Terumah: The Rule of Torah
The return of the Torah to its natural place.

by Rabbi Jonathan Blass

In his introduction to the book of Shemot, the Ramban writes that the topic of the book is the Egyptian exile and the redemption of Israel from that exile. That redemption would not be completed until the Jewish nation returned to the relationship that had existed before the exile between G-d and Israel's forefathers, when the Divine presence would once again dwell among them as it did with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This, writes the Ramban, was achieved only with the inauguration of the Tabernacle after the Torah was transmitted to Israel at Mt. Sinai.

Once the Jewish People was fully established in the desert as the bearer of the Divine presence, no land other than the Land of Israel, writes the Ramban (Ha'emuna V'habitachon, ch. 18), was appropriate for them. The conquest of the Land of Israel began only after the Torah was given at Sinai and the Tabernacle was built. This is because the conquest of the Land by the Nation of Israel is the assertion of the sovereignty of the Torah, the life-force of the Jewish People throughout all generations, over the Land, which itself is suited only to what the Ramban calls the "rule of the Torah" and which will not be governed by nations unworthy of it.

Now, as then, the reassertion of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel is the return of the Torah to its natural place, a place where the Torah can flourish and the Divine presence, which did not abandon the Jewish People even in exile, will once again find full expression.

Rabbi Jonathan Blass writes from Neve Tzuf. The foregoing commentary was distributed by the Aloh Naaleh organization. Aloh Naaleh is an organization dedicated to building Aliya motivation among North American Jewry. Torah Thoughts contributed by Aloh Naaleh members appear in the Orthodox Union´s Torah Insights publication.