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Pinchas 5785
Daily Teaching #8 for 14 Sivan 5785 (June 10, 2025)
The Complex Intelligences of the Bible
The Book of Proverbs, the second book of the Writings, is essentially a father talking to his son and teaching him ethics and morals, in general a positive way of life. There is a common motif that threads the entire Book of Proverbs: the relationship between a man a woman. King Solomon describes both men who are good and men who are not so good in their relationship and likewise, women. A good woman is one who is completely loyal to her beloved and there are women who are not so. Learning how to relate and treat a woman is the thread running through the entire book.
In our previous teaching in this series, we drew a correspondence between the three parts of the Bible and the types of intelligence, the faculties of the intellect, and the physical parts of the brain. As we saw, the faculty of wisdom corresponds to the right lobe of the brain, to the first part of the Bible—the Five books of Moses—and to intellectual intelligence. The faculty of understanding corresponds to the left lobe of the brain, to the Bible’s second part, the Prophets, and to emotional intelligence. Finally, the faculty of knowledge, which corresponds to the Bible’s third part, the Writings, corresponds to the back lobe of the brain, which has a right side and a left side to it.[1]
| Faculty | Part of brain | Part of Bible |
| Wisdom | Right lobe | Five Books of Moses |
| Understanding | Left lobe | Prophets |
| Knowledge | Right side of back lobe | Writings |
| Left side of back lobe |
The left side of knowledge corresponds with the feminine and the right side with the masculine. In the Torah, knowledge means cohabitation with one’s wife thereby fulfilling the Torah’s first commandment to, “be fruitful and multiply” (פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ). This is the secret of knowledge, to know how to properly relate to one’s wife in particular, and in general to teach men and women how to relate to one another, the basic thread that runs throughout the words of Proverbs.
Regarding the types of intelligence, we saw that there were two different models for corresponding them to the sefirot and to the parts of the Bible. The first model was that wisdom is intellectual intelligence that is needed to learn the 613 commandments of the Torah. Understanding, which is seeded in the heart, corresponds to emotional intelligence. The two sides of knowledge correspond to intuitive and instinctive intelligence.
| Faculty | Part of brain | Part of Bible | Type of Intelligence | Vital Organ |
| Wisdom | Right lobe | Five Books of Moses | Intellectual | Brain |
| Understanding | Left lobe | Prophets | Emotional | Heart |
| Knowledge | Right side of back lobe | Writings | Intuitive | Kidneys |
| Left side of back lobe | Instinctive | Liver |
The second model represents the more common structure that people associate with the brain. According to this model, the right lobe of the brain and the sefirah of wisdom correspond to intuitive intelligence and the left lobe and the sefirah of understanding correspond to intellectual intelligence. This leaves the posterior lobe and the sefirah of knowledge, which correspond to emotional and instinctive intelligence.
| Faculty | Part of brain | Part of Bible | Type of Intelligence | Vital Organ |
| Wisdom | Right lobe | Five Books of Moses | Intuitive | Brain |
| Understanding | Left lobe | Prophets | Intellectual | Heart |
| Knowledge | Right side of back lobe | Writings | Emotional | Kidneys |
| Left side of back lobe | Instinctive | Liver |
We also noted that only the left side of knowledge remains consistent over both models—the instinctual intelligence. The other three each have two possibilities, as follows:
| Faculty | Part of brain | Part of Bible | Type of Intelligence | Vital Organ |
| Wisdom | Right lobe | Five Books of Moses | Intellectual/Intuitive | Brain |
| Understanding | Left lobe | Prophets | Emotional/Intellectual | Heart |
| Knowledge | Right side of back lobe | Writings | Intuitive/Emotional | Kidneys |
| Left side of back lobe | Instinctive | Liver |
Let us deepen our insight into how these two options in each of the other three unite. This will provide us with more insight into the Bible’s parts and particularly the role of the Book of Proverbs.
The Two Dimensions of Wisdom and Understanding
Wisdom is either intuitive or intellectual intelligence. If we want to combine them together, we will call it intuitive-intellectual intelligence. For example, there might be a person who is intellectual; this individual learns and studies a great deal but he or she also possesses an intuition at the “top” of the intellectual effort. This is a type of soul. This means that to truly integrate and appreciate the Five Books of Moses and its commandments, one must be an intuitive-intellectual. To understand how both types of intelligence can correspond to wisdom let us introduce another point regarding the sefirot.
