Article No. 18, 1984
Interpreters ask about the verse, “And it shall come to pass that when you come to the land that the Lord your God gives you as inheritance, and you will inherit and dwell in it.” They asked what is the precision, “that the Lord your God gives you”? After all the people of Israel conquered it by war. They explained that one should know in one’s heart that not by his own might and strength does he come to inherit the land. Rather, it is the gift of the Creator, as they said, “that the Lord your God gives you as inheritance and not my strength and the might of my hand.”
To understand the above in the work, we need to know that Eretz [land] means Ratzon [desire], meaning that the desire in man’s heart is called land. The nations of the world live in that land, which is called man’s heart, and the people of Israel live in it. However we should know that they cannot live in it together. The people of Israel and the nations of the world cannot rule together. Either there is governance of the nations of the world there, or the governance of Israel.
To understand the real reason why both of them cannot be in one place, it is known that the creation of the world was because of His desire to do good to His creations. For this reason He has created the will to receive delight and pleasure. That is, He created in the creatures a lack to always crave pleasures, for we see that the creature feels the pleasure according to his desire.
This is the Kli [vessel] that was created by the Creator, and it is the first discernment we discern in the creatures. If the creatures do not have that desire, they are still not regarded as created beings. It turns out that you cannot speak of any discernment if there is no will to receive there. And this is the whole of creation of which we speak, which is the Kli for the reception of the pleasure.
But because of the shame, which our sages call “bread of shame,” there was a restriction not to receive in order to receive unless one can aim to bestow, regarded as equivalence of form. That is, if one can receive the pleasures with the intention to bestow contentment upon the Creator, then one receives. Otherwise, he does not want to receive. This is called Israel, meaning Yashar-El [straight to the Creator], meaning everything he thinks of is only that everything will get to the Creator, and he is not taken into account because he is not thinking of himself at all. Rather all his thoughts are only for the Creator.
This is called the “land of Israel,” meaning that he has a desire directly to the Creator. That is, he has no desires of self-love, but of love of others, and for himself—that he will enjoy life—he has no desire at all. All he wants is to have the means to bestow upon the Creator, and all the nourishments he gives to his body are only to have the strength to work in order to bestow.
This is similar to a person who has a horse and he gives it food and water. That is, everything he gives to the horse is not because he loves it, but because he has to work with it. Therefore, all his thoughts of pleasing the horse are not because of love, but simply because he wants to use the horse for his own benefit, and he is not thinking at all about the horse’s favor. This is called the “land of Israel,” meaning that all his thoughts are only Eretz [land], Ratzon [desire] that everything will be straight to the Creator.
This is not so with the land of the nations. This is a land, a desire of self-love, which is called the “peoples of the land.” This means that all their desires are only the desires of the people, whose intention is not the Creator’s will, but the people’s will, meaning the creature’s will who are called “nations,” while the Creator is the one who created the nation. Also (Ki Tavo), “and all the nations of the earth shall see that the name of the Lord is called upon you and they shall fear you.” It is also written (Hayei Sarah) “Abraham arose and bowed before the people of the land, the sons of Heth”. This means that they do not know or feel anything but the people, which is self-love, and only this is regarded as creatures.
But the people of Israel are not so. They want to annul themselves and their being, which is the will to receive that was created existence from absence. This is why we say and the Kiddush [sanctification] of a good day “who has chosen us from every nation.”
Those two governances cannot be together. Either the will to bestow governs or the will to receive governs. Both cannot exist together because each one contradicts the other and two opposites cannot be in the same subject.
From this comes the war of the inclination, that one should fight with oneself to subdue the heart, which is where these desires clothe, expel the domination of the will to receive, and give full governance to the desire to bestow upon the Creator. When one begins to work the holy work, which is to aim all of his work for the Creator, the wars between those two desires begin. Then, through great labor, a person is rewarded with overcoming and he wins the war. At that time the ruling of the will to bestow upon the Creator enters his heart and a person can say, “My might and the strength of my hand has gotten me these riches,” and only through his work, he inherited the heart, which is now called the “land of Israel” because his desire is straight to the Creator.
