Land of Israel

Throughout Tanach, "Hashem's vineyard" (see Isaiah 5:7, for example) is a metaphor for the Land of Israel and the vines symbolize the Jewish People. On the Sabbath, we sing the ancient "Dror Yikra" sonnet that was composed over a thousand years ago by Donash ben Labert from Spain, where he alludes to a prophecy in Jeremiah 2:21 when Hashem promises that He will replant the "cuttings" - those who have been cut off from their ancient homeland - in His vineyard. As such, the flourishing vineyards in the Land of Israel are a clear sign of the imminent redemption and ingathering of the exiles, as is we see today with our own eyes.

Jeremiah the Prophet says that right before Moshiach comes, vineyards will be planted in the Land of Israel. Throughout the Scripture, vines are a parable for the Jewish People. Both the sons and the vines grow best on their native soil.

If you don't think that our Talmudic sages saw far into the future with their crystal-clear spiritual vision, then hear today's podcast, which shows just how the holy Raba bar Bar Chana saw what would happen in our generation in general, and with the upheaval of COVID-19 in particular.

Here's today's emuna news: the preoccupation with Coronavirus has taken the focus away from Israel's northern border, where an acute threat of hundreds of thousands of Hizbolla and Iranian missiles are aimed at us right now. Moses saw all this in this week's Torah portion...

We've just entered the Three Weeks again, the notorious period between the 17th of Tammuz and Tisha B'Av, when the worst things happened to the Jewish People throughout history. We can't understand the Three Weeks without understanding the root of Tisha B'Av and the destruction of both Holy Temples. It was the eve of Tisha B'Av when the twelve spies returned to the Israelite encampment from 40 days of scouting out the Land of Israel. All of them except for Calev ben Yephuneh from the tribe of Judah and Yehoshua Bin Nun from the tribe of Ephraim said slander about the Land of Israel and about how dangerous it was. That night, the entire Israelite nation sat in their tents and cried. Hashem said to them, "OK, you want to cry for nothing? I'll give you plenty of real reasons to cry for generations to come." What's the connection between the sin of the spies and everything that's happening to us today?

Maybe a tangerine from the Land of Israel looks like a tangerine from California of Florida, but spiritually, but according to Kabbalah, they are as different as night and day. Today's politically incorrect podcast also explains why a Jew must strive to make aliya and live in the Land of Israel, something that more and more people are contemplating, especially since the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic and the rabid growing tidal wave of anti-Semitism in the West.

For those who don't know, Israelis return to the polls on Monday, March 2, 2020 for the third time in eleven months, for both the April, 2019 elections and the September, 2019 elections caught our country split apart and unable to form a stable majority government.
Elections in Israel are not only a heartache, but they're useless. Worse than useless, they're destructive. Why? I'll answer you with one of my metaphors: "Elections in Israel is like looking at ourselves through a broken mirror." Maybe you don't understand what I mean – today's podcast explains both the metaphor and what's going on in Israel today.

Today's podcast tells how one seemingly insignificant mitzva saved the life of an Israeli soldier in 1997, when two Israeli helicopters crashed in middair over Shaar Yeshuv in northern Israel, killing 73 Israeli soldiers and airmen in one of the worst disasters in Israeli military history.

Today's podcast come from the holy gravesite of Rebbe Akiva, overlooking the Sea of Galilee in Tiberias, Israel. The Gemara says that since Moses, there was no one greater than Rebbe Akiva, who overcame every possible disadvantage in the world while becoming the pillar of Torah and emuna, as we learn in today's podcast.

Today's podcast takes us to the holy gravesite of Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzatto (1704-1746), renowned Kabbalist and master of Jewish ethics, author of the classic books "Path of the Righteous," "Way of Hashem" and many more. Buried next to Rebbe Akiva in Tiberias, many kabbalists consider the Ramcha"l to be a gilgul (reincarnation) of Rebbe Akiva.

Today's podcast comes from the holy city of Tiberias on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, where many of our Talmudic sages are buried. From the gravesite of Rebbe Ammi and Rebbe Assi, who were students of Rebbe Yochanan in the late 3rd Century CE, Rabbi Lazer explains two significant lessons we learn from these two pious and righteous Torah scholars of impeccable character.

During the height of Roman occupation and persecution of Jews in the Land of Israel, Torah was in danger of being forgotten, for the Romans outlawed Torah learning. Poverty and deprivation prevailed among our people. Rebbe Hiyya the Great, at this most difficult time, took his wife Yehudit, his two twin sons Yehuda and Chizkiya, his two daughters and his two nephews Rav and Raba bar Bar Chana and made aliya to the Land of Israel. When he saw the terrible material and spiritual deprivation, he planted flax seeds. When he harvested the flax, he made nets to capture wild deer. He used the venison meat to feed starving orphans and used the deer hides to make parchment. On the parchment, he wrote the Five Books of Moses, which he taught to the orphans,  making a single-handed revival of Torah.
No wonder that Rebbe Hiyya's two sons and two nephews became prodigious Torah scholars and righteous men of the highest caliber.
Rabbi Lazer relates the story of Rebbe Hiyya the Great from his holy gravesite in Tiberias, overlooking the Sea of Galilee.