Each of the sefirot corresponds to a persona (partzuf) in Kabbalah. Wisdom and understanding are special in this respect because in Kabbalistic terminology, they both possess two distinct personas (partzufim). The higher persona of wisdom is known as “supernal father” (אַבָּא עִלָּאָה) and the lower persona is called “Israel the elder” (יִשְׂרָאֵל סָבָא), or literally, “Israel the grandfather.” Note that the grandfather image is here lower than the father image.
The higher persona of understanding is called “supernal mother” (אִמָּא עִלָּאָה) and the lower persona is known as, “comprehension” (תְּבוּנָה), which is almost synonymous with understanding. In the Torah, we find the three terms “wisdom understanding knowledge” (חָכְמָה בִּינָה דַּעַת) but sometimes we find it as “wisdom comprehension knowledge” (חָכְמָה תְּבוּנָה דַּעַת).
In Kabbalah, comprehension refers to the mother’s uterus, where the fetus develops and is prepared to enter reality. The fetus represents the emotional attributes that will emerge from understanding. The emotions include: love, fear, and compassion—the three basic emotions—and three lower, active emotions, confidence, sincerity, and verity (meaning that one fulfills or verifies oneself). The lower three emotions are in some ways more profound and difficult to properly understand than the three higher emotions. We may say therefore that our comprehension is pregnant with emotions; it is the emotional realm of understanding. When we described that the sefirah of understanding represents emotional understanding (according to the first model), we were referring mostly to comprehension, rather than to the supernal mother.
The supernal mother, though it goes together with the supernal father, reflects the lower persona of wisdom, Israel the elder. This is because the lower part of wisdom represents the intellectual part of wisdom while the higher part of wisdom is the intuitive intelligence of wisdom. However, the supernal mother is pure intellectual intelligence—this is the regular way that we understand the relationship between the brain’s left lobe (intellect) and its right lobe (intuition).
Following this correspondence, we can say that the Prophets require intellectual-emotion. This does not simply refer to emotional intelligence, meaning that within the intellect itself there are emotions. In Chasidic thought we describe this type of emotion as an emotional tendency within normative ruling. Thus, for example, in the times of the Mishnah (specifically 1st to 2nd centuries), there were two great and central schools of thought known as the House of Shamai and the House of Hillel. Though both were of deep intellectual abilities, the House of Shamai tends to make rulings that forbid and the House of Hillel tends to make rulings that permit. If they both have intelligence—they both know the Torah in all its intricacy from beginning to end—how can it be that they have a pronounced tendency to prefer rulings that forbid or permit? We call this the emotional dimension within intelligence. These are not the emotions of the heart at all. They are emotions within the mind itself. It is a description of how the mind tends, after having gone through all the intellectual arguments. My tendency can tell me that something should be permitted, and my mind can tend to forbid it. So, despite having the same facts before them, two people can come to a different ruling; something within the mind itself tends either this way or that.
Once again, understanding (the supernal mother) is the purely intellectual component within the sefirah of understanding and comprehension is the lower aspect of the sefirah of understanding, which contains emotions, but not emotions from the heart, but emotional tendency within the mind.
Intuitive/Emotional Intelligence
Let us now focus on the two options regarding the right side of the sefirah of knowledge. It can correspond to either the intuitive intelligence or the emotional intelligence. The soul’s power to give birth to the (first three) emotions stems from the right side of knowledge, while the power to give birth to the second set of emotions—the active or pragmatic emotions—stems from knowledge’s left side. The left side of knowledge is instinctive intelligence and is identical in both models and corresponds to the liver, while the right side corresponds to the kidneys. A simple observation in this respect is that we have only one liver, but we have two kidneys, indicating that there are two possibilities for the right side of knowledge, and only one possibility for the left side.
In any case, we have that the right side of knowledge can correspond to either intuition or to emotion. To unite them in the same way that we united wisdom and understanding, we say that the right side of knowledge means to intuit emotion, which can be demonstrated with “love at first sight.” Falling in love in this way is an example of an intuition that manifests an emotion. As noted earlier, the relationship between a man and a woman, particularly in marriage is related to the sefirah of knowledge and to the Writings in the Bible. The most foundational story of love at first sight is that of Jacob and Rachel, a clearly intuitive emotion that Jacob felt.
