When
you come into the land of Canaan which I give you for a possession, and I put a
plague of tzara’at in a house of the Land of your possession. Leviticus 14:34
The
verse uses two different names of the Holy Land, first “the land of Canaan” and
then “the Land of your possession.”
Our
Sages comment on the significance of the name “land of Canaan”:
There
are seven (Canaanite) nations, yet the Land is named for Canaan. The Rabbis say
this hints that just as Ḥam sinned and his father Canaan was punished [Genesis
9:22-25] so too Israel sins, but the Land is cursed.
vaYikra Rabba
17:5
Thus,
our Sages teach that the lesson of tzara’at of houses is that the Land
suffers punishment instead of the nation. Based upon this Midrash, Rabbi
Moshe Ḥagiz (1672–1744) writes that the Land is comparable to the mother of the
nation of Israel, who suffers for the sake of her children and gives them life
and vitality.
We
find a similar concept concerning the destruction of the Temple:
“A
song of Asaph. O God, the heathens have come into Your inheritance; they have
defiled Your holy temple; they have made Jerusalem into heaps.” Is it fitting
for Asaph to sing? On the contrary, should he not lament? (Rather), Asaph said
it is good that the Holy One, blessed be He, assuaged His anger on wood and
stones, and not on His sons. Similarly, it is written “God has accomplished His
fury, He has poured out His fierce anger; and He has kindled a fire in Zion,
which hath devoured the foundations thereof.” [Lamentations 4:11] Midrash
Tehillim 79
It
is not surprising that the same comment is made both of the Land and of the
holiest place therein, for the Land draws its sanctity from the presence within
her of the Temple (as per the approach of Maharal).
Concerning
the second appellation of the Land, our Sages commented that “the Land of your
possession” refers to the Temple. [vaYikra Rabba 17:4]
Thus,
both names used in our verse teach the same lesson.
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