The Land of Israel & the Jews From a Spiritual Perspective - Rabbi Eli Deutsch

Okay, today we're going to talk about Israel, the heart of every Jew. And what we're looking to do is understand the connection between the land of Israel and the people of Israel. To understand the spiritual connection because a little bit of a disclaimer here to start off, today we're not going to be talking about anything politically. A lot of times people talk about Israel or Jerusalem and quickly the conversation turns to politics or Israel advocacy, but this is not my topic. My topic here today is to understand the spiritual connection between the land of Israel and the people of Israel. Now, in order to understand the spiritual connection between the land of Israel and the people of Israel, we're going to have to understand what is the essence of land, what is the essence of people, and what is the essence of Israel. If we can go ahead and understand that clearly, we'll be able to ultimately come out with an understanding of the connection between the land of Israel and the people of Israel. So, in order to understand the essence of land, people, and Israel, we need to understand how do we understand the essence of anything? So, there's a couple of ways to do that. Uh one way is by understanding uh any word that shows up in the Torah, in particular the first time it shows up is considered to be kind of like the center of understanding what is that word as its essence. So, that's one way to do it. We're actually not going to do that here today. What we're going to get do today is go with a little bit of a cabalistic hack, and that is to look at the word what that word is called, the name of the thing because in the name of the thing lies the essence of the thing, right? How do we say name in Hebrew? Shame, which is related to the Hebrew word sham, which means there because in the name of the thing lies the there of the thing. In the name of the thing lies the the purpose, the destined the the destiny, the goal, what that thing is really here for, what it's really all about. So, if I want to get to the essence of something, I'm going to go to the name of the thing. So, we're going to start off with people. What do we mean What do we mean by a person? And we're going to look at the word of for for a person, Adam. Adam breaks down to aleph dam, which which aleph, which is one in Hebrew uh numerology, and one in Judaism is God. And then we have dam, which means blood. And so, this essentially is what a person is. What a person boils down to is flesh and blood with a spark of godliness. This is the essence of what a person is. Now, let's understand it also a little bit deeper compared to what is beneath quote-unquote beneath the person and quote-unquote above the person. Beneath the person you have an animal. An animal in Hebrew is called a behema. Behema breaks down to ba ma, in it what is there? It's a rhetorical question, meaning what you see is what you get. That animal standing in front of you, that body standing in front of you, its physical instincts and its emotional nature and its emotional instincts, that is the sum total of what it is going to do. There's no higher potential to do something more. There's no higher soul that brings with it free will and a consciousness and a self-awareness that's able to go ahead and choose higher than its physical instincts and its emotional instincts. Now, above the person you have um what you might call a malach, an angel. Right? Now, whatever your picture of an angel is, maybe he's got some wings on his back, a circle over his head, that's not our point here today. Right? Just to think about an angel as a purely spiritual being. It always It knows what it is. It knows its role. It's clear on God, and it knows what it's supposed to do. And it doesn't have any pull against that because of it is so clear. And so, it always does the right thing. And so, in this manner we see this is the concept of an angel. Angel in Hebrew is malach, which breaks down to maleh and then the letter kaf. Kaf is also a word meaning a palm, like in modern Hebrew kaf is a is a spoon or kapete is a spoon. And so, literally the word malach breaks down to maleh kaf, that its palms are full, meaning to say it is in a constant state of self-actualization. It is constantly doing what it's supposed to do. So, the behema has has there's no higher potential to do more. The angel, the malach, it's automatically actualized. Standing in between those two, you have the person, which is aleph and dam. It has a godly side to it, the spiritual side to it, if you want to call it that, and the dam, the flesh and blood side of it, the animal side of it. And this is also seen from the fact that the human being is created from the dust of the earth and also called on the dust of the earth, Adam coming from the word adamah, which means earth. So, can you hear the idea that if a person is has the same name, meaning the same name as the word dirt, and it was also created from the dirt, so can we hear the idea there's connection, a foundational connection between the ground or dirt and the person? And that is that just