This essay is part of a continuing series featuring distinguished writers on the bond and shared responsibility between chareidi Jews in the Diaspora and those living in Eretz Yisrael. Through personal experience, reflection, and thoughtful perspective, the series seeks to deepen the conversation and highlight meaningful points of connection. Readers are invited to share their thoughts at [email protected]

Directing Our Hearts to the Right Place

By Rabbi S.Y. Bixenspanner

We find in Parshas Eikev a defining passuk in regards to Eretz Yisroel:

“ארץ אשר ה’ אלוקיך דורש אותה תמיד, עיני ה’ אלוקיך בה מראשית השנה ועד אחרית שנה”

“A land that Hashem seeks out, His eyes are always upon it”.

We must admit that, while this idea has often felt somewhat abstract, in recent years it has become vividly real. The nissimwe witness with our own eyes each and every time missiles and rockets are launched at Eretz Yisroel can only be understood in light of this very passuk.

Technology alone cannot explain why the anti-missile systeminstalled by Israeli experts and deployed in Ukraine has achieved only a 50% success rate, while in Eretz Yisroel the identical system, installed by the same experts, has b’chasdeiHashem reached a roughly 95% success rate. This is just one of many phenomena in current events that seems to reflect a tangible fulfilment of the message of this passuk.

This awareness, that Eretz Yisroel is, so to speak, constantly under the direct gaze of Hakodosh Boruch Hu, should naturally awaken within us a deep longing to be there as much as possible, and perhaps even to make it our home.

Many of the greatest tzaddikim throughout the generationslonged to be in Eretz Yisroel, purely for ruchniyus reasons(long before the days of the King David Hotel and the like!)yet were unable to fulfill their dream. From Moishe Rabbeinu,through the Baal Shem Tov and the Vilna Gaon, this yearning remained a constant theme among our Gedolim. 

Regardless of whether or not one holds that there is a mitzvah of yishuv Eretz Yisroel in our times, it is the underlying mindset – having one’s heart in the right place – that really matters.

Longing for Eretz Yisroel gives a Yid a deeper connection to Hakodosh Boruch Hu. The Shl”a HaKadosh, who was zochehto settle in Eretz Yisroel in his sixties, writes that when the Torah records Avraham Avinu traveling to Eretz Canaan at the age of 75, it was actually his second time there. The first time had been five years earlier, after which he was instructed to return to Charan. He was then held back from returning for another five years, in order to cultivate a deeper longing for the land.

The Shl”a concludes that we, as Avraham’s descendants, must follow in his footsteps and actively develop that same yearning for Eretz Yisroel. This is the very least we can do in our times when it is not always possible to move to Eretz Yisroel for a variety of reasons.

Many years ago, following the infamous Anschluss in 1938,Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany. At the time, my greatgrandfather, Rav Moishe Shimon HaLevi Lowy, zt”l, Rav in Frauenkirchen for over fifty years, realized that remaining in Nazi–occupied Austria was no longer a viable option. Hetherefore resolved to move to Eretz Yisroel and after many trials and tribulations, arrived there safely.

Upon reaching its shores, he was approached by then Chief Rabbi of Israel Rav Yitzchok HaLevi Herzog, who recognized his stature and offered him a rabbinic position in one of the cities in Eretz Yisroel. My great–grandfather declined the offer, explaining that now that he had finally merited to reach to the shores of the Holy Land, he wished to live out his years as a private citizen, focusing on deepening his connection to Hakodosh Boruch Hu.

Many of our tefillos and brachos were instituted to arouse our longing for Eretz Yisroel; for example, the brachah of “Asher Ge’alanu” recited at the Seder, the tefillah of “Vese’arev” said before duchenen, and Mimkomcha said during Kedushah, among many others.

Perhaps, in light of all that is taking place in Eretz Yisroel today, we can approach these tefillos and brachos with greaterkavanah and emotion, beseeching Hakodosh Boruch Hu that we be zocheh to see the fulfilment of the tefillah we say at least three times each day: V’sechezena eineinu b’shuvchal’Tzion b’rachamim, May our eyes behold Your return to Zion in mercy — speedily in our days.