Returning to a Place You've Never Been

The fourth generation will return here, since the Amorite's sin will not have run its course until then.                  Genesis 15:16

            Alshikh notes that the verse’s wording is peculiar: since the fourth generation was born in Egyptian servitude and had never been in the Promised Land, it seems rather strange that Abram is told that this generation will “return.”

            Alshikh explains that the verse conveys the fact that the spiritual roots of every Jew are indeed within the Holy Land, thus even one who was born outside the Land is to seen as returning to her when he reaches Israel.

            Rabbeinu Beḥayye preceded Alshikh by more than two centuries, when he wrote:

The use of the word “return” hints at the spiritual advantage of the Land, where the Gate of Heaven is located, and the heavenly Temple is located opposite the earthly Temple, and there is the source of souls which enter and exit (this world). Thus, the verse states “the fourth generation will return here.”

Indeed, Alshikh notes our Sages’ understanding of the verse in Psalms [87:5]:

It shall be said to Zion this man and that man (ish v'ish) were born in her.

Noting the apparent redundancy of “ish v'ish,” the Talmud [Ketubot 75a] comments:

Both one who was (actually) born in her and one who anticipates seeing her.

What a powerful lesson on the connection between the People of Israel and its Land.

Although we noted that the great Rogatchover Gaon (Rabbi Yosef Rosen 1858–1936) based a practical halachic decision on this Talmudic comment in a previous Dvar Torah, his analysis and decision bear repetition.

With the outbreak of World War I, the Turks, who then ruled Israel, decreed that citizens of countries at war with the Ottoman Empire would be expelled from Israel. However, those born in Israel may remain in Israel if they accepted Turkish citizenship. The condition for receiving citizenship was taking an oath of having been born in Israel.

Rabbi Maimon (one of the signers of Israel's declaration of independence, and its first minister of religious affairs) and his friend, Rabbi Citron of Petach Tikva, neither wanted to leave Israel nor to swear falsely (being Russian born).

Rabbi Citron addressed the question to his father-in-law, the Rogatchover Gaon. Based upon this Talmudic comment, the Rogatchover told his son-in-law that he may honestly swear that he was born in Israel.