like the ground uh is something There's something very unique there, that the ground on its own, right? If you on the ground, if you go ahead and do the proper plowing, proper seeding, proper watering, give it light, you can grow all sorts of fruits and plants and uh vegetables and all sorts of things. However, if the ground lays there barren, not being worked at all, so that the that ground, you don't see growth from that ground. Similarly is the story of the person. If a person puts in the proper plowing and seeding and watering, the proper midot character refinement, and uh education and inspiration and Torah, so you can you can grow beautiful fruits and wonderful things from that ground. You can grow beautiful fruits of self-actualization. However, if a person doesn't make those moves, if a person doesn't do any plowing and seeding and just stays how they are, so then for it can lay the person can quote-unquote lay personally barren. So, this is the idea of what a person is all about. What a person is all about is a being of self-actualization, looking to grow, looking to gain, looking to grow into who and what it truly is. This is what a person is all about. Now, the question becomes where is that growth happening? Where is that journey happening? This is the concept of land, eretz. Eretz breaks down to aleph ratz. Aleph again, one. What's one in Judaism? God. And then ratz, which literally means to run. So, it's the journey, a godly journey. Running, that is the location where we're involved in that godly journey of the human being. Now, contrast this with the heavens. In Hebrew we call that shamayim. That breaks down to sham, which we said means there, and then with a yud mem at the end, which is plural. Meaning to say Meaning to say that in life we have many destinations in the journey of life. We have many things that we need to do, places we need to go, accomplishments we need to make. But then there's the destination of all destinations. What's the destination of all destinations in life? Of course, is when a person leaves this world and goes to shamayim, goes to the heavens, there in plural. Now, let's understand uh at the core the difference between eretz and shamayim is eretz is this place of journeying, shamayim is the place of experience. We see this in a teaching from the rabbis in Pirkei Avot, Ethics of the Fathers, where it says, "One moment in the next world is greater than all the moments in this world, and one moment in this world is greater than all the moments in the next world." I'm paraphrasing. Now, let's understand though I If we want to you know, this situations and teachings like this that have kept the rabbis in business all these years. So, how do we make sense of this? From a religious perspective, that first part makes sense. One moment in the next world, one moment of limitless, uh barrierless basking in the glory of the infinite is greater than all of the moments of expansiveness and enjoyment and experiences that we have here in this world. That makes sense. However, let's understand the other side. One moment in this world greater than all of the moments in the next world, or to get a little bit more specific, what it says is one moment of teshuvah and maasim tovim, one moment of making real change and good deeds is greater than all the moments of the next world. How is that? Very simple, because when we get to the Whatever our experience is on the other side, so to speak, where because of the clarity of that, there's no place for growth, or not certainly not like there is here. Right? So, what this world is all about is this world is about the journeying. That's the opportunity of the non-clarity of this world is that when we go ahead and strive, when we go ahead and push forward, when we go ahead and do something positive even here in this world where where that's a struggle, so then we are going ahead and gaining and expanding of ourself. That is the advantage of eretz, of being right here. So, eretz is that place of the journey, shamayim is that place of the destination, shamayim is that place of the experience. That's land compared to the heavens. What about land compared to the sea? Land compared to the sea, we would have to say land has the quality of permanence, and the sea has the quality of wavering. Now, in order to understand this, we we have to develop and explain another idea in Kabbalah, and it's also mentioned in other areas as well, that there's a philosophical principle called tzurah and chomer, which means form and material. That everything here in this world is made up of both form and material. So, for example, this table here, assuming it's a wooden table, so this table has is the the material is wood, and the form is the tableness of the thing, which means that there is a certain direction, that a certain mold, if you want to call it that, a certain direction of the concept of that's the concept of form, is direction, the destiny, the goal, the path it's going in, and then the material, the wood is the vehicle by which that is brought out. It is the the way it is ultimately manifested and expressed to actually be a table. So, that concept