Связь между 5708-м стихом Торы и созданием Израиля в 1948 году: от обещания возвращения к строительству государства

Long before there was a Jewish exile, the Torah already spoke of the Jewish return. In Parshat Nitzavim, the first of this week’s double portion, Moshe tells the Jewish people that a day will come when they will be scattered among the nations. But he also promises that exile will not last forever. “Then the Lord your G-d will return your captivity and have compassion upon you, and He will return and gather you from all the peoples among whom the Lord your G-d has scattered you" (Devarim 30:3). Two verses later, Moshe goes even further: “And the Lord your G-d will bring you to the Land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it" (30:5). Remarkably, this verse - Devarim 30:5 - is the 5,708th verse in the Torah. The State of Israel was established in the Hebrew year 5708, corresponding to 1948. And the very verse bearing that number speaks of G-d bringing the Jewish people back to their ancestral homeland and of their taking possession of it once again! For nearly two thousand years, those words were a promise waiting to be fulfilled. Jews recited them in countries where they were guests, strangers and, all too often, unwanted. They prayed toward Jerusalem while living under the rule of others. Then, in our time, the promise became reality. The Jewish people returned to their Land and restored Jewish sovereignty. It would be tempting to see that as the end of the story. But then comes Parshat VaYelech. Moshe summons Yehoshua before the entire nation and tells him: “Be strong and courageous, for you shall come with this people into the Land which the Lord swore to their fathers to give them, and you shall cause them to inherit it" (31:7). Nitzavim promises that G-d will bring us back. VaYelech tells Yehoshua that he must lead the people in taking possession of the Land. The Ramban (Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, 1194-1270) makes this point forcefully in his glosses to the Rambam’s Sefer HaMitzvot. He counts settling the Land of Israel as one of the Torah’s positive commandments, writing that we are commanded to inherit the Land given to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov and “not leave it in the hands of other nations or desolate." For the Ramban, settling Eretz Yisrael is not merely about living there. It entails Jewish possession of the Land. The Torah’s language itself points in that direction. It does not say only that G-d will bring us to the Land. It adds, “and you shall possess it." Coming home, in other words, is only the first step. For most of Jewish history, our challenge was to preserve our faith and identity without sovereignty, under rulers who were not our own. Having sovereignty presents an entirely different set of challenges. A sovereign people must make decisions for itself. It must defend itself, govern itself and determine what kind of society it wishes to create. Perhaps that is why Moshe tells Yehoshua, “Chazak ve’ematz" - “Be strong and courageous." Yehoshua needed courage not only to cross the Jordan or fight the nations of Canaan. He was about to become responsible for turning a wandering people into a nation living in its own Land. For centuries, Jews could lament the condition of Jerusalem without having to sweep its streets. We could pray for the return to Zion without having to defend its roads. We could dream about Jewish sovereignty without having to argue over budgets, borders or public policy. Now we can do all of those things - including argue over them - because the country is ours. That is one of the great changes Jewish sovereignty has brought about. We are no longer merely praying for the future of Eretz Yisrael from afar. We have a direct hand in shaping it. And that may be why Nitzavim and VaYelech fit together so well. Nitzavim gives us the promise that G-d will gather us and bring us home. VaYelech reminds us that once we are there, the work has only begun. Coming home was a dream that generations of Jews prayed to see. Building a country worthy of that dream is the task that has been left to us.