The Mystical Bond between the Jew and the Land of Israel

I'll be delivering a shiur on Shabbos, Gd-willing, on "Israel through the eyes of a mystic". It's linked to an idea I have developed on this blog, in articles and in shiurim in the past, on Israel as a Motherland, but I think this shiur will provide a stronger way to look at the relationship between the Jew and the Land of Israel.

In honour of Yom haZikaron and Yom ha'Atzmaut, here are some of the sources – Rav Kook's thought on the unique, mystical significance of the Land of Israel. The translations are my own:

The importance of understanding our relationship with the Land of Israel on a mystical level

Rav Avraham Yitzchak haKohen Kook, Orot, Eretz Yisrael 1

ארץ ישראל איננה דבר חיצוני, קנין חיצוני לאומה, רק בתור אמצעי למטרה של ההתאגדות הכללית והחזקת קיומה החמרי או אפילו הרוחני. ארץ ישראל היא חטיבה עצמותית קשורה בקשר חיים עם האומה, חבוקה בסגולות פנימיות עם מציאותה. ומתוך כך אי אפשר לעמוד על התוכן של סגולת קדושת ארץ ישראל, ולהוציא לפועל את עומק חבתה, בשום השכלה רציונלית אנושית כי אם ברוח ד' אשר על האומה בכללה

The Land of Israel is not an external thing, an external national property, a mere means toward the end of national unification and reinforcement of the nation’s physical or even spiritual survival. The Land of Israel is an independent entity, bound to the nation in the bond of life, embraced due to internal inherent qualities. Therefore, it is not possible to identify the nature of the holiness of the Land of Israel, and to actualize this deep love for her, with any human, rational insight, but only through the Divine spirit which is upon the nation as a whole.

Rav Avraham Yitzchak haKohen Kook, Orot, Eretz Yisrael 1

המחשבה על דבר ארץ ישראל שהיא רק ערך חיצוני כדי העמדת אגודת האומה, אפילו כשהיא באה כדי לבצר על ידה את הרעיון היהדותי בגולה, כדי לשמור את צביונו ולאמץ את האמונה והיראה והחזוק של המצוות המעשיות בצורה הגונה, אין לה הפרי הראוי לקיום, כי היסוד הזה הוא רעוע בערך איתן הקודש של ארץ ישראל.

Contemplating the land of Israel as an external value serving the purpose of uniting the nation, even when it comes to enabling the Jewish ideal in exile, guarding its form, strengthening faith and reverence and strengthening practical mitzvot in their proper form, does not produce durable fruit. This foundation is rotten, compared to the sacred strength of the Land of Israel.

Rav Avraham Yitzchak haKohen Kook, Orot, Eretz Yisrael 2

לא שוללים אנחנו כל מין ציור והבנה המיוסד על ישרות ורגשי דעה ויראת שמים באיזו צורה שהיא, רק את אותו הצד ששיטה כזאת תחפוץ לשלול את הרזים ואת השפעתם הגדולה על רוח האומה

We do not reject any concept or understanding which is founded upon righteousness and intellectual sensitivity and awe of heaven, in any form, but only that aspect which wishes to deny the secrets and their great influence upon the national spirit.

The impact of the Land of Israel on the Jewish soul

Rav Avraham Yitzchak haKohen Kook, Orot, Eretz Yisrael 4

אי אפשר לאדם מישראל שיהיה מסור ונאמן למחשבותיו הגיונותיו, רעיונותיו ודמיונותיו, בחוץ לארץ, כתכונת הנאמנות הזאת בארץ ישראל. הופעות הקדש, באיזו מדרגה שהן, נקיות הן בארץ ישראל...

It is impossible for a Jew to be devoted and loyal to his thoughts, expressions, ideas and visions, outside Israel, in the way that he will be loyal in Israel. Manifestations of sanctity, on whatever level, are purer in Israel…

Rav Avraham Yitzchak haKohen Kook, Orot, Eretz Yisrael 7

מלאה היא הנשמה אותיות מלאות אור חיים, מלאות דעה ורצון, מלאות רוח הבטה ומציאות מלאה... כשנגשים למצוה, המצוה היא תמיד מלאת זיו חיים של כל עולמים, מלאה היא כל מצוה אותיות גדולות ונפלאות... בארץ ישראל מתגדלות האותיות של נשמתנו, שם מחשיפות הן נהרה, יונקות חיים עצמיים מזיו החיים של כנסת ישראל... אוירא דארץ ישראל ממציא את הגדול הרענן של אותיות החיים הללו...