of tzurah, that concept of direction, vision, form, that is the concept of spirit That is a concept of spiritual. Right? Matter of fact, the Maharal of Prague would say that this is the concept of stubbornness. That stubbornness is a spiritual quality. Now, you would say, "How is that?" The answer is like this. The The reason why we think negatively about stubbornness is because usually people are stubborn about the wrong thing. Let's change the word for a second. Imagine I would tell you someone is principled. Ah, that sounds good. Right? But, that just means you're stubborn about the right things. Right? It means you have a certain vision, and no matter what, nothing is going to push you out of that vision. No sea is going to come storming and push you away from that. No winds of change are going to blow you off of your path where you see something clearly that needs to get done. This is the concept of tzurah. This is the concept of form, and this is a spiritual concept because even though naturally we could be pulled one way or another, so the concept is I can go above that. I can get spiritual, and I go above what comes natural, and do something higher than what comes along naturally. This is the concept of tzurah, the concept of form, the concept of vision. And this is the concept of land because the water can come up, the water can be wavering, but it stops at the land. Speaking of which, water is the greatest example we have of material. Right? Because water doesn't have a specific direction, doesn't have a specific form. Water takes on the form that it is put into. Right? Matter of fact, you see this in the Hebrew language. How do you say water in Hebrew in singular? There is no way to say water in Hebrew in singular, right? Water in Hebrew is mayim, which is plural with a yud mem at the end. And even if you want to say, "Okay, I saw water company that's called the may eden." That means waters of Eden. That's a grammatical thing. And so, the point is that water doesn't have singular direction. So, water is the ultimate example of what it means material. So now, when was the heyday of water in all of history? When was the time when water took over even where land usually is? So, if you want to get biblical, of course, you would say the time of the flood, during the time of Noach. Right? And what does the Torah say about the time leading up to that? It says, "Malecha aretz chamas." The world was full of distortion. Uh what's supposed to be down is up, what's supposed to be up is down. There's thievery, there's all sorts of different immorality. People are going with animals. Basically, a total loss of direction, a totally loss of vision, a total loss of form. So then, that's what's going on spiritually. What comes out physically? Water overflows even where land is supposed to be and normally is. Let's flip it around for a second. What is the time that was the heyday of land? When is the time when we find land even in a place where water usually is? So, for that, again, getting biblical, we would talk about the splitting of the sea. Why did the sea split? According to one approach, we read it in the hallel prayer, where it says in Psalms, It says that the sea saw and then it fled, it split. And so, the rabbis ask, "Well, what exactly did the sea see that implied that inspired it and caused it to move out of the way and allow for land to show up?" And so, the rabbis teach that the sea saw the bones of Joseph. And then, the sea split. So, why is that? What is it about Joseph that inspires or causes the sea to split? So, if you think about it, it actually makes a lot of sense. Joseph in Kabbalah in in Kabbalah, Joseph in the Zohar is the example of what it means to be a tzaddik. The example of what it means to be a refined person. Why? If you think about it, Joseph was the that one who was sent away from the holy enclave of the Jewish people or of the Jewish people of the Jewish family, sent away from his father's house or from Yaakov's house, sent away from the the tribes and the brothers and that whole situ- cocoon of holiness that they had set up over there. And he's sent to Egypt, and in Egypt he's put in the He experiences the lowest of the low. He's put in the jail in Egypt, and we all know what could happen there. All sorts of not exactly the most moral of places. And then ultimately, he also gets raised up to be basically running the show in the entire Egyptian civilization. So, he has all sorts of options in front of him, all sorts of possibilities in front of him to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. And on top of that, I heard he wasn't bad looking either. And yet, we find that Joseph stands strong in all of these different situations and scenarios. And so, he is the example of what it means to be a tzurah personality, a person of form, a person of principle, a person who has a particular direction, has clarity, and follows through it even in a world where seas could be storming inside of him, and he has all sorts of options to do all sorts of other things around him all the time, 24/7. He is the example of what it means to blaze a trail within himself to for