The Goodness of the Land, Jerusalem and the Temple

And you will eat and be satisfied, and you shall bless the Lord, your God, for the good Land He has given you.                                            Deuteronomy 8:10

Our Rabbis taught: “Where is reciting grace after meals intimated in the Torah? In the verse, ‘And thou will eat and be satisfied you shall bless’ - this signifies the blessing of “Who feeds;”  ‘The Lord your God’ - this signifies the benediction of zimmun (invitation to reciting the grace);  ‘For the Land’ -this signifies the blessing for the Land; ‘The good’ - this signifies “Who builds Jerusalem”; and similarly it says ‘This good mountain and Lebanon’ [Deuteronomy 3:25]  ‘He has given you’ - this signifies the blessing of “Who is good and bestows good”.”  Babylonian Talmud, Brachot 48b

            According to our Sages, the “goodness of the Land” refers to the Holy City. Similarly, the Sages elucidated Moses’ prayer to be allowed to cross the River Jordan and see “this good mountain and the Lebanon:” [Deuteronomy 3:25] “’This good mountain’ – this is Jerusalem; ‘And the Lebanon’ – this is the Temple.” [Lekaḥ Tov, Deuteronomy 6a]

            Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch comments that the “goodness of the Land” incorporates the concept of the Promised Land being “in accordance with the intended intellectual spiritual and moral development of the nation;” [Commentary on Exodus 3:8] and that the Land “corresponds to the great destiny” of the nation chosen to dwell within her. [Commentary on Deuteronomy 3:25]

            The two definitions of the “goodness of the Land,” Jerusalem and the Temple on one hand, and realizing Israel’s national destiny, on the other, are inherently intertwined.

            Israel’s national destiny is to fulfill God’s wishes within His Land, the place best suited for fulfilling His mitzvot, and within the Holy Land, the epitome of closeness to God is the Temple. In Rabbi Hirsch’s words:

Zion and Jerusalem emboss on the whole Land of Israel the stamp of the nation’s spiritual calling, which is concentrated in Mount Zion, and expressed by “The good Land.” [Commentary on our verse]

            We may add to Rabbi Hirsch’s enlightening comment the approach on Maharal of Prague, that the sanctity of the Land of Israel derives from the fact of the Holy City and the site of the Holy of Holies being located within her. [Gur Aryeh, Genesis 32:1; see also the enlightening comments in Rabbi Yehoshua David Hartman’s edition of Netzaḥ Yisrael, chapter 5, note 57.]