Eretz Yisroel’s Beauty: May We Compare It to the Alps?

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. Shailah has been asked. A lot of people, they traveled in the summer. They went to different places, beautiful parts of America, Switzerland, America, the Grand Canyon. They went to Switzerland, the Alps, Eretz Yisroel. A lot of people traveled to the Alps. They come back, and they're going to say there's nothing as beautiful as the Alps, or there's nothing as breathtaking as the Grand Canyon. Are they allowed to say that when the Torah tells us Eretz Yisroel is the most beautiful of all places, Eretz Yisroel is gorgeous? So a person will say, Ah, it's not as beautiful as the Grand Canyon. It's not as beautiful as the Alps. I myself experienced that. I was in a bachur in yeshiva, so it was a camp. They made a camp in the summer in Eretz Yisroel, and they took us touring with a guided tour on a bus, and the tour guide was saying, Ah, Ein Gedi and a few places, beautiful, most beautiful place, gorgeous, it's unbelievable. And I remember someone was sitting there and said, Ah, this guy was never in Switzerland or the Alps. That's beautiful. I remember it bothered me at the time, and the question then already started to question in my mind, is it mutar to say that there are places out of Eretz Yisroel which are nicer than Eretz Yisroel? So the truth is the Torah speaks many places, many times. How beautiful and how good Eretz Yisroel is. It's possible because when you look, these places seem to be very pretty, much prettier in sight, places in Eretz Yisroel. Maybe the toiv that the Torah is referring to is a ruchniyusdike toiv. Rabbeinu Bechayei taka says, Eretz asher lo b'miskenus tochal bah lechem, which means you won't have lacking of bread. למעשה, we see there is a chisaron parnassah; people have a hard time parnassah. Lo b'miskenus tochal bah lechem, lechem is Torah. So we're not referring to the physical bread; it's referring to ruchniyus, lechem Torah is lechem. Avirah d'Eretz Yisroel machkim. Eretz Yisroel is conducive for Torah; machkim makes a person smart. It's a ruchniyusdike, the fresh air in Eretz Yisroel. When we talk about the avir, it's a ruchniyusdike maalah, not a physical maalah. The Tziv Takah says, what's the pshat? Eretz toivah, toivah, eretz me'od me'od, ein toivah ela Torah. The toivah of Eretz Yisroel is taka the Torah. So when we see in Eretz Yisroel and you see the good, maybe it's a ruchniyusdike good. There's an interesting Shlah. The Shlah says we find two leshonos: there's toivah and tov. Pasuk says, toivah aretz, and we find, im tishmana, tov ha'aretz tochelu. Tov, tov ha'aretz. What's the chiluk between toivah and tov? Says the Shlah, we find the same by Torah. Torah is... Ein toiv ela Torah, ki lekach toiv nasati lachem, Torah is toiv. And then we find tov, pam v'das lamdeini. The difference between toiv and tov, says the Shlah, toiv is exterior, exterior. And then there's tov, the interior, the look deeper, the essence. So Torah has both, ki lekach toiv nasati lachem. And then there is also tov, Eretz Yisrael as well. He says, what is the toiv, the external? He says that's Yerushalayim, the inyan of Yerushalayim. But there's also tov, the internal, which is kedushas Beis HaMikdash. The kedushah is the tov, the kedushas ha'aretz that comes from the Beis HaMikdash, which is really Yerushalayim shel maalah, he says, is the tov, the essence. I think that's the rei tov Yerushalayim, rei tov. You have to see the essence, and that's הרבה more beautiful. There's nothing more beautiful than Eretz Yisrael in its essence. So the exterior, yeah, maybe. Maybe there's a nicer flower or two in the Alps, and maybe there's a bigger mountain in the Grand Canyon. But rei tov, the essence, the ruchniyusdike, the deeper, you look.

You'll see it's much better in Eretz Yisroel. Maybe that's what we have to view as the beauty of Eretz Yisroel. Saying this, so then it's not an issur to come and say. It wouldn't be asur to say, well, these places are nicer if you mean exterior. Externally, they're nicer. Rav Shlomo Miller shlita, he was at a beis in Lakewood. He was in my shul this past Shabbos, and I asked him the shaila: is one allowed to say that places out of Eretz Yisroel, for example the Alps, for example the Grand Canyon, etc., etc., that they are prettier, they're nicer, it's a better trip when you go there than to what you see in Eretz Yisroel? And his response was very strong that no, chas v'shalom, it's against what the Torah says. A Yid has to believe that Eretz Yisroel is, unscheinst, the plots of developed, the best and nicest place in the world, and it's against the Torah. That's what he said. The Torah says not like that. So this is something to think about. The question is a good question. You know, we compare trips. One person tells, Oh, I went here to the Alps, and I went here to the Grand Canyon, and I went there, and I went... Oh, where'd you go? I went to Eretz Yisroel. All right. Maybe you have to say that, no, Eretz Yisroel is the nicest, and it has the best air, and it has the best sights, and it's the best trip possible, the best vacation possible. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.