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In "The Mitzvah of Eretz Yisrael," Rav Shlomo Katz takes us deep into the heart and soul of one of Judaism's most profound and debated mitzvot. What does it really mean to conquer, dwell, and truly live in the land of Israel today? Is it merely about physical settlement, or is there a deeper spiritual conquest at play? Drawing on Torah sources, Chassidic insights, and practical halacha, we’ll explore questions like: How central is living in Eretz Yisrael to fulfilling our Jewish destiny? Can the mitzvah be achieved spiritually outside the land? What is our role in actively building and nurturing the land given to us by Hashem? Join us as we journey to reveal the extraordinary dimensions of this holy mitzvah.
ישר כוח, בוקר טוב לכולם. Good morning everyone. בוקר טוב. Yesterday we started something really special about going to the depth of the מצווה of ישוב, כיבוש הארץ and ישוב הארץ.
And we learned yesterday how the רמב"ן counts, considers it as one of the, as a מצוות עשה, one of the, when he lists the מצוות, the מצווה of ישוב הארץ, of dwelling in the land as a מצווה.So, the famous question when it comes to the Halachic debate regarding the status of the מצווה of dwelling in the land is why doesn't the רמב"ם list this as one of the מצוות in ספר המצוות לרמב"ם? If it's so clear that living in ארץ ישראל is a מצוות עשה, you would think the רמב"ם would clearly write this down and say that it is, and the thing is that he doesn't. And the fact that he doesn't has opened up such a wide spectrum of different halachic analysis of, okay, so really is this a, is this a מצווה or is it not? And maybe I should focus on a bunch of other things that aren't a ספק whether they're a מצווה or not. I mean, clearly there are plenty of, there's hundreds of thousands of very special Jews that listen to the, you know, as far as well as they can to the כל התורה כולה, but for them the מצווה of ישוב הארץ is not like the מצווה of שבת. מצוות שבת they keep, כשרות they keep.
ארץ ישראל is a, is a maybe. By some people it's, it's a דוקא no, right?So I think it means that we have to understand a little bit, a little bit deeper why didn't the רמב"ם write in ספר המצוות clearly that this is a מצווה, just like the רמב"ן listed this as a מצווה. Now, anyone that learned אמא בנים שמחה knows this very clearly that throughout the הקדמה of אמא בנים שמחה of רב טייכטאל, השם יקום דמו, זכר צדיק לברכה, he addresses this clearly. And he explains what most people explain, is that the רמב"ם in the beginning of his ספר המצוות, it's the שורשים, the roots of the מצוות, before he goes and lists every מצווה specifically, he says, let me tell you like the basic, the what what everything is נשען on, the roots of everything.
He explains there that the מצווה of ישוב הארץ is a מצווה כוללת. It's a מצווה כללית. It's a general מצווה that almost by listing it as one of the מצוות, you almost cheapen it.Now, to explain this, I saw a beautiful explanation by רב נחום רבינוביץ' זצ"ל. He was the רב of the, the רב of the הסדר in מעלה אדומים for many years.
He passed away a number of years ago. I had the זכות of being with him on a number of occasions. And he explains this beautifully. Listen to how he explains this.
He says, הרמב"ם מסביר שיש חיוב כוללני ועמוק יותר ממצווה הנמנית בתרי"ג. הוא חיוב הנובע מעיקרון שהתורה מציעה כיסוד למצוות. Like we said, the רמב"ם's explanation of what the מצווה of ישוב הארץ is, is basically a foundation for all other מצוות. He says like this.
There are some of the עקרונות, כמה עקרונות הללו לא נצטווינו מצווה פרטית עליהם. There are other things as well that there's no מצווה, specific מצווה to believe in something or to keep something, because it falls into the category of a מצווה כללית, like what? אין מצווה בתרי"ג מצוות להאמין שהקדוש ברוך הוא יודע את מעשה בני האדם וחוקר ליבותיהם. There's no מצווה that רבינוביץ' says that a person has to believe that God knows what you and I are thinking and he goes in, he knows what our hearts are all about and how we calculate things and what we're going to do. There's no מצווה like that.
But then he says, אבל ברור שמי שכופר בידיעת השם מעשה בני אדם, כופר בכל התורה כולה. But if you don't believe that, you're basically כופר in the whole Torah. So even though the Torah doesn't say there's a חיוב that you have to believe that השם knows all this, if you don't believe this, you're basically not standing on anything. ומשמיט את הבסיס של כל המצוות כולן, and you remove the base upon which all other מצוות are standing upon.
Says רב רבינוביץ', that's the same way the רמב"ם looks at the מצווה of ישוב הארץ. If, yeah, the Torah doesn't, according to the רמב"ם, it's not a מצוות עשה. He doesn't bring, he doesn't bring it the way the רמב"ן brought the פסוק we saw yesterday about כיבוש הארץ and ישוב הארץ, but take away ארץ ישראל from the whole program, you're standing on nothing. And that's why it's a, it's called a מצווה כללית, it's a מצווה that is all encompassing and takes basically everything is riding upon this עניין of believing that הקדוש ברוך הוא wants us to come here, conquer the land, and dwell and settle the whole land.Now, there are many other ראשונים and אחרונים that basically take the רמב"ם and they say, the truth is, he did include it in his מנין of the מצוות.
He did it through this מצווה or through that מצווה or through that מצווה. It falls under other categories where he does include it as part of the מנין המצוות. But I, I feel most connected to the way that רב רבינוביץ' explained the בסיס of, you know, ארץ ישראל being not just another thing on the list. It's like, you keep שבת, of course.
Do you eat כשר, of course. Do you live in ארץ ישראל? Whatever, it's for, it's for the lucky ones. You say that about שבת? Do you say that about, do you say that about believing in, forget those things, do you say that about believing the way the רמב"ם explained the other, maybe you should look inside, the other מצוות כלליות? מה פתאום. So השם, we, this is something we have to דאווען over.
It's not just something we could learn and and then eventually, oh, I'll understand it. This is an עניין, the מצווה of ישוב הארץ, I could be, I could learn this till I'm blue in the face. But until I דאווען over it that this becomes something that for me is like, if I remove this, I wouldn't have any of the Torah, it won't really, really penetrate my insides. So we should have the זכות to be real prayers over the מצווה of ישוב הארץ till this becomes something like the רמב"ם says, a מצווה כללית in our lives, a מצווה שכוללת את הכל.
Have a beautiful day.