YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH (VBM)
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INTRODUCTION TO PARASHAT HASHAVUA

Parashat Acharei Mot-Kedoshim

The Sanctity of the Land
By Rav Michael Hattin

INTRODUCTION

The double portion of Acharei Mot and Kedoshim contains much material that pertains to the matter of "holiness" or "kedusha."  The first section begins with a solemn description of the Yom Kippur service of the High Priest, goes on to outline various prohibitions associated with the offering of sacrifices outside of the holy precincts as well as the consumption of animal blood, and then sets out a series of proscribed immoral sexual practices and relationships associated with both the Egyptians as well as the Canaanites.  The section concludes:

Do not defile yourselves with all of these things, for the nations that I drive out from before you were defiled by all these things.  The land became defiled and I punished it for its iniquity, and the land spewed forth its inhabitants.  But you shall observe My statutes and laws not to do any of these abominations, the citizen as well as the convert that dwells among you.  For all of these abominations were performed by the people who dwelt in the land before you, and the land became defiled.  Let not the land spew you forth for defiling it, just as it expelled the nation that was before you…(18:24-28).

Parashat Kedoshim, while much more eclectic in content, nevertheless also unmistakably bears the imprimatur of "holiness."  Its various laws, pertaining to a wide range of civil, ritual and moral issues, conclude with a section of forbidden sexual liaisons that mirrors perfectly the end of Parashat Acharei Mot.  This mirroring effect is amplified by the cautionary note sounded at the end of Parashat Kedoshim:

	Observe My statutes and My laws and perform them so that the land into which I bring you to settle shall not instead spew you forth.  Do not follow the statutes of the nation that I drive out from before you, for they did all of these things and I become disgusted with them.  Therefore I say to you that you shall inherit their land and I shall give it to you in order to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.  I am God your Lord who separated you from among the nations…(20:22-24).

HOW THE LAND IS DEFILED

What is startling about this twin formulation, that presented at the end of Parashat Acharei Mot as well as that preserved at the end of Parashat Kedoshim, is that it personifies the land of Canaan in a most striking fashion.  When the land is "defiled," it reacts by "spewing forth" the defilers, much as a person may suffer stomach upset by consuming foods that are unfit, and then curatively vomit them forth and thus find relief!  But defiling the land has little or nothing to do with any direct human interaction with the earth; it is instead a direct function of human moral failure and iniquity.  The land is defiled when human beings behave immorally and it responds by deposing them.  

Even more astonishing, the land of Canaan does not play favorites insofar as the nations that inhabit it are concerned.  The Israelites who will shortly enter the land and repossess it from the Canaanites will not be granted the unconditional immunity to behave upon it as they please.  If they maintain and observe the laws of the Torah then they will enjoy its bounty, for it a land "flowing with milk and honey."  But if they too succumb to the immoral wiles of idolatry and adopt its depraved sexual practices, then they will be driven out of the land like their predecessors.  

THE SANCTITY OF THE LAND AS A FUNCTION OF HUMAN DEEDS

Never in the history of religion has there been set forth a greater demystification of what we typically refer to as "hallowed ground."  Here, the holiness of the land that in pagan and polytheistic mythology was a palpable and independent quality associated with the very earth itself, has been forcefully transformed to become a function of human moral choices alone: we hallow the earth or else defile it solely by our deeds.

The Book of Kings preserves a marvelous example of just how seriously this principle was misunderstood even by well-meaning idolaters.  During the reign of Yehoram son of Achav over the northern kingdom of Israel, the prophet Elisha (who had been the famous Eliyahu's protege) was active.  At the time (c. 9th century, BCE), the kingdom faced a variety of external threats, most notably from the more northern region of Aram.  The Arameans, centered at Damascus, would make periodic forays into the kingdom of Israel in order to pillage and to secure booty, but sometimes the relations between the countries were more cordial.  

The fifth chapter of Kings 2 narrates an episode concerning Na'aman who was the chief of staff of the Aramean king and had become stricken with the debilitating skin disorder known as "tzara'at."  On the advice of a small captive slave girl from Israel who had heard of Elisha's exploits, the king of Aram dispatched Na'aman to Israel in order to have him healed from his condition.  Though initially reluctant to follow the prophet's advice to bathe seven times in the waters of the Yarden, since he was expecting a much more sensational and supernatural intervention, Na'aman eventually relented and was immediately cured.  While Elisha pointedly refused Na'aman's subsequent grateful offer of generous remuneration, he did grant the pagan general's parting wish:

Na'aman said: let your servant be given a measure of earth equal in weight to the burden borne by a pair of donkeys, for your servant shall not offer burnt offerings or sacrifices to other gods but only to God.  And let God forgive your servant when my master comes to Beit Rimon in order to worship there, and he rests upon my hand so that I too bow down in Beit Rimon.  Let God forgive your servant in this matter…(Melakhim 2:5:17-18).

