Double Heritage

Moses prescribed the Torah to us, an eternal heritage (morasha) for the congregation of Jacob.                                 Deuteronomy 33:4

          It is significant that the Land of Israel is also referred to as “morasha” [Exodus 6:8]:

I will bring you to the land regarding which I raised my hand, (swearing) that I would give it to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I will give it to you as a heritage. I am God.

          Since the Torah explicitly states the connection between observing mitzvot and inheriting the Land [Deuteronomy 4:1]:

And now Israel, listen to the statutes and the social regulations which I teach you to fulfill, so you may live and go into and take possession of the Land which God, the God of your fathers gives you.

it is not at all surprising that the word “morasha” is used in connection with both.

          Malbim comments “Though (the) mitzvot (mentioned in the verse) are not dependent upon the Land, the Land is dependent upon the mitzvot.  

          Ba’al haTurim comments that it is through the merit of Torah that the People inherited the Land, and similarly Rabbeinu Behayye (1255 – c.1340) suggests the connection between the common use of “morasha” in the two verses teaches that it is through our fulfillment of Torah that we merit inheriting the Land.

          Mabit (Rabbi Moshe Mitrani, born in Salonika 1600, died in Zfat 1680) adds that the use of the word “morasha” in connection with the Land and the Torah hints that the two are similar in purpose. When Torah is our heritage, then the Land will also be our heritage.  As well, one cannot fully understand the true secrets of the Torah outside the Land, as our Sages teach “the air of Eretz Yisrael makes one wise” [Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 158b].

          Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch distinguishes between the two heritages: Torah and the Land, and writes: “Israel has been offered two heritages: the one spiritual – the Torah – is unconditional and eternal. Not so the other heritage, the Land of Promise. Its possession depends upon Israel’s appreciation of, and obedience to, its God given law.”  

          Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein writes that the Land, as a national heritage, requires the Israelites to preserve it for themselves and for future generations as well, which is the same obligation a Jew has to Torah. “Morasha,” Rabbi Lichtenstein concludes, simultaneously implies an affinity (to Torah and to the Land) as well as an obligation (to each).

          Several commentators suggest distinctions between the Hebrew words “morasha” and “yerusha” (inheritance), both of which are derived from the same root word.

          The Gaon of Vilna comments that unlike an inheritance, which is acquired automatically, a “morasha” requires toil to be achieved.

          The late chief rabbi of Great Britain, Rabbi Dr. J. H. Hertz suggests an additional difference between “morasha” and inheritance: “The latter may be spent by the heir at his discretion. A “morasha”, however, is an entitled estate, inalienable, and must remain in the family to be handed on from father to son undiminished.”

          Both of the above comments suggest that the core distinction is that “yerusha” implies privilege, while “morasha” implies responsibility.