The Land I Will Show You, sec. 7, chapter 3
The Land I Will Show You, sec. 7, chapter 3
The Opinion of Ramban: Eretz Yisrael is the Place Exclusive to Hashem
(For the previous chapter of “The Land I Will Show You, click here. For the ToC, click here.)
3: The Opinion of Ramban: Eretz Yisrael is the Place Exclusive to Hashem
According to Ramban, the virtue of the Land of Israel lies in it being the land designated for the direct governance of Hashem, whereas other lands are governed by ministering angels. The land designated for Hashem was given to His special people, and since it is exclusively under Hashem’s governance, only one who resides within it is considered to have a god. As Ramban states:
The exalted Hashem created everything and placed the powers of the lower ones above and assigned a certain star and constellation to each nation and its lands... Above them He appointed angels as their ministers... The exalted Hashem is the God of gods and Lord of lords for the entire world, but Eretz Yisrael, being the center of habitation, is Hashem’s inheritance, designated for His name. No angelic minister or ruler was given governance over it, since He bequeathed it to His people who proclaim the unity of His name... For He has distinguished us from all peoples who have other princes and gods by giving us the land so that He, may He be blessed, will be our God and we will be designated to His name... Outside the Land of Israel, although everything belongs to the exalted Hashem, purity is not complete due to the ministers ruling over it, and nations stray after their ministers to worship them too... The exalted Hashem, may He be blessed, is the God of gods outside the land, and the God of the Land of Israel, which is Hashem’s inheritance..." In Sifrei (Deuteronomy, Sec. 315): "‘And with Him was no strange god’ (Deuteronomy 32:12) – that none of the ministers of the nations shall have the authority to come and rule over you, as it is said, ‘I left and behold, the minister of Greece comes’ (Daniel 10:20).” This is the meaning of their statement, “Whoever dwells outside the Land of Israel is as if he has no god” (Kesubos 110b)... In Tosefta Avoda Zara (5,5): “As long as you are in the Land of Canaan, I was a God for you; if you are not in the Land of Canaan, it is as if I am not a God for you”... The main purpose of all mitzvahs is for those dwelling in the Land of Hashem. Therefore, it says in Sifrei (Deuteronomy, Piska 80)... “Dwelling in the Land of Israel is equivalent to all the mitzvahs in the Torah”... This notion appears in many places in the Scriptures; you will see it explicitly in them now that I have opened your eyes to it.1
Eretz Yisrael is under Hashem’s governance, whereas the other lands are governed by angels, who are ministers over them. The other lands are the domain of their ministers, which is why the nations stray after their local ministers and worship them. The Torah’s warning against “other gods” refers to these angels, the ministers of the nations, whom the ancients worshipped, as Ramban explained:
“You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3)... It means that we should not have, apart from Hashem, other gods from among all the angels and all the hosts of heaven that are called gods... In my opinion, it mentions jealousy about idol worship regarding Israel alone, because Israel is Hashem’s treasure which He set apart for Himself... It does not apply to other nations to which have been allocated the heavenly hosts... The ancients began to worship the angels... Each one worshipped its minister, for the ancients knew them. They are all referred to in the Torah and Scriptures as “other gods.”2
Chid”a went beyond this and asserted that even Israelites living outside the Land of Israel and worshipping Hashem benefit the minister of that land with every Torah study and mitzvah they perform. Their worship does not seem to be dedicated to Hashem specifically, and for this reason they are considered as if they are worshipping foreign gods. This is his language:
The 70 ministers were each given by the Holy, blessed be He, a nation under his authority along with the land upon which it is. Thus, when Israel is under the authority of one minister in exile, amongst his nation and in his land, all the Torah and the mitzvahs that Israel does ascend above in the air of the lands of the nations to the domain of that minister... and the minister enjoys them. Therefore, the worship does not seem to be dedicated to Hashem specifically, heaven forbid, and this is the meaning of what they said, “It is as if he worships foreign gods,” heaven forbid.3
These words are cryptic and obscure. It is appropriate to understand them in a way that is meaningful to us: What is Hashem’s special governance? What is the governance of the ministers? And what is their enjoyment from Torah and mitzvah? Let us explain the inner meaning of the idea.
