Coming Home

And Jacob took a vow, saying: if God will be with me, and keep me on this path that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothes to wear. And I return in peace to my father’s home, then shall the Lord be my God.                         Genesis 28:20-21

          My father noted that Jacob referred to God’s guarding him, feeding and clothing him, yet to his return to his father’s home. Jacob does not say “if God returns me to my father’s home.” In his careful choice of wording, Jacob expresses his understanding that an Israelite must make active efforts to return to the Land of our Fathers. Since there is a mitzva to live in the Land of Israel a Jew should not simply wait for God to return him to his Land, but must attempt endeavor to reach the Land as quickly as possible.

          Further, Jacob expressed his wish that he may return from his exile voluntarily. Jacob prayed that the travails of exile will not force him to leave his diaspora, and equally, that even if he prospered in exile, he will choose to return to his own Land.

          Additionally, my father noted that Jacob’s statement that when he returns to the Land “then shall the Lord be my God” corresponds to our Sages’ teaching:

All who live outside the Holy Land are considered as not having a God.                   Babylonian Talmud, Ketubot 110b