Animating the Land

Speak to the Israelites and tell them: “When you enter the Land I am giving you, the Land shall observe a Sabbath to the Lord.       Leviticus 25:2

            While the definition of the Sabbath of the Land is presented in verse 4: “you may not plant your fields, nor prune your vineyards,” by making the Land the subject of our verse, the Torah animates her, it is the Land herself which rests. As Alshikh phrases it, the Land, as it were, has spirit and soul. 

            Midrash Aggada on our verse expands the animation of the Land, which not only rests, but is capable of singing:

When His creatures do God’s will, the furthest part of the Land sings, as the verse states: “From the uttermost part of the Land[1] have we heard songs: Glory to the righteous.” [Isaiah 24:16]

            When humans fulfill the Divine will, the Land sings to God.

            It is to be noted that Yonatan ben Uziel (first century CE) translates “the furthest part of the Land” as “the Temple.” Thus, the Land’s song issues from the holiest spot on our planet, the Temple.

            Alshikh, in his commentary on the verse in Isaiah, quotes the Sages’ homiletic interpretation:

The Holy One, blessed be He, wished to appoint Hezekiah as the Messiah, and Sennacherib as Gog and Magog; whereupon the Attribute of Justice said before the Holy One, blessed be He: “Sovereign of the Universe! If You did not make David the Messiah, who uttered so many hymns and psalms before You, will You appoint Hezekiah as such, who did not sing to You in spite of all these miracles which You performed for him?” Straightway the Land exclaimed: “Sovereign of the Universe! Let me utter song before You instead of this righteous man (Hezekiah), and make him the Messiah.” So it broke into song before Him, as it is written: “From the uttermost part of the Land have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous.”

                           Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 94a

Based upon this we understand that the Land sings on behalf of man and in his stead. When men failed to fulfill their obligation to sing and praise God for the miracles He provided, the Land acted in order to rectify this shortcoming and atone for it.

            Thus, the continuation of Midrash Aggada is clearly understood:

And when they sin, the earth is smitten for them: Adam sinned and the earth was stricken, as the verse states: “He said to Adam: you ate from the tree regarding which I specifically gave you orders, saying, 'Do not eat from it.' The earth will therefore be cursed because of you.” [Genesis 3:17] Cain sinned and the earth was stricken on his behalf, as is stated: “When you work the land, it will no longer give you of its strength.” [ibid. 4:12] The generation of the flood sinned and the land was stricken on their behalf, as is stated: “I will therefore destroy them with the land.” [ibid. 6:13] The Sodomites sinned and the land was stricken on their behalf, as is stated: “He overturned these cities along with the entire plain, (destroying) everyone who lived in the cities and (all) that was growing from the land.” [ibid. 19:25] Therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, decreed that (the Land) rest the seventh year.

            Just as the Land sings praise to God in place of man and on his behalf, so too she is stricken in his place and on his behalf.

            We must note that all the examples brought by Midrash Aggada relate specifically to the Land of Israel. The Holy Land is unique among the lands of earth, in that it is only she who is able to sing for man or to suffer on his behalf.

            Our Sages expounded:

Another thing: “when you come to the Land of Canaan” [Leviticus 14:34], there are seven nations (in the family of Canaan), yet you call the land Canaan? The Rabbis say: it is a hint: just as Ham castrated Noah and Canaan was punished [Genesis 8:21-25], so too Israel sins and the Land becomes cursed.                                                            VaYikra Rabba 17:5

            Rabbi Moshe Ḥagiz (1672 – 1750) commented that this Midrash answers the question of how the most blessed land on earth can be named for the accursed Canaan. The Land’s quality of suffering in place of her sons, as a mother who is willing to be struck and to suffer in order to protect her children, is sufficient reason for the Land to be named for Canaan.

            In a similar vein, Tzror haMor posits that the concept of the Land suffering instead of its inhabitants is the underlying idea of tzara’at of houses, whose laws apply exclusively in the Holy Land.

            Among all the lands on our planet, it is only the Land of Israel which is graced with the vitality necessary, as it were, to sing on behalf of its inhabitants or to choose to suffer in their stead, so they not suffer. Rabbi Ḥagiz adds a most enlightening comment: this unique quality of the Land is the reason she is called “the Land of the living.” [Psalms 116:9]

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[1] While the standard translation of the word “haAretz” in the verse is “earth,” Midrash Aggada clearly understands it to mean “The Land,” namely the Land of Israel, hence the non-conventional translation.