Hands-on God

I will bind you by an oath to God, Lord of heaven and earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I live.                                                                                 Genesis 24:3

            Our Sages taught that God entrusted the care of all lands to His ministering angels, save the Land of Israel, which He supervises directly and personally. Thus, explains Rabbi Yehonatan Eybschutz, outside the Holy Land, God is known as the God of heaven, since, as it were, He supervises those lands from heaven. In contrast, in the Land of Israel, God is known as the God of heaven and earth, since He takes a hands-on approach and directly oversees the affairs of the Land. Thus, when Abraham charged his servant Eliezer to avoid taking a daughter of Canaan for his son Isaac, Abraham spoke of God as the “Lord of heaven and earth.” Four verses later, when Abraham spoke of God as He Who brought him from his father’s house and his land of birth, namely Ur, outside the Holy Land, Abraham referred to God only as “Lord of heaven.”