holiness. And so, in his merit, when the Jewish people show up at the sea, the sea, the water splits and moves out of the way in order to allow for land going through, and the Jewish people ultimately merit to go through. So, this is what we find land to be about. Land is about principles. Land is about permanence. Land is about what direction are we going in? So, what comes out? Land is about the journey, and it's about spirituality. Land is about journey, and it's about consciousness and direction. And this is where a person is involved in their journey for self-actualization. Okay. Now, what do we mean by Israel? So, the Talmud teaches, "Chochma bagoyim ta'amin, Torah bagoyim al ta'amin." If someone comes along and tells you that there is wisdom among the nations, yeah, believe them. Believe them, it's true. It's true, every nation has something to contribute. Every nation has a gift to bring to the world. But, if someone comes along and says, "Torah bagoyim al ta'amin." If someone comes along and tells you that there's Torah among the nation, that there's the spiritual purpose among the nations, that there's a spiritual clarity of what is the correct thing to do and what is the right way to go, that al ta'amin, that don't believe because that is the country That's the contribution that is the gift that the Jewish people bring to the world. And we see this in the name for the Jewish people. One of the names for the Jewish people is Yisrael, which breaks down to yashar El, straight to God. Meaning to say, every other nation has something to contribute, something to bring to the world, but the Jewish people, their role is to attach that to godliness, to get attached that to its purpose, to its higher point, to what it's really really here for. And this is what the Jewish people are supposed to do for the world. And this is why the Jewish people the natio- the national goal is to be an or lagoim, a light unto the nations. What does that mean? It means to attach the nations, to attach with and also to attach with the nations bring to its ultimate goal, to its ultimate purpose in in order that Hashem, God, should be revealed through through them and through all of us and through what they bring to the world. And we even see this in the word for light. Light means in in Hebrew or breaks down to aleph vav resh. Aleph, again, one. What's one in Judaism? God. Vav is in Hebrew a letter that's attached to a word in order to mean and or or. So, it attaches two sentence fragments into one sentence. So, it's the concept of connection connection, attachment. Also, vav itself is a word in the Tanakh in the Jewish Bible. Vav vav, which means That's how it's spelled, vav vav, which means a hook. Again, something that attaches two things together. And resh, resh is a word that's in Aramaic, which is a bounce off of Hebrew from the word rosh. Rosh in Hebrew means the head. So, we have aleph, God, vav, connected, resh, to the head. God connected to the head. God consciousness. This is what the word light means, or, which means God consciousness. Cuz what is or? What is light? Light reveals what is there. From a spiritual's perspective, what is What is there? What is here? Godliness. This is the concept of light in spirituality. This is the concept of light in Kabbalah. And this is what the Jewish people are here to be, an or lagoim, to bring to clarify what is really here in this world. And what is really here in this world? Hashem, God. This is the concept of light. This is what the Jewish people are here to bring. Let's flip that around. And what about darkness? Darkness is the concept of in Hebrew, choshech, which is the same letters as the word shachach, which means to forget. To forget God, to forget your purpose, to forget what you're really here for, to forget what life's all about, to forget that you're a soul and not just a body. And we also see the same principle of what we're talking about here also in another word for for Jew, which is Yehudi, which comes from the word Yehudah. Right? Yehudah breaks down to yud and hey and vav and hey, >> [clears throat] >> the name of Hashem, with a dalet. Dalet in Judaism is a letter that the that means implies poverty because dalet is from the word dal, which means poor. Also, the way you spell it out as a word is dalet lamed tav. Dalet dalet lamed tav, which it spells also the word for a door, dalet, a door, because a poor person, a dal, needs to go from door to door. And so, the idea is, what is the Jew? The Jew, from the word the Yehudi, from the word Yehuda, is the one who's to bring the yud and the hey and the vav and the hey to the dalet, to the one who is poor of that, to the one who does not have that on their own intrinsically. Again, this is the role of what the Jew is here for. So, the person is here for growth. Yes, the Jew is here for to go ahead and to attach that which is higher to all of humanity. This is what the Jewish people are all about. This is what Yisrael is all about. Take everything Yasha El straight to God. Sorry, one second. And so, we have a principle in the ancient book of Kabbalah, the Sefer Yetzirah, that says that the world was created in