In this regard, the verse comes and tells us, “When you come to the land that the Lord your God gives you.” That is, you did not conquer it by your own strength, but rather “the Lord your God gives you,” meaning that once a person has made the sufficient efforts to conquer the heart through the wars he has fought with the nations of the world and has defeated them, he has inherited the heart, which is now called the “land of Israel,” and not the “land of the nations.” Still, he should believe that he did not conquer the land but “the Lord your God gives you,” and “not my strength and the might of my hand has gotten me these riches.”
By that we should understand what is difficult about it, that the Creator promised Abraham, as it is written (Lech Lecha), “and he said to him I am the Lord who took you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to inherit it.”
Therefore, why did he first give the land to the nations of the world and then the people of Israel came and had to fight them and drive them out of their land, and the whole world complains, “Why did you conquer a land that was never yours, and only by conquering through war you say that this is your land?” Everyone understands that it would certainly be better if He did not give this land to the nations of the world, for then there would be no shortage of places for the nations of the world to dwell. After all, afterwards new countries were made, and the Creator could have made it that they would not dwell in this place.
But this was not what happened. Rather, first the seven nations sat here, as well as the rest of the kings, and the people of Israel had to fight with them and drive them out, and all the nations of the world are yelling at the people of Israel, “You are robbers! You have conquered the lands of seven nations!” Why do I need this trouble? RASHI introduces our sage’s interpretation (Beresheet, Chapter 1): “What is the reason that it begins with Beresheet [in the beginning]? Because of the might of His deeds, He told His people to give them an inheritance of nations, for if the idol worshipers would to say to Israel, ‘You are robbers, you have stolen the lands of seven nations,’ they tell them, ‘The whole earth belongs to the Creator. He has created it and He has given it to whom He pleases. Upon His will He gave it to them, and upon His will He took it from them and gave to us.’”
This is perplexing. Why do I need this order that occurred, meaning that before He gave it to us, He first gave it to the nations of the world, and only once they settled, He told us go, “Drive them out of this land for I have promised it to Abraham”?
By way of root and branch we can interpret this whole matter. It is known that Eretz [land] is called Malchut, which is the roots of the creatures, which is called “receiving in order to receive.” This is the root, meaning the first receiver, called the world of Ein Sof [infinity]. Afterwards corrections were made not to receive because of self-reception, but because the lower one wants to bestow upon the Creator. That is, he wants the will to receive for himself to be annulled, meaning not to use it, and all of his work will be only to bestow contentment upon the Creator.
According to the above it turns out that in the order of creation of the corporeal world, too, there should be the same order as in spirituality. That is, first this land is given to the nations of the world, and then, by overcoming and wars, the nations of the world are driven out of this land, and the people of Israel conquer it and inherit the place of the nations of the worlds.
This is so because the root of the nations of the world is the middle point on which there was the restriction. That is, since the first discernment that emerged in the world had to be a receiver in order to receive, for otherwise you cannot say that he is restricting himself not to receive, since overcoming relates to a place where there is a desire and craving to receive, and he overcomes his craving and wants equivalence of form.
Therefore, the nations of the world had to first receive this land, like the root, where the will to receive emerged first, which is the essence of creation, and then it can be said that we need to make corrections there. Therefore, once the nations of the world received this land, the people of Israel came and corrected the land to be entirely for the Creator. This is called the “land of Israel,” as it is written (Ekev) “A land that the Lord your God always demands; the eyes of the Lord your God are on it from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.”
We should understand about what is written that the land of Israel is called “a land that the eyes of the Lord your God are on it from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.” It means that the guidance of the Creator is on it, meaning specifically on the land of Israel. But the guidance of the Creator is all over the world, as the poet says “the eyes of the Lord roam everywhere.” Thus, how can we say that His guidance is only in the land of Israel?
