashi would have it. It is rather a vow, and its purport is as follows: "If I will return to my father's house, I will worship the proper Name of the Eternal in the Chosen Land at the location of this stone which will be for me a house of God, and there I will set aside the tithe." There is in this matter a secret relating to that which the Rabbis have said: "He who dwells outside the Land of Israel is like one who has no God." Thus, according to the meaning of the above quotation, the Eternal will be Jacob's God only when he returns to the Land of Israel. -Ramban, Genesis, 29:21.

At the most basic level, we have the Ramban's statement explaining the "secret" of the Rabbis when they said, "He who dwells outside the Land of Israel is like one who has no God." But how does this explain Jacob's vow? And how does Ramban's statement "Thus, according to the meaning of the above quotation, the Eternal will be Jacob's God only when he returns to the Land of Israel" make sense in this context and actually serve as an explaination?

In order to answer this question we must get back to our original theme and purpose, that being to understand the way in which the Land of Israel fits into all of this. What has the Land of Israel got to do with the Torah of Israel, with the Nation of Israel, and with the ability to believe in a God or participate in a community? How does that make any sense whatsoever?

We can only begin to make sense of this question when we have come to understand what God's purpose was in creating the Jewish Nation, for indeed He did create it. Remember the rhetorical question read in the hagadah as we remember that our Nation's existence came about through His creation and miracles, "for who is like the Lord, who creates one nation from the midst of another?" I used to often wonder why the Torah and Judaism places such a great stress on the events in Egypt, our Exodus, and the underlying (and often explicity stated) theme that it is God Himself who is bringing us out from Egypt and creating the Nation of Israel. At least a partial answer to this question lies in the connection between God's creation of the Nation of Israel, and the purpose behind that creation.

The Jew is not inherently a special creature. We are no different from any other being, man or woman. There is nothing essential about the Jew that causes him to be a more perfect human being than any of the other parts of the human brotherhood. Rather, it was what was bestowed upon the Jewish People that make them special. It was, it IS, the reason and purpose behind Gods' choice of the Jewish People that makes us a special people. One is chosen for a purpose, for a mission, and we would be foolish for this reason alone to think that 'The Chosen' are any different in this regard. Of course we would be much more foolish since we would have to ignore all the references to this mission in the Torah and Rabbinical thinking as well, we would have to deny nearly everything that makes Judaism Judaism. So what was the mission that God choise the Jewish People to fulfill, and why did God have to create the Jewish People out of the midst of Egyptial slavery to fulfill it?

Quite simply, the Jewish Mission, and our destiny, is to manifest God's existence here in the world by brining all mankind to come to know, love, and fear God. As is stated throughout the book of Genesis our mission is to "call out in God's name." Ramban, in another section of his Commentary on the Torah tells us that "to call out in God's name" means to teach and educate others about God, and to bring them closer to a realization of the truth of the One God and join in His worship.