In other words, Na'aman requested to take with him a measure of earth from the land of Israel because he sincerely believed that he would be able to worship God (whom he now gratefully acknowledged as the source of his recovery) only by sacrificing upon its hallowed earth.  And though he might continue to worship in the idolatrous shrine of his master, henceforth that service would be performed solely for political rather than for religious reasons!  Not surprisingly, Elisha sent him on his way in peace with earth in tow, making no attempt to correct his ingrained pagan notions that primitively associated physical things with inherent divine qualities.  In our parashiyot in contrast, the holiness of the land of Canaan, the presence of God with which it is inspired, is very much dependent upon the moral choices that human beings make and is not to be regarded as necessarily intrinsic.

A CONTRASTING FORMULATION

Having said that, it is impossible to overlook persistent and popular traditions preserved in Rabbinic thought, themselves based upon numerous passages scattered throughout the Tanakh, that ascribe almost mythical qualities of holiness to the land of Israel.  Among the medieval classical commentaries, the matter is most eloquently and compellingly enunciated by the Ramban (13th century, Spain).  In a very lengthy commentary that centers upon 18:25 – "The land became defiled and I punished it for its iniquity, and the land spewed forth its inhabitants" – the Ramban has the following to say:

The Torah was strict concerning sexual immorality because of the land that becomes defiled thereby and spews forth those responsible.  Though sexual laws are obligations upon the person and are not land-dependent, the secret of the matter is contained in the following verse: "When the Supreme One assigned nations and distinguished between peoples, He set the boundaries of nations according to the number of Israel.  For Israel is God's portion, and Ya'acov His inheritance" (Devarim 32:8-9)…though glorious God is the Lord of lords and master of masters for all of the earth, the land of Israel is at the center of human habitation.  It is God's special portion designated to His name, and no angel or heavenly being rules over it.  Rather, it has been set aside for His people who proclaim His oneness, the offspring of those that love Him…Therefore, He sanctified the people who dwell in His land with the sanctity of the sexual laws as well as the majority of the mitzvot that they might be dedicated to Him, and therefore it says: "Observe My statutes and My laws and perform them so that the land into which I bring you to settle shall not instead spew you forth…Therefore I say to you that you shall inherit their land and I shall give it to you in order to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.  I am God your Lord who separated you from among the nations…(20:22-24).  This is to indicate that He separated us from all of the other nations upon whom He placed  the rule of heavenly beings, by giving us the land so that He would be our God and we would be especially dedicated to Him.  Thus, the land that is glorious God's inheritance spews out all who defile it and it cannot suffer the presence of idolaters or those who are sexually immoral…

THE FORMULATION OF THE RAMBAN

In this celebrated passage, the Ramban sets forth his thesis concerning the sanctity of the land of Israel.  The land is imbued with a special measure of Divine presence, and therefore those that dwell upon it live their lives in His immediacy.  Though all parts of the world are ultimately under the providence of God, the Ramban maintains that the quality of this providence is elsewhere less direct, for it is accomplished through the agency of angelic beings that carry out God's desire.  Of course, these angelic beings do not act with independent will but only as a function of God's, and thus are perhaps best understood as expressions of Divine obliqueness.  It is as if the King's rule over the provinces was managed by loyal ministers that did His bidding without hesitation.

While the tone of Ramban's formulation is mystical (as he himself avers), the matter may be framed in rational terms as well.  To dwell in the land of Israel is to be closer to the experience of God, and therefore the land is designated especially for the people of Israel to fulfill His commands.  The provisions of the Torah that are themselves the means by which we connect with the Creator are best fulfilled in the land that is most attuned to that relationship, for though God's presence is everywhere, the potential for experiencing that presence is heightened in the land.  Consequently, moral failures are less tolerated here than elsewhere, for the "sanctity" of the land that is everywhere else the potential for Divine immediacy and closeness is also the mechanism for dismissal when the provisions of the Torah are ignored or abrogated.  As the Ramban states later on in his commentary, everywhere else in the world the moral turpitude of nations does not necessarily lead to their exile from their land, but not so in the land of Israel.  Here, the nation that fails to live up to the Torah's higher demands for ethical and holy living, be they Canaanite or Israelite, is driven out!  

Thus, the Parasha as understood by the Ramban leaves us with a potent tension, for while the land may in fact have an inherent quality of holiness, it is precisely that inherent quality that demands heightened moral sensitivity on our part.  Sanctity of the land, therefore, is not an inert characteristic that is solely a function of Divine immanence, as Na'aman would have had us believe, but rather a dynamic property that reacts to our moral and ethical choices.  It is the possibility for experiencing God in a way that is more immediate and real than anywhere else, but that potential, like all of the Torah's other expressions of "choseness," implies not assured privilege but rather the burden of responsibility.

Shabbat Shalom