The Exodus and the Land

And He brought us out from there, in order to bring us to the Land which He swore to our forefathers.                          Deuteronomy 6:23

          Our verse is quoted by our Sages, the authors of the Haggada, at the conclusion of the recitation (Maggid) of the story of the Exodus from Egypt.

          The simple meaning of the verse is that the purpose of the Exodus was not merely to free Israel from Egyptian bondage, but to bring the nation into its own Land.

          Netziv (Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin [1817 – 1893], Rosh Yeshiva of the great yeshiva of Volozhin) adds a significant dimension, explaining the verse’s intent thus: the Land is directly dependent upon Divine supervision (as our Sages taught, that God entrusted the supervision of all lands to his ministering angels, save the Holy Land, which He Himself supervises personally and continually), and therefore, the Land can be acquired only by subjugation to the Divine will, through fulfillment of the mitzvot.

          Thus, Netziv teaches that our verse conveys a challenge as well as a promise, or perhaps, more exactly, the verse presents a conditional promise.