By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron
בס"ד
לשכנו תדרשו
Returning to the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land
"ושב ה' א-היך את שבותך ושב וקבצך מכל העמים.. והביאך אל הארץ אשר ירשו אבותך... "
"The soul is Yours, and the body is Your handiwork, have mercy on the fruit of Your labors. The soul is Yours, and the body is Yours, HaShem, do for the sake of Your Name. We have come for Your Name, do for the sake of Your Name... For the sake of Your Name HaShem may You forgive our sins for they are great" (intro. to Slichos).
These days are great and holy days of returning to our roots, returning to our souls, returning to God with repentance, forgiveness, and compassion. Our title quote is taken from a quite famous, and also very timely, part of our parsha, known as "parshat hateshuva". Within this section (Deut. Ch. 30) comprising of 10 verses, the same verb for "returning", "lashuv", is used 7 times. While 4 of these seven verbs have the connotation of 'repentance' on the People's part, 3 of these verbs refer to 'returning' on God's part, as in returning the exiles of Israel to the Holy Land and the return of God's happiness upon Israel. Indeed, just as Israel returns to God so too God returns to Israel, so to speak, by resting His Holy Presence with them in the Holy Land (see Rashi ibid verse 3 - based on Megila 29a).
Similarly, just as there is a reciprocal return between God and Israel in the Holy Land, so too there is a reciprocal return between the souls of Israel in regard to unity and mutual responsibility in this Land. The strengthening of mutual responsibility especially in regard to the Land of Israel is halachically grounded in Sanhedrin 43b based on our parsha's verse (Deut. 29, 28): "the hidden is to HaShem our God and the revealed is to us and our children forever to do all the words of this Torah."
The Torah marks numbers of letters in this verse with dots, which according to our Sages are meant to teach us about the level of mutual responsibility in regard to "hidden" sins and/or "revealed" sins. According to both opinions in the Talmud the dots narrow the mutual responsibility for the sins of our fellow Jew to begin only at the entrance to the Land of Israel in the era of Joshua, while they differ in regard to the difference between 'hidden' sins and 'revealed' sins.
The concept of "mutual responsibility" between Jews is halachically grounded not just in regard to sins but also positively in regard to the ability to benefit others with positive commandments, such as one Jew exempts another Jew in regard to 'birkat hamazon', for example (Rosh and Rabeinu Yona ch. 3 Brachot). Just as mutual responsibility begins with the Land of Israel, so too mutual responsibility and unity of Israel is enhanced continuously in this Land as the Zohar (3, 93b) teaches us that the nation of Israel is one only in the Land of Israel (see parshat Vayigash for another example of halachic mutual responsibility in the Land in the present/future).
By returning to Hebron, we return to our unifying roots in the Land of Israel (Hebron means to unite), we return to the righteous ways of our Patriarchs, we return to the God of Avraham, Yitzhak, and Yakov, our beacons of merit year-round, and especially during these holy days.
Real Stories from the Holy Land #33: "We had to return late at night from Northern Israel to Kiryat Arba on Motzei Shabbos. We arrived in Jerusalem by bus at about 12:30, just missing the last bus to Kiryat Arba, so my wife and I hoped and prayed to God that we find a ride to Kiryat Arba for our family. I tried to implement what I learned in Hovot Halevavot that one should have confidence in God with total peace of mind, so I told myself, "when we reach the hitch-hiker's spot HaShem will have a ride waiting for us to Kiryat Arba", and my wife told herself, "we''ll reach Kiryat Arba by 2:00". When we reached the hitch-hiker's spot a car was there ready to drive to Kiryat Arba. Just as we passed the guard of Kiryat Arba the car's radio signaled 2:00."