Instinct is also very important in marriage. The Torah describes the union between Adam and Eve as, “he will cling to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” This is not a description of either an intuition or an emotion that develops between a husband and wife, rather it is the description of an instinct. The Torah is telling us that human beings (and animals) possess a necessary instinct for our survival, to cling to our spouse and to become one flesh, which refers to either a shared child or to the actual physical union between the male and female. In either case, to become one is instinctual. This instinct is so great that the instinctive intelligence to unite is perhaps above everything—even the intuitive intelligence. The right side of knowledge is the intuitive emotion. We can describe this as a person who feels he can rely on what he feels to be right. You must be very pure in your soul to be able to intuit, i.e., rely on your emotions.
We have now additional depth in understanding the types of intelligence and the parts of the Bible. The Pentateuch corresponds to the intuitive intellectual, as explained. The Prophets are the intellectual emotions, because God gives them the prophecy; it is not based on their own emotions. The prophet can speak either good or bad, but it must be God’s words, as he or she is nullified to God’s word. What comes from God is part of the intellect, like a student sitting before his master. Nonetheless, the prophets are very emotional as these feelings are part of the intellect itself. But this is not the case with regard to the Writings in the Bible. The Writings are the product of man’s soul. Unlike prophecies, they do not descend from above to below but rather ascend from below to above.
Daily Teaching #16 for 3 Tammuz 5785 (July 29, 2025)
Natural Justice
Why are the Jewish people the emissaries chosen to bring the light of God as contained in the Torah to the world.
There is a verse that reads, “Listen to Me, you who care for justice, O’ people who have my Torah in their heart”[2] (שִׁמְעוּ אֵלַי יֹדְעֵי צֶדֶק עַם תּוֹרָתִי בְלִבָּם). In this verse, Isaiah first describes humanity, telling us that every human being has an innate knowledge of what justice is—they do not need to be taught, they intuit justice, the difference between good and evil. That is the core of the good latent in every human being. The prophet then proceeds to describe the Jewish people and says that a Jewish soul not only learns Torah and grows from day to day, develops, and makes progress in understanding the Torah. Rather, a Jewish soul is implanted from birth with the Torah in its heart.
In other words, the innate recognition of justice that exists in all people is seen prominently in the Jewish people and then manifests even further so that the entire Torah is innately found in the heart of a Jew. That is what makes it possible for a Jew to bring Torah to the world. The fact that a Jew intuits justice is something that he or she has in common with non-Jews allowing them to relate with non-Jews. The ability to form a relationship and bring the light of the Torah to the whole world is based on Jews and non-Jews having a common sense of justice, a sense of what is right. When I can connect to the nations and feel a certain brotherhood, then I can manifest my innate Torah, which God implanted in my heart when He chose the Jewish people to be his emissaries to bring that light of the Torah to the whole world.
God is My Brother, Torah My Sister
There is another important saying that relates to faith. Sometimes we refer to God as our Father, our Father in heaven. Sometimes we refer to God as our King. At times we refer to God as our Beloved.[3] God Himself sees us as His brothers and companions.[4] Indeed, Kabbalah explains that there are certain souls that experience God not only as a Father, as a King, or as a Beloved one. These souls experience God like a brother. They feel like they have a big brother.
A big brother is a good partner, and you feel that He is going to help you. It may seem at times that our Father is old. One might feel that his father no longer has the power to save us and help us. But a big brother is a symbol of a certain will and ability to help us in every situation; to partner with us and help us succeed in everything that we do. I have a big brother. This is a very beautiful recognition that not everyone is aware of: that one can feel kinship to God in the sense of God being our brother, as it were.
What about the Torah? The Torah is God’s wisdom and there is a verse that reads, “Say to wisdom, you are my sister.”[5] That is a very beautiful description of the Torah. So now, the Torah is my sister. And God is my brother. Everyone should have a brother and a sister.
We can come to experience God as our brother and the Torah as our sister through faith. Faith is the deepest connection at the super-conscious level of the soul. As we saw earlier, faith has multiple dimensions to it. One of the expressions of faith is the ability to experience God, not only as a father figure, as a kingly figure, or as beloved, but also as a brother.
There is one time in the Bible that the word “one” (אֶחָד), like “God is one”[6] is written just with the first two letters of the word Echad, which are Ach (אח), implying that to experience God’s oneness begins with the experience of God as my big brother.
