Admat Yisrael - the Physical Land

God displayed His anger that day and swore, 'None of the men over 20 years old who left Egypt will see the Land (ha’adama) that I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, since they did not follow Me wholeheartedly.     Numbers 32:10-11

                It is to be noted that Moses was inexact in quoting God’s statement concerning the punishment of the generation of the exodus. God Himself swore [Numbers 14:22-23]:

(I will punish) all the people who saw My glory and the miracles that I did in Egypt and the desert, but still tried to test Me these ten times by not obeying Me. They will therefore not see the Land (ha’aretz) that I swore to their ancestors. All those who provoked Me will not see it.                                 Numbers 14:22-23

(though the English translation renders both verses “the Land”, the original Hebrew does not use the same word.)

          The phrase “admat Yisrael” (translated “the Land of Israel”, but equally it can be understood to mean “the soil of Israel’” the physical land) appears fifteen times in the Bible, exclusively in the prophecies of Ezekiel. In turn, Ezekiel is unique among Israel’s prophets in being the only one whose entire prophetic career took place outside the Holy Land. [According to Midrash Mechilta (1), Ezekiel had two prophecies in Israel, and the remainder in exile.]

         Indeed, Midrash Lekach Tov connects Ezekiel’s use of “admat Yisrael” with the sin of the spies.

        Possibly, it is that specifically Ezekiel who uses the phrase “admat Yisrael” rather than “eretz Yisrael” as an expression of longing for the tangible Land of Israel, of yearning to return from the Babylonian exile and feel and kiss the soil of the Holy Land.

         Perhaps Moses, in his rebuke of the sons of Gad and of Reueven, chose to substitute God’s use of the word “ha’aretz” with “ha’adama” because the impetus for their request to remain on the eastern side of the River Jordan was the physical land there, as they said “the land is good for livestock.” [Numbers 32:1] In using the word “adama” Moses hinted that the sons of Gad and of Reuven were mistaken in preferring the physical land of the eastern side of the Jordan to the “Land of the Shechina”, the western side of the Jordan. [Bamidbar Rabba Naso 7:8; Sifrei Zuta 5:2]

       It is likely as well that “admat Yisrael” also evokes the mitzvot which are dependent upon the Land, and Moses hinted at the superiority of the western side of the Jordan, which alone is considered “a Land flowing milk and honey,” and is the sole source of produce from which bikurim [first ripened fruit] are brought to the Temple. [Midrash Tannaim Deuteronomy 26:9]

      Finally, the phrase “admat Yisrael” relates to Adam the First, who was created out of the soil (adama) of the Holy Land, and hints to the sons of Gad and of Reuven that the Land of Israel is the rock of which Israel is hewn and the nation’s spiritual mother.