Land

11 Tishrei 5782

“He will … appease His land [and] His people.” (Devarim 32:43)

Rashi elaborates on this verse “And what is His land? His people. When His nation is comforted, His land is also comforted. Thus, Scripture says, “O Lord, You have appeased Your land” (Tehillim 85:2). How have You appeased Your land? [That same verse continues:] “You have returned the captivity of Jacob.” The inherent spiritual power in the land is the same spiritual power that lies latent within every Jew. Unlocking this power in every Jew will also unlock the full extent of the spiritual power in the material. These are the times of Moshiach.

“O God, You are my God, I seek You. My soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You, in an arid and thirsty land, without water.” (Tehillim 63:2)

Only when we engender a thirst for Hashem can we survive wandering through this “arid and thirsty land, without water.” The thirst and constant longing for His strength and glory, will carry us through all our trials and tribulations. At the end we will be rewarded and the nations will say “They cleaved to the Holy One, Blessed is He, through all the sufferings that befell them, and they did not forsake Him.” (Rashi on Devarim 32:43)

“Now, these fruits that [grow] by means of an “elevation of mayin nukvin,” i.e., by sowing and planting, are far, far superior to those that come up independently, only from the vegetative property in the soil.” (Lessons in Tanya, Iggeret HaKodesh, middle of Epistle 20)

The lights drawn down by unlocking the spiritual potential of the earth, of the material, by means of an arousal from below “surpass by far the lights that are granted through an arousal from above as an unearned gift.” As explained above, the spiritual potential of the earth, of the material, to create yesh from ayin is one and the same as the spiritual potential found in every Jew. It follows that arousing the spiritual power in other Jews is the same category of avodah as transforming the material to holiness through phyiscal mitzvos. Both are key to appeasing the Holy Land by bringing back its Holy People, speedily in our days.