Avraham, Eretz Yisrael and the Soul Survival of the Jewish People

In Parshas Lech Lecha, Avraham starts his journey, which is really our journey to Eretz Yisrael. Eretz Yisrael is a central point in the entire Torah with a tremendous amount of depth and meaning. I’d like to focus on one topic and see how this connects back to Avraham and his epic voyage to the Promised Land. 

We know, as the Torah tells us in Parshas Bo, that there is a Mitzvah of Kiddush Hachodesh, sanctifying the new month. This isn’t just an arbitrary Mitzvah. This was the first Mitzvah we were given as a Jewish people and a Mitzvah which helps us partner with Hashem to create the holiness of the Jewish calendar and fix all of our Chagim and ensuing Mitzvos connected to them. 

The Rambam, in Hilchos Kiddush Hachodesh 5:3 teaches us that this Mitzvah was uniquely suited to be performed in Eretz Yisrael by the Sanhedrin. But after our exile, our sages fixed the calendar based upon astronomical calculations, no longer the technical witnessing of the new moon. We see a basic connection of Eretz Yisrael to Kiddush Hachodesh. 

But in Sefer Hamitzvos 153, the Rambam takes this concept to a whole new level. He describes that the only way all of the Jews in the diaspora can actually connect to Kiddush Hachodesh throughout the ages is because there were a remnant of Jews which make a Beis Din in Eretz Yisrael. In fact, says the Rambam, the promise that Hashem made that Klal Yisrael would never get destroyed completely means that our community in Eretz Yisrael would never get completely uprooted, we would always retain a presence there even under exile and it is this connection that gives the life to Kiddush Hachodesh for Jews around the world. 

This is an incredible concept, but it requires deeper explanation. Why should it be that the Jewish calendar for Jews around the world was linked to the remnant population remaining in Eretz Yisrael?

I believe an insight to this can be understood based upon a famous Gemara in Sanhedrin 42s which we actually say every month in the text of the Kiddush Levana prayer that we say for the first Motzi Shabbos after Rosh Chodesh:

תָּנָא דְּבֵי רַבִּי יִשְׁמָעֵאל: אִילְמָלֵא לֹא זָכוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶלָּא לְהַקְבִּיל פְּנֵי אֲבִיהֶן שֶׁבַּשָּׁמַיִם כָּל חֹדֶשׁ וָחֹדֶשׁ, דַּיָּים.

The school of Rabbi Yishmael taught: If the Jewish people merited to greet the Face of their Father in Heaven only one time each and every month, it would suffice for them.

What exactly does this mean? When we greet the new month it's as if we greet the Divine Presence? What does that mean it would suffice for them? Rashi reinforces this point even more clearly when he says that if that had no other Mitzvah but this that would be enough. Why should that be?

I think a fascinating comment on the beginning of Parshas Lech Lecha from the Ishbitzer Rebbi in Mei Hashiloach will help shed light on this sugya:

“… to the land which I will show you.”

Avraham Avinu wanted to know just where the essence of his life was intensely joined to God and how far it reached. Thus God responded to him, “to the land which I will show you,” meaning that you are joined to me in a place called “which I will show you.” For He has no end, His endless light will continually increase within you, and this you will find in the land of Israel.

Through the cryptic phrase of “that which I will show you”, Hashem was hinting to Avraham about the true nature of Eretz Yisrael. It’s not just a beautiful land of mountains and valleys, fruits and rivers. It is a land that will define the infinite relationship one can have with the Creator of the universe. It’s a land that will continue to unfold and reveal its spiritual depth, forging and deepening our relationship to Hashem and ultimately our own Neshama. 

And this reflects on the beginning of the Passuk as well, Lech Lecha, go towards you. According to the Mei Hashiloach, it means go towards the essence of your life, the source of your soul, go towards Eretz Yisrael. You will discover an endless light that will not only illuminate your own spiritual path, but it will enable you to light up the world with divinity as well. 

And perhaps with this understanding, we can go back to answer all of our questions. Rabbi Yishmael understood that saying Kiddush Levana is no simple task. Greeting the light of the moon reflects back all the way to the beginning of creation where the moon itself became secondary, shining the light of the sun. One cannot gaze at the sun without being damaged, but we can appreciate the beauty of the light of the moon. 

But that deeper vision can only happen when Klal Yisrael is connected to Eretz Yisrael as promised to Avraham Avinu. And even if that part was a small remnant of Jews that clung to the Holy Land even in the most difficult circumstances, this lay an anchor of Kedusha that all of Klal Yisrael to be part of that light, sanctify the new month even in the diaspora, connect to Yom Tovim throughout our Galus and ultimately gain a glimpse of the Shechina every time we say Kiddush Levana where a Jew might be. 

Because the light of the moon never gets fully dark. Even when we can hardly see it, that ray of light remains subtle and dormant, just like the Jewish connection to Eretz Yisrael, keeping our hope for Geula alive. It’s that same light that we connect back to the Ohr Ganuz, that even when we can’t see it, especially in the darkness of our exile, the Neshama remains translucent, sensing on the deepest of levels that this light still exists and can be accessed by every Jew. It started with Avraham and his special connection to Eretz Yisrael that continues on today. L’chaim.