The Merit of the Fathers and of the Land

Ba’al haTanya, the first Lubavitcher Rebbi, wrote that he was released from his false imprisonment “by virtue of the Holy Land and its inhabitants. This is what stood by our side and will always assist in relieving us from the oppressor and delivering us from distress.”

Rabbi Yisachar Shlomo Teichtal, in his brilliant work Eim haBanim Smeiḥa, writes that he searched for the source of the Ba’al haTanya’s comment, and found it in Parashat Beḥukotai. God promises to remember the merit of the Forefathers:

And I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham I will remember and I will remember the Land.                     Leviticus 26:42

Rashi, quoting our Sages, explains why the order of the Patriarchs is reversed:

It is to tell us: Jacob is worthy to bring the redemption and if he is not (sufficiently) worthy, behold Isaac is with him, and if Isaac is not worthy, then Abraham is with him, for he is worthy.

Thus, the verse proceeds in ascending order. The merit of Isaac is greater than that of Jacob and the merit of Abraham even greater. Rabbi Teichtal takes Rashi’s comment one step further. Since the verse concludes “and I will remember the Land”, it is clear that the merit of the Land is even greater than the merit of the Forefathers. This, writes Rabbi Teichtal, provides “a ’pure’ source from the holy Torah itself that the merit of Eretz Yisrael stands above all other merits”.

To Rabbi Teichtal’s insight we can add the comment of the Gaon of Vilna [Ḥumash haGra, Genesis 25:9] that if not for the fact that the Forefathers are buried in the Holy Land, their descendants would be unable to benefit from their merit (z’chut avot).