….Receiving Torah at Mount Sinai was the very beginning of the journey for the people of Israel. Endowed with a covenant with the Almighty, the children of Israel were now on their way to becoming the nation of Israel. Contained within every word of every commandment of this new Torah was the imperative of the land of Israel. The journey and the fulfillment of the word of Torah would only be possible in the land of Israel. This is no more explicit than in the commandment of the first-fruits:
…”And it will be, when you come into the land which the L-rd, your G-d, gives you for an inheritance, and you possess it and settle in it, that you shall take of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you will bring from your land, which the L-rd, your G-d, is giving you. And you shall put [them] into a basket and go to the place which the L-rd, your G-d, will choose to have His Name dwell there. And you shall come to the kohen who will be [serving] in those days, and say to him, ‘I declare this day to the L-rd, your G-d, that I have come to the land which the L-rd swore to our forefathers to give us.’” (Deuteronomy 26:1-3)
Happy Shavuot to my family and my friends
Elie
