The Tangible Land

God’s message to Jacob in his dream as he departed for his personal exile was:

I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac. The land upon which you lie, I will give to you and to your seed … for I will not leave you until I bring you back to this land (adama) …             Genesis 28:13, 15

The Divine promise to return Jacob to the Land uses the word “adama” as opposed to the word “eretz,” contained in the promise of the Land to Jacob and his descendants. The word “adama,” while translated as “land” can also mean soil, earth or ground. Perhaps God’s choice of words is intended to convey that Jacob must feel an attachment to the physical land, the soil of Israel, he must yearn to return to the tangible land of the Land.

Two other verses of the Torah use the term “adama” in connection with the Land:

The men who came out of Egypt, from twenty years of age and above, shall not see the Land (ha’adama) which I swore to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob, for they did not fulfill their duty to follow Me.            Numbers 32:11

'When I bring them to the Land (ha’adama) flowing milk and honey that I promised their ancestors…                                                                         Deuteronomy 31:20

In all three verses, “adama” is used specifically in connection to God’s oath concerning the Land.

Among the prophets, Ezekiel is unique in using the name “admat Yisrael” as a synonym for “Eretz Yisrael:”

And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall bring you into the Land (admat) of Israel, into the country which I lifted My hand to give to your fathers.                                                    Ezekiel 20: 42

In this verse, as in those of the Torah, the phrase is connected to the Divine promise of the Land.

The second use of the phrase is in God’s message of the meaning of Ezekiel’s vision in the Valley of the Dried Bones:

Therefore prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord God: behold, I will open up your graves and bring you up from your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the Land (admat) of Israel.            Ezekiel 37:12

That is, once again in connection with God’s promise to return the nation to its Land.

On an associative level (or the level of drash), the term “admat Yisrael” evokes images of Adam the First, who was so named because he was created from the earth (adama). In a sense, the Nation of Israel was created of the earth of the Land of Israel.