Parshas Acharei-Mos - Mind the Land or Beware of Land Mines

Parshas Acharei-Mos

Mind the Land or Beware of Land Mines

By: Daniel Listhaus

וְלֹא תָקִיא הָאָרֶץ אֶתְכֶם בְּטַמַּאֲכֶם אֹתָהּ כַּאֲשֶׁר קָאָה אֶת הַגּוֹי אֲשֶׁר לִפְנֵיכֶם: כִּי כָּל אֲשֶׁר יַעֲשֶׂה מִכֹּל הַתּוֹעֵבֹת הָאֵלֶּה וְנִכְרְתוּ הַנְּפָשׁוֹת הָעֹשׂת מִקֶּרֶב עַמָּם: וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם אֶת מִשְׁמַרְתִּי לְבִלְתִּי עֲשׂוֹת מֵחֻקּוֹת הַתּוֹעֵבֹת אֲשֶׁר נַעֲשׂוּ לִפְנֵיכֶם וְלֹא תִטַּמְּאוּ בָּהֶם אֲנִי ה' אֱלֹקיכֶם

Let not the Land vomit you out for having made it impure, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. For if anyone commits any of these abominations, the people doing so will be cut off from among their people. You shall safeguard My charge that these abominable traditions that were done before not be done, and nit make yourselves impure through them; I am Hashem your G-d.

-Acharei Mos 18:28-30

Acharei Mos concludes after having warned against following the ways of the goyim. As Jews we are expected to live an elite life of princes keeping the mitzvos of the King. This necessitates being different in many ways – from staying away from avodah zarrah (idol worship) to not participating in gatherings which represent their values.¹ We are required to keep all the mitzvos whether they be ones that we can comprehend or not. We must keep in mind, however, that the reason why we keep any particular mitzva is not because it makes sense to us but rather simply because Hashem commanded us to do so.

Sandwiched between the negative commandments of Acharei Mos dealing with who one cannot marry to preserve the kedusha of marriage and parshas Kedoshim which lists the fundamental mitzvos of what it means to be a person who is kadosh, is a peculiar passuk (verse). The passuk essentially says to be careful to keep every aspect of the Torah and to make sure not to follow the ways of the goyim or else the land – Eretz Yisroel – will spit us out.

In order to explain this interesting passuk, Rashi² offers the following moshol (parable). Rashi writes that imagine there was a son of a king who was fed something repulsive which his stomach could not tolerate. Certainly he would vomit it out. Similarly, Eretz Yisroel does not keep ovrei aveira (transgressors).

When reading this Rashi, two questions come to mind. First, why does Rashi need to give the moshol of a prince who ate something disgusting, why can't the moshol have been with even a regular person eating something repulsive? Second, Rashi is clearly learning the passuk as pashut p'shat (literally understanding the passuk as it is written). However, how could we understand that a land could not tolerate what is done on it? Why should it care what is occurring on its surface?

The Sifsei Chochomim³ explains that Rashi's choice of the prince in his moshol was in fact deliberate. A regular person who eats something that upsets his stomach or that he is told afterward that what he ate was something gross, can tolerate it to a certain extent. However, a prince who is finicky because he grew up in the house of the king is much less tolerant and when fed something repulsive will vomit it out immediately without a delay. So too, writes that Sifsei Chochomim, is the case with Eretz Yisroel. While goyim are in control of Eretz Yisroel and living there, even though they may be doing disgusting things, and certainly not keeping the mitzvos of the Torah, still Eretz Yisroel is able to tolerate it for a longer period of time than while Jews are in control of Eretz Yisroel and living there. Every Jew is a prince of Hashem and if the individual has not strived to perfect his spiritual digestion system to know what to filter out, then Eretz Yisroel does it for him by spitting him out. This is an idea that should not be foreign to us. Reading through Nach one could clearly see that as soon as the Jews started following the ways of the goyim, the Pelishtim and our other enemies of the time immediately waged war and took control of Eretz Yisroel. Yet, the moment that B'nei Yisroel did teshuva (repentance) and cried to Hashem, a shofet was sent to save them. Miraculous things occurred and impossible battles were won with the yad Hashem (“Hand” of Hashem) again on our side.

Rabbi Yeheda HaLevi, in his work, The Kuzari⁴, answers the Kuzari's question as to how it is possible that Eretz Yisroel be any more special than any other land. He writes that just as one can see in the world that certain places have the ability to cultivate particular plants more successfully than other places, that some areas are more conducive for specific minerals than others, and that some animals flourish in certain regions, so too when it comes to spirituality there is a specific place – Eretz Yisroel – which is conducive to spiritual growth. This is why nevuah could only be achieved in Eretz Yisroel.⁵

Eretz Yisroel is a very special land with tremendous powers. Hashem gave us, the descendents of Avraham avinu, this land with an owners manual called the Torah. When we keep the Torah, Eretz Yisroel protects itself and its inhabitants providing the opportune place for spiritual growth. However, during times when Jews in Eretz Yisroel are going against the Torah, the land cannot tolerate the repulsiveness and spits its people out.

Every nation and country in the world has a malach. Eretz Yisroel and the Jewish people have no malach, but rather Hashem himself is our direct contact. As tremendous as this is, we must realize that it comes with the expectation that we set our spiritual digestive system accordingly with the Torah in a way that we do not do what the Torah warns against and instead involve ourselves in the mitzvos, stick to our mesorah, and listen to da'as Torah which together directs us how to live our daily lives.

Living in Eretz Yisroel is something that many Amoraim and Rishonim dreamed of. Had they been living in our times when Eretz Yisroel is so accessible they would surely be on the next flight over. What we must keep in mind though is that as much as Eretz Yisroel is our land given to us by Hashem Himself and that we are privileged to live there, we have the tremendous responsibility to make sure that we act appropriately. In this way the land will protect itself as it has done in the past; for Hashem is the sole guardian of Eretz Yisroel.

May Hashem help those in Eretz Yisroel who have strayed away from the Torah realize that they can still do teshuva so that we could continue to have the zechus (merit) of living there and be able to take advantage the land's conduciveness to spiritual growth, instead of chas v'shalom, our past repeating itself of the land not able to tolerate us.

1See Rashi Vayikra 18:4

2Vayikra 18:28

3Ibid.

4Kuzari 2:9-24

5Although throughout Torah and Nach there are many examples of nevuah taking place outside Eretz Yisroel, all those nevuos were specifically about Eretz Yisroel or going to Eretz Yisroel.

Photo Credit: Edited picture from http://blogs.dnalc.org/2009/12/07/lighting-up-landmines/