We should interpret what is the land of Israel. It means that the land has already come out of the authority of the nations of the world and has already entered the authority of Israel. This is what the verse is trying to tell us, and to hint to us so as to know whether they are in the land of Israel or still in the land of the nations.
The sign for this is as it is written, “a land that the Lord your God always demands.” The verse tells us what is the land of Israel. It says that we need to know that the Creator always demands it. And what is His demand? The verse says onward, “The eyes of the Lord your God are on it from the beginning of the year to the end of the year,” for the guidance of the Creator is called “the eyes of the Lord.” Therefore, if a person sees His guidance from the beginning of time, which is called “the beginning of the year,” to the end of the year, which means that he sees the unending guidance of the Creator, this is called the “land of Israel.”
But the land of the nations means that only the Creator knows that He is watching over the whole world, but the nations of the world do not see it. This is why He has given us a sign, so as to know if we are in the land of Israel, or is the land where we are dwelling still the land of the nations of the world.
It turns out from all of the above that first, the nations of the world should enter this land, which implies the will to receive, which is the place where it is born first, and then they wage war with the will to receive and subdue it into the authority of holiness, meaning that everything he does will be according to the Creator’s demand.
By what the interpreters explained about the words, “And it shall come to pass that when you come to the land that the Lord your God gives you,” it means that one should not say after all the wars with the inclination, that he had to always overcome it, every single day, he should not think that he has achieved what he has achieved by his own strength. Rather, the Creator let him win this war.
This is the meaning of “that He gives you.” We need to make two discernments in the “He gives you”: 1) Mitzva (commandment), which is faith. This is called the “hand Tefillin.” Concerning the hand Tefillin, our sages said “and let it be for you as a token, and not for others as a token.” Because of it, the hand Tefillin should be covered, which means that faith is called “be humble with the Lord your God,” which is above reason.
2) Torah, which is the head Tefillin. Concerning the head Tefillin, our sages said about the verse (Ki Tavo): “And all the nations of the earth shall see that the name of the Lord is called upon you, and they shall fear you.” These are the head Tefillin, meaning that it is written there, “and all the nations of the earth shall see,” for the head Tefillin should be revealed to all. This is discerned as “Torah,” and the Torah is called so precisely that it is revealed.
But the hand Tefillin should be covered, which means above reason. Therefore, we cannot say words to another because everything that one can say to another is only through reason, and with something that is above reason, there are no words. This is why it is said, “for you as a token, and not for others.” It therefore follows that this giving—that the Creator has given the land to the people of Israel—is in order to produce fruits out of it.
As we explained above, when we speak of work, land means the “heart,” and the Creator gave two discernments in the heart: 1) faith, 2) Torah. Through both of them, a person achieves completeness. And although both come through me, we should still know that both come from the Creator, and one should not say, “My strength and the might of my hand has done these riches.”
By this we will understand what the interpreters asked, “Why is it written concerning the first born, ‘and You shall answer and You shall say out loud,’ but in reading a confession of the tithing, it is written, ‘and You said,’ and it is not written, ‘and You answered,’ as it is written in the first born?” Therefore, the confession of the tithing is said in a soft voice.
Tithing is regarded a Mitzva [commandment], which is the kingdom of heaven, and in that there is the matter of being humble, which is the Tefillin of the hand, of which our sages said “for you as a token, and not for others as a token.” Therefore, with a tithing, which implies a Mitzva, it is written only, “and You said,” which is with a soft voice that is not heard outside because this is regarded as being humble.
But firstborn implies to the head Tefillin, which is the Torah, of which it is written, “and all the nations of the earth shall see that the name of the Lord is called upon you and they will fear you.” This is why it is written about the firstborn, “and You shall answer and You shall say.” That is, it should be with a loud voice which is the Torah, which should be revealed to all, meaning that doing good to His creations should be revealed to the entire world.