three dimensions, olam, shanah, nefesh, space, time, and being. That which exists in one exists in the other. And so, similarly, that's the word. So, an obvious example of this is, just like we have that this is the role of the Jew, so also, this is the idea of Eretz Yisrael. Eretz Yisrael means again, Eretz, aleph ratz, a godly running, a godly journey, in particular attaching to Hashem, Yisrael, Yasha El. This is the nature of Eretz Yisrael, the land of Israel. It's in the words. This is what it's about. This is the nature of the land, just like this is the role of the people, Yisrael. This is the nation of the land, Yisrael. This is the nature of the land, Yisrael. This is the concept of Eretz Yisrael. And the truth is, we find that every land has its own energy to it. Every land has its own climate to it. For example, if I were to take an orange seed and try to plant it in New York. If I would do the proper plowing, seeding, watering, etc., could I grow an orange tree out of an orange seed in New York? The answer is yes, you probably could. However, if I were to take that same seed and take a plane down to Miami and plant it over there, do the same plowing, seeding, watering over there in Miami as I did in New York, most likely, I'm going to grow that orange seed is going to grow into a fuller version of itself in Miami than it did than it would in New York. Well, why is it? You're doing the exact same thing. You're doing the same planting, the same plowing, the same watering. The whole thing is the same. What's the difference? The climate of the place. On the other hand, if I want to grow potatoes, better I go to Idaho. What's the point? The point is that we see that every land has its energy to it or has its climate to it. And so, just like we have this physically, that is a parallel to what's going on spiritually. There's a principle in Kabbalah that one of the reasons why Kabbalah is referred to as Kabbalah, of course, Kabbalah is from the Hebrew word lekabel, which means to receive. We're receiving the deeper teachings or being received by the student from the teacher. However, there's another idea, which is that Kabbalah is from the Hebrew word makbil, which means parallel, because one of the foundational principles of all Kabbalistic thought is that everything here in this physical world is a parallel to a deeper spiritual reality. And so, similarly, just like we have different climates physically, that is a parallel of the spiritual reality that there are different climates spiritually to each land. And so, that means, in a very similar way, if I was going to plant a Jew anywhere, in Australia, in in in Europe, in the US, I could plant If I were to plant a Jew there and give him the proper plowing and seeding and watering, give him the proper midot characteristic refinement and education and inspiration, could I grow a good Jew in the USA? Yeah, it could be I could. However, the principle is, if I take that same Jewish seed and that same Jewish soul and plant them in the land of Israel, chances are much stronger that I'm that Jew is going to grow into a fuller version of himself or herself, a fuller fruition of himself or herself in the land of Israel than outside the land of Israel. Could other things happen? Could other big things play a role and play factors? Yes, that is possible. But just if everything else stays the same, chances are extremely high that the climate of the place will be mashpia, will have an impact on that Jew. Just like it says in the Talmud that the atmosphere of the land of Israel brings wisdom. And so, this is a spiritual reality. And this also explains the connection between the land of Israel and the people of Israel. Because the people of Israel, their role is to be that one who brings that inspiration down and elevates everyone up. And this is the nature of the land of Israel. We see this also in particular by the Beit Hamikdash. The Beit Hamikdash, or also known as Zion, is referred to a couple of times in Tanakh as the neck of the world. What does the neck do? The neck, for example, of a person, we have the physical body, which is very similar to the animal, but then you have the head. In the head is where you have the things that separate the person from the animal, different things that have to do with the soul. For example, consciousness, self-awareness, free will choice, complex speech, complex thoughts, all of that is head-oriented stuff. The neck is that place where we go ahead and connects the spiritual side of ourselves with the physical side of ourselves, bringing down spirituality, elevating physicality. This is the concept of the Beit Hamikdash. What the the area of the Beit Hamikdash is about is that place, according to the Kabbalah, that place where heaven and earth meet, that place where creation originally started. So, it's that bridge from from physicality and to spirituality and from spirituality to physicality. And this is what the Jewish people are looking to do as well. The Jewish people are are here as a as a nation to be able to bring spirituality into this world and elevate and elevate physicality to bring it towards spirituality.