The good creation is the work of the good God, and through creation – His actions – He is known.4 By contemplating the principles of God’s actions, a person attains awareness of the Divinity. What are the general principles appearing in creation? They can be categorized in several ways: kindness, justice and righteousness; wisdom, understanding and knowledge; kindness, judgment and mercy, and more. Contemplating these principles properly leads to knowing God, the source of all. A person will come to recognize the great, mighty, and awesome God, that is, to know His greatness, might, and awe along with the other descriptions through which He is described by those who know Him, the prophets.
A person who understands the principles well and has reached a complete awareness of God has attained knowledge of Hashem; conversely, a person with a defective and incorrect conception of God has not achieved complete knowledge of Hashem. To the degree that his perception is flawed and mistaken, he knows other gods. For example, if a person were aware only of God’s kindness and not His justice or righteousness and based his entire sense of divinity on this knowledge, he would, in effect, have another god. He is mistaken and misguided; his deity is not Hashem.5
Thus, a person’s sense of divinity necessarily stems from his experiences, from his lot in life. It is determined by those specific actions of God that the person experiences and according to how he understands them. Therefore, it is crucial for a person to have a full experience that accurately represents the truth of God and not a partial experience that represents only one aspect of God or emphasizes one aspect over another. Only a person or nation that experiences actions of God representing all His attributes in the correct balance will come to know Hashem. If one’s experience is deficient – that is, if it does not contain an accurate expression of Hashem’s attributes, then like a half-awake person, he will never come to know Hashem. He simply doesn’t see the whole picture.
Is there a specific story in history that directs toward knowledge of Hashem, a story which through its experience and contemplation a person can arrive at an accurate knowledge of God? Indeed, there is. It is the story of the People of Israel, through which God is revealed. Those who experience and know it know Hashem, starting from the Exodus from Egypt, when Hashem became known to His people,6 and onwards in inheriting the Land and the wondrous history of the People of Israel and its greatness, which continues the Exodus from Egypt. Saying that knowledge of Hashem is obtained through the good actions of Hashem towards His people means that the experience of the People of Israel represents the entirety of Hashem’s attributes in perfection: The People of Israel was chosen as the means through which God reveals Himself, through its story.
This is the significance of the statement that Eretz Yisrael is designated for Hashem, while regarding other lands, it is asserted that angelic rulers govern them: The unique history of the unique people is the story through which Hashem is known; in contrast, the parallel stories of every other nation are but a partial revelation of divinity, a flawed revelation.7 Every story reveals one narrow aspect of divinity, and that aspect is called a “minister.” No other story perfectly represents His attributes. Therefore, anyone who wants to know Hashem in full must be part of the story of the People of Israel and experience it. There is no other way.8 The experience of the People of Israel takes place, like the unique experience of every healthy and successful nation, in its own land. There, the People of Israel is protected from other influences and cultures, and experiences only what is unique to it, that is, the revelation of Hashem alone, which is the great story of this people. Eretz Yisrael is the place where the story of the People of Israel lives and continues; there, a person can live with the consciousness that this great story is supposed to provide, namely a complete knowledge of Hashem.9
This consciousness also affects the service of God, as quoted in the name of Chid”a. Serving God means performing actions that promote the divine plan, support it, and combine with it. The actions that comport with the complete consciousness of the general principles of God’s actions are the actions of Torah and mitzvahs. They are the actions appropriate for a person who knows Hashem, and by doing them, he advances divine revelation. One who fulfills just laws and judgments reveals more of the divine justice; one who engages in kindness reveals more of divine kindness; and generally, one who fulfills the Torah promotes the revelation of the entirety of Hashem’s attributes and descriptions. He serves Hashem and becomes His partner since his actions properly support the ideas revealed by Hashem through His actions. Hence Hashem “enjoys” his deeds and rejoices in them.
This all in Eretz Yisrael, the place wherein Hashem is manifest in all His attributes. Therein, knowledge of Hashem is found, and therein, every good action contributes to the spread of this knowledge. In contrast, outside of the Land, which is the place of knowledge of other gods, a good action a person does contributes to flawed knowledge and supports it, as every good deed is credited to the flawed ideal of that land, an ideal that influences everyone living there – including those trying to serve only Hashem. He does not know Hashem fully, and necessarily, his actions result from his flawed knowledge and advance that flawed knowledge. In the language of depth: The minister enjoys the act of the mitzvah, and the doer is as if he worships foreign gods. Inevitably, the person is in the service of the minister, meaning they contribute to the advancement of a flawed ideal by integrating their good deeds into the flawed collective consciousness.
