By Ari Enkin, rabbinic director, United with Israel

By Ari Enkin, rabbinic director, United with Israel

One of the prominent verses  in this week’s reading is: “A Land that the Lord, your God, seeks out; the eyes of the Lord, your God, are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year” (11:12). Needless to say, this week’s Torah portion is a United with Israel favorite.

This week’s Torah portion is Eikev (Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25), and in it we read many of the praises of the Land of Israel.

One of the prominent verses  in this week’s reading is: “A Land that the Lord, your God, seeks out; the eyes of the Lord, your God, are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year” (11:12). Needless to say, this week’s Torah portion is a United with Israel favorite.

To understand the primacy of this verse, we need to go back to the story of the spies. Recall that the spies were sent to spy out the Land of Israel and report their findings to Moses. We know they brought back a negative report. But what, exactly, did the spies do wrong? They simply did what they were told and brought back a report. Maybe they truly believed that they would not be able to conquer the land. What should they have said?

There are a number of interpretations as to what the spies did wrong, and why they –and the people who believed them—were truly deserving of punishment.

One approach is that the spies’ report was based solely on military projections, statistics and other worldly considerations. The sin of the spies was that they forgot to mention God. Hence, the spies’ report should have been, for example, “Yes, the inhabitants are strong, and yes, their cities are protected, and it appears –through natural means– that we don’t stand a chance. But God has told us that we should go into the land, He promised the land to our forefathers, so we will certainly defeat them.”

Furthermore, they should have reminded the people that just as God miraculously saved them from Egypt and defeated Pharaoh’s army at the Red Sea, He would certainly defeat any other army that would stand in their way.

In other words, the facts were important, but these 10 leaders of the Jewish people were supposed to imbue the nation with faith in God. It is this mission in which they failed.

In fact, everything the spies said was true. Even their “predictions” were theoretically true. But the lesson they should have imparted was the lesson found in the verse cited above. There is indeed no way to conquer or even survive in Israel under natural circumstances. It is only with God’s presence that the land and the people thrive.

Whether it’s the creation of the new state of Israel in 1948, the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War, the successful raid on Entebbe or even the booming economy, it is so only because this is the “land that the Lord, your God, seeks out; the eyes of the Lord, your God, are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.”

For more insights by Rabbi Ari Enkin on this week’s Torah portion, click on the links below.

https://unitedwithisrael.org/living-torah-the-land-of-israel-belongs-to-us/

https://unitedwithisrael.org/the-land-of-israel-god-watches-over-it/

https://unitedwithisrael.org/living-torah-modern-day-manna/

https://unitedwithisrael.org/land-of-israel-and-your-heel/

https://unitedwithisrael.org/lets-make-a-deal/