The soul is filled with letters which are filled with the light of life, filled with intellect and will, filled with a spirit of vision and a complete existence… When we venture toward a mitzvah, the mitzvah is continually filled with radiance of life from all worlds, filled with great and wondrous letters… In Israel, the letters of our souls grow, there they reveal light, drawing independent life from the radiant life of the nation of Israel… The air of the Land of Israel creates the rejuvenated growth of these letters of life…

Rav Avraham Yitzchak haKohen Kook, Orot, Eretz Yisrael 5

הדמיון של ארץ ישראל הוא צלול וברור, נקי וטהור ומסוגל להופעת האמת האלקית...

The vision of the Land of Israel is clear and lucid, clean and pure and specially suited for revelation of Divine truth…

Rav Avraham Yitzchak haKohen Kook, Orot, Eretz Yisrael 3

יצירה עצמית ישראלית, במחשבה ובתקף החיים והמפעל, אי אפשר לישראל אלא בארץ ישראל.

Independent Jewish creativity, in thought and in the strength of life and in activity, cannot happen for the Jew other than in the Land of Israel.

"Bless this our country, the United States of America"

There is a near-universal practice, in traditional Orthodox synagogues, of blessing the local government and praying to Gd to provide it counsel and support. From East Asia to Russia to Europe to North and South America, in languages varied and with diverse texts, Jews call upon Gd to benefit the lands in which they live. (I'm not sure about Africa.) There are many motivations for this practice, including simple gratitude, a recognition that all citizens benefit from law and order, and a solicitous desire to demonstrate patriotism.

Our shul recites a version that appears in the siddur (prayer book) compiled by Rabbi David deSola Pool several decades ago. This prayer begins, “Heavenly Father, bless this our country, the United States of America.”

The “Heavenly Father” invocation is always jarring for first-timers, but it makes sense as a translation of Avinu sheBashamayim – and it is certainly less offensive to the Jewish ear than a more literal rendition: “Our Father who art in Heaven.”

The more jarring part of that opening line, for many, is the word our. If we term America “our country,” is that a demotion of Israel, and/or a rejection of the fundamental Jewish longing for the arrival of Mashiach and kibbutz galuyot, the ingathering of Jews to Israel?

I've mulled and debated this question for the past seven-plus years, and overall I have made my peace with this dubious “our.” The word describes a relationship, yes, but not in an exclusive sense. In my view, our accurately describes both our relationship with Israel and our relationship with America.

If "our" described ownership, I would reject this our; there is only one Jewish land. But, to my mind, “our” is less a statement of possession than a statement of loyalty and responsibility. Our families, our homes, our lives, our careers, our friends – these are ours which are less about owning than about being owned, more about fealty than about property. In this sense, both lands are “our” lands, for both lands may rightfully claim our hearts and our powers.

Israel is “our” country in the sense that it is the only land which is truly attached to a Jew. It is the land in which our genetic and spiritual ancestors lived, loved, worshipped, were born, died and were buried. As we have been taught for millenia, it is the true locus for all that is Judaism, the theater where mitzvot have their greatest meaning as well as application, the earthly soil where a Jew can most fully connect to the Divine. Israel has been promised to us, and we have been promised to it; this land lodges a claim upon our lives as great and as permanent as our own claim upon its soil.

But America is also “our” country, in the sense that it is the land which absorbed us, which afforded us the freedom to live as Jews when no other polity would do likewise; which came, over the course of centuries, to recognize Jews as worthy of education and position and political authority; which bucked the trend of human history and divested religion of government imprimatur and military enforcement; which provided social and economic support for the founding of some of the most vibrant Jewish communities and Torah yeshivot in the world.

More: American values heavily influenced the founders of the modern state of Israel, and American ideology yet recognizes the kinship between the two lands; this connection is another strand in this “our.”

Certainly, my heart - and, one day soon, Gd-willing, my body - is in Israel.
Certainly, the relationship between sectarian Jew and universalist United States, and between America and Israel, is perennially conflicted and inherently insecure.
Certainly, not every government and governor has been as generous of heart toward the descendants of Avraham and Sarah.
Indeed, I am penning this essay on a day when the vast majority of my neighbors celebrate the birth of a man whose ideology I declare anathema, and whose theological descendants have massacred millions of my kin over the past two thousand years.
Still, for all of the reasons above, there is little doubt in my mind that America, even on the twenty-fifth of December, is “our” land.

And so I continue to bless “this our country.” When new people enter our shul, I continue to explain to them, to the best of my ability, why I agree with “our.” And when I spend Shabbos in a different community, one which does not verbalize an “our” in its prayer for the government, in my own mind this expression of loyalty and responsibility still attaches itself to the name of that more perfect union, “our country, the United States of America.”