This is the secret of the notion that living outside Eretz Yisrael is equated with idol worship. It is a profound idea based on the different ways God reveals Himself and how these revelations impact the understanding of the person to whom God is revealed.
In line with this, we find that the verse from which we derive10 that living outside Eretz Yisrael is considered idol worship – “For they have chased me today from joining Hashem’s inheritance, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods” – applies also to someone who neglects the Torah. This is expressed in Sifrei:
When a person withdraws from the Torah, he goes and clings to idol worship, as it is said... “For they have chased me today from joining Hashem’s inheritance, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.” Could you imagine that David, King of Israel, would worship foreign gods? Rather, once he ceases from studying words of Torah, it is as if he goes and clings to idol worship.11
There seems to be a contradiction. What causes David to be considered as though he worships other gods: being expelled outside the land, or neglecting the Torah? But actually, the two are identical, because everything depends on a person’s knowledge. Whoever is fully devoted to the Torah knows Hashem perfectly, without a doubt, and will never be considered as one who clings to idol worship – but perfect devotion to the Torah is impossible outside Eretz Yisrael. What happens outside the Land will never reflect the totality of the Torah’s lessons, which inevitably affects the learner: His Torah is incomplete, his understanding is flawed, and he is under the rule of the ministers. Eretz Yisrael alone is the perfect place for the Torah, the spice for the evil inclination that can teach a person to know Hashem. As Chazal said:
“Tevel” (Proverbs 8:26) – this is Eretz Yisrael. Why is it called “Tevel”? Because of the spice within it. What is the spice within it? This is the Torah, as it is said, “Among the nations, there is no Torah” (Lamentations 2:9); hence, the Torah is in Eretz Yisrael.12
The Torah and the knowledge of Hashem attained through it exist only in Eretz Yisrael, the stage for the story of Hashem’s manifestation in the world. If you want to truly know Hashem, you must join that story and participate in it. That is the only way to secure a front-row seat in the greatest story there is – the acts of Hashem. It is the only way to see His divine presence in this world, to understand His deeds and know Him.
We’ve summarized the approaches of the Rishonim; now, we will clarify what we ourselves have discovered through our study of this significant matter. As the discerning reader will see, our own ideas complement and expand on the ideas of the Rishonim and also add to them.
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In his commentary on the Torah, Leviticus 18:25. Ramban mentions this fundamental principle in several places in his writings; see his commentary on the Torah in Genesis 19:5, 24:3, 26:5, 28:21, Deuteronomy 4:5, 11:18; his Discourse for Rosh Hashanah, Bnei Brak, 1980, pages 51–54; his Discourse on Ecclesiastes, paragraphs 54–59. This idea is also presented in the book "Sha'arei Orah" in the quote mentioned above, section 5, chapter 9.
His commentary on the Torah, Exodus 20:3.
Pesach Einayim, Jerusalem 1959, Kesubos 110b, "Kol HaDar."
This is about the extreme case of a person who knows other gods from an advanced and sophisticated but mistaken perspective; most people do not fully know either Hashem or other gods. They are not prophets who know Hashem (the essence of prophecy, as mentioned in section 5, chapter 8), and it cannot be accurately said about them that Hashem is their God, as explained in section 3, chapter 6. All of this is said about them metaphorically, because it is appropriate for someone who does not know Hashem literally and precisely to associate themselves with this tradition and the path of those who know, thus being "as if they have a God," as explained there; otherwise, they are "as if" they worship idolatry.
As written: "And I made myself known to them in the land of Egypt" (Ezekiel 20:5). On the connection of knowing Hashem to the Exodus from Egypt, see "Oros Yaakov," essay Knowing Hashem, section 4.
On this matter, see "Mishnas Yaakov," essay Pesachiah on the Kinnim, section 3, and there, essay A House of Prayer for All Nations, section 7.
For this reason, a convert cannot be a prophet; see above section 5, chapter 7, and "Mishnas Yaakov," essay A House of Prayer for All Nations, section 8.
On the connection of Eretz Yisrael to knowing Hashem see "Oros Yaakov," essay Knowing Hashem, sections 1–2; "Mishnas Yaakov," essay A House of Prayer for All Nations, section 7. Regarding Eretz Yisrael in our time, see above section 3, chapter 6.
Sifrei Deuteronomy, section 43; the statement is brought by Rashi there (Deuteronomy 11:16).