National Treasure

No I am not talking about the movie beloved, I am talking about the land of Israel. In this weeks parsha, Eikev, Moshe says, "For the L*rd your G*d is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams and springs and fountains issuing from plain and hill; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and figs and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey; a land where you may eat food without stint, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and from whose hills you can mine copper. When you have eaten your fill, give thanks to thy L*rd your G*d for the good land which He has given you."

The word Eikev can have several meanings. It can mean "if" as in if you obey my mitzvot and observe them carefully. It can mean "because" as in G*d chose you as His treasured people, not because you are the most numerous people but because the L*rd favored you and kept the oath He made to your fathers that the L*rd freed you with a mighty hand and rescued you from the house of bondage, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. It can also mean "heel", while we may take pride in keeping the weighty mitzvot like the High Holidays, we trample with our heel the small mitzvot. Lastly Eikev can mean reward. The rewards or blessings that HaShem showers upon us every day are to numerable to mention. King David summed it up beautifully in Psalm 145, lovingly known as Ashrei. "I will extol You, my G*d and King, and bless Your name forever and ever. Every day will I bless You and praise Your name forever and ever"

One of the many ways we are given the chance to fulfill the mitvah in this weeks parsha "When you have eaten and are satisfied, bless HaShem for the goodly land" is a series of prayers handed down to us through the ages. Rabbi Nachman said, "Moshe decreed for Israel the first blessing of bircas hamazon, "Blessed are You, Hashem, Who feeds the whole world..." when the manna came down to them. Yehoshua decreed the blessing of "the land" the second blessing when they entered the land. David and Shlomo decreed "Who builds Yerushalayim, the third blessing. The blessing "Who is good and does good" the last blessing, was decreed for those killed at Betar."  Yitzchak Etshalom expounds on this teaching that there were three stages in the development of Birkat haMazon:    1)The Torah's command to praise and beseech G*d.  2)The historical targeting of content for each blessing, Moshe-praise for G*d's sustenence, Joshua-thanks  for the land, and lastly David/Solomon-request for protection for Jerusalem and the Temple.  3)The evolution of a more or less fixed text after the destruction of the Temple. When we sing Birkat haMazon we not only connect with HaShem, we are connecting with our land and our heritage.   

Rabbi Kook expands on the idea that the thread running through the entire Torah is the relationship between community and the individual and how we as individuals find contentment within the community. As eating brings man down to the base feelings of his individual senses and pleasures, HaShem in His goodness prepared in advance a ladder that rests on the earth, but whose top reaches the heavens so that we can ascend from the lowliness of the individual to the heights of the community.
Y. Nachshoni contends that during our long exile the struggle has been to maintain our individual character as a nation when we have been considered by all to be dead. He says this is the meaning of the Jewish table, that we should not become depressed by our exile. HaShem, "Who is good and does good" will indeed restore our land.

Rabbi Nachman related to his disciples that in the evening we don't have as many divine connectors, namely the mitzvot, that we have during the day that enable us to attach ourselves to the Compassionate One. He encouraged them to wash, have bread and give thanks to G*d as a way of making this connection. Try it sometime, in the still hush of the evening after a bit of bread make that holy connection, it is an amazing thing to sing praises to G*d along with all His creatures of the night.  

Beloved as we sing Bircat haMazon around our Shabbos table this Shabbat sing it with a renewed gusto as we remember our National Treasure, Eretz Yisrael, and the promises of our gracious Father and King. Shabbat Shalom~Elisheva Amaris