The Land I Will Show You, sec. 7, chapter 2
The Opinion of the Rambam: Eretz Yisrael is the Place of the Jewish Nation
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2: The Opinion of the Rambam: Eretz Yisrael is the Place of the Jewish Nation
According to the Rambam, the virtue of Eretz Yisrael is that it is the place allocated to the People of Israel, worshippers of Hashem. As a rule, a person is not an isolated unit, but rather is societal by nature.1 He is part of a community and acts as part of it, being influenced in his opinions and actions by his peers and the customs of his country.2 Therefore, it is appropriate for a Jew who worships Hashem to establish his residence among his peers who share the same worldview, who are believers and monotheists like him and worship Hashem as he does. When all the worshippers of Hashem gather in one land, they can unite and form a community, and together establish a good society through which will be achieved the complete perfection of the entire nation. For this purpose, this good and spacious land was chosen and given to our forefather Avraham, so that all his descendants might reside there together and establish the land’s character and nature and build a good society there.
The Rambam bases the core virtue of Eretz Yisrael not on the unique physical qualities of this particular region, the land of Canaan, but on the very fact that it is the dwelling place for Jews.
This can be seen from the Rambam’s Letter on Apostasy:
Chazal warned not to live in a country where there aren’t ten righteous, pious men… But if the place belongs to gentiles and a Jew stays there – all the more so, must he leave that place and go to a good place… It has been explained by the prophets that one who dwells among infidels is like them. So said David, a”h: “For they have chased me today from joining Hashem’s inheritance, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods’” (1 Samuel 26:19), equating his dwelling among gentiles as if he worshipped foreign gods.3
This very verse – "For they have chased me today,” etc. – is the source for what Chazal said, “A person should always dwell in Eretz Yisrael, even in a city that has a majority of non-Jews, and not dwell outside the Land, even in a city that has a majority of Jews,”4 a law that Rambam also codified:
A person should always dwell in Eretz Yisrael, even in a city that has a majority of non-Jews, and not dwell outside the Land, even in a city that has a majority of Jews, for anyone who leaves the Land is as if they worshipped foreign gods, as it is said, “For they have chased me today from joining Hashem’s inheritance, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.’”5
Why is someone who resides outside the Land considered as if they worshipped foreign gods? Rambam’s words are clear: simply because they live among gentiles, and living among gentiles is like being one of them. For a person to avoid the influence of his country is impossible, and therefore he is defined like the rest of the people of his country, as if he too worships foreign gods like they do. In Eretz Yisrael itself, even a minority of Jews in a city will determine the character of the city, since they are in their own land; outside the Land, the opposite is true: Even a minority of idol worshippers will define the character of the city as a city of idolatry, influencing even the majority of Jews living in the city. So explains the Meiri, following Rambam’s approach:
A person should always dwell in Eretz Yisrael, even in a city that has a majority of non-Jews, and not dwell outside the Land, even in a city that has a majority of Jews, because outside the Land is a [place of] permanent dwelling for gentiles and idolaters – and it is impossible not to learn from their ways.6
The virtue of Eretz Yisrael is that the Children of Israel dwell in it. Accordingly, Rambam defined the very concept of “Eretz Yisrael” as the land of Israel, that is, the land that is under the control of Israel. Once the Land was taken from the Children of Israel at the time of the destruction of the First Temple, its sanctity was annulled, because it was no longer “Eretz Yisrael”:
The obligation of the land in Shmita and tithes is only because it is a conquest of the public. Once the land was taken from their hands, the conquest was nullified, and it was exempted (biblically) from tithes and from Shmita, for it is not Eretz Yisrael.7
It is not Eretz Yisrael when it is not under the control of Israel, because “Eretz Yisrael” is a political term, not a geographical one:
“Eretz Yisrael” mentioned everywhere means the lands conquered by a king of Israel or a judge or a prophet with the consensus of most of Israel, and this is called a public conquest.8
The crucial factor is that it should be a land belonging to Israel. This explains why Chazal said, “Everyone who dwells in Babylonia is as if he dwells in Eretz Yisrael” – because the virtue of Eretz Yisrael is that it constitutes the land of the Jews, a role that Babylonia fulfilled. So explains the Meiri:
Everyone who dwells in Babylonia is as if he dwells in Eretz Yisrael, because everything they said [about the virtues of Eretz Yisrael] was only because outside of the Land, wisdom and fear of sin are not typically found among the people of Israel, due to the majority of troubles and the burden of exile they suffer there, except by great effort and hardship... and in Eretz Yisrael, wisdom and fear of sin are typically found.9
Eretz Yisrael is “the pure place selected for the noble gathering.”10 Its virtue is that in it the Children of Israel form a true community, becoming a united nation that controls its national destiny; therefore “only the residents of Eretz Yisrael are called a community.”11
The association of prophecy with Eretz Yisrael is also based on this virtue of Eretz Yisrael; certain qualities and character virtues necessary for attaining prophecy can be achieved only by a free People of Israel in their own land:
This is undoubtedly the essential and immediate cause for the departure of prophecy during the exile. What laziness or sadness can befall a person that would be stronger than that due to his being a bought and enslaved servant to brutish criminals?12
This is also the great attainment of the Messianic Era – that the Children of Israel will be free and will have opportunity for self-governance:
The Sages said, “There is no difference between this world and the Messianic Era except for subjugation to kingdoms alone.”13
Rambam’s approach is clear and consistent: The virtue of the Land is that the Children of Israel unite therein, in the land given to them as an inheritance.14
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See the Guide of the Perplexed, 2:40.
As Rambam writes in Laws of De’os, 6:1.
Letters of the Rambam, Jerusalem 1995, vol. 1 pg. 56.
Beis Ha’Bechirah, Kesubos 111a.
Beis Ha’Bechirah, Kesubos 111a.
Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz (in a response to Rabbi Yoseph Caro), Bris HaLevi, Lemberg 1863, pg. 41, disagreed with this opinion, which he presents as something "many have thought.” He writes: “Many have thought that the virtue of Eretz Yisrael lies in the presence of the children of Israel within it, and that its virtue is absent in their absence. This was derived from their belief that its notion is only because of the observance of the mitzvahs by the children of Israel in it, and not that the observance of the mitzvahs within it follows from its virtue. And this is a mistake on their part. Rather you should know that the perfection of Eretz Yisrael inheres in its very essence.” These words are in the spirit of the Kuzari’s approach, as R' Shlomo Alkabetz continues there: “And so the rabbi explained to the Khazar about the perfection of the land, to the degree that the forefathers yearned for it even when it was full of idols. This is a great lesson that its perfection inheres in itself, and just as there is land that grows fruits more than others... so all perfections are drawn from this land... righteousness grows in it... and the land’s holiness is in its essence; it is unlike other lands, for it has Divine Providence within it.” However, Rabbi Alkabetz’s statement that “its virtue is absent in their absence” is impossible in Rambam’s view. As Rambam himself asserts in the Book of Mitzvahs, Positive Commandment 153: "Were it hypothetically possible for the Children of Eretz Yisrael to be absent from the Land – God forbid such an act, for He has promised that He will not completely obliterate the nation’s presence.” Only the residents of Eretz Yisrael are called a community, and their absence would signify an obliteration of the nation's presence. Therefore, according to Rambam, the virtue of Eretz Yisrael is eternal and absolute.
What if Jews have political control of a land outside of Israel?