The Torah as we said is called my sister. The word sister is Achot (אָחֹת), which is written with the exact same letters that spell Achat (אַחַת), the feminine form of the word one. It follows that this dual experience of God as my brother and the Torah as my sister is the experience of the masculine oneness and the feminine oneness of God Himself. There is more to study in relation to the masculine and feminine aspects of oneness, but for now let us leave it as a call to have faith that thank God, I have the best big brother, and the best big sister.
In fact, when the Torah commands us to honor our father and our mother,[7] the verse includes an additional word “et” (אֶת), which is untranslatable. That additional word, et, means to include in the commandment to honor one’s parents also one's big brother and one's big sister.[8] Thus, the big brother and the big sister, which are God and the Torah, are all included within honoring one's father and mother. The brother and the sister are my siblings, and we all come from the same mother and the same father.
We must all experience every single Jew and every single human being as our brother, this is all a reflection of God and my sister is a reflection of the Torah in each one of us. What it all boils down to is that we are all brothers and sisters and we are all expressions and reflections of Godliness. That recognition itself is the redemption that the Lubavitcher Rebbe devoted his life to and felt the responsibility to fulfill.
Story
Rabbi Chaim ben Attar, the holy Or HaChaim: Chillul HaShem
Rabbi Avraham Chaim Na'eh was born in Iyar 5650 (1890) to his father Rabbi Menachem Mendel and his mother Musia, leaders of the Chabad community in Hebron. His father was the 13th generation in a lineage of rabbis, and his maternal grandfather was a 'choizer' (one who would memorize and repeat the Rebbe's discourses) and emissary for the Tzemach Tzedek. The Grach [an acronym for the Gaon Rabbi Avraham Chaim] studied primarily under his father and his uncle, R' Shlomo Leib Eliezerov, and was close to the 'Sdei Chemed', the rabbi of Hebron. At age 15, he married Rebbetzin Devorah, and after a year moved to Jerusalem to study. At 18, he first came to Lubavitch with his reputation preceding him: R' Itche der Masmid held a farbrengen in his honor, and the Rebbe Rashab asked him to stay as a Rosh Yeshivah. The Grach asked for his father's permission, but his father said he couldn't allow it and so the Grach returned to Jerusalem.
In 5671 (1911), he went on a two-year mission to Bukhara, where he was very active. With the outbreak of the first World War, he was exiled to Egypt along with many foreign nationals expelled by the Ottoman government. There too, he worked to strengthen Judaism, printed a book of Jewish law in Arabic, and was revered by the local Jews. When he returned to Jerusalem, he lived in the Bukharan neighborhood and devoted himself to strengthening Jewish observance. He delved into and clarified the rulings of the Alter Rebbe in his Shulchan Aruch and Siddur, and wrote the "Luach Kolel Chabad" with laws and customs according to Chabad rulings. He became especially known for establishing the tradition regarding Torah measurements, in contrast to the Chazon Ish's approach, which tended to maximize the measurements.
His life was short and full of hardships: his first wife died young, and his son was murdered in the 5699 (1939) Arab riots against the Jews of the Land of Israel. Despite the wanderings and troubles, it is said that he was a joyful man; one could hear him approaching from a distance, singing and humming to himself. He passed away on the 20th of Tammuz 5714 (1954), at the age of 64, and was buried on Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem.
In 5671 (1911), when the Grach was 21 years old, he left the Land of Israel for Bukhara following his uncle, the Gaon Rabbi Shlomo Leib Eliezerov, who was very active there. “In Bukhara,” his daughters relate, “the state of Judaism was very difficult. Ignorance prevailed and much had to be done to strengthen the connection of the youth and adults to their Jewish heritage. Rabbi Chaim arrived in Bukhara illegally and stayed there without a visa. Within a short time, he managed to integrate well among the members of the Jewish community becoming their unofficial rabbi. Father stayed there for only two years but managed to accomplish a great deal.”
During this time, he worked on his first book Chanoch LaNa'ar, a book designed to help boys who had reached bar mitzvah age and needed to learn the laws of tefillin. Rabbi Chaim wrote the book in precise Bukharan Arabic, after having been in Bukhara for just a few months. “He learned the language from a Bible translated into Bukharan. He wore the clothes of the local Jews and became one of them. Father traveled to Warsaw to print the book Chanoch LaNa'ar, and even there he wore the traditional clothes of Bukharan Jews. He always told us that in Warsaw he met one of his friends who had studied with him in the yeshivah in Jerusalem. The friend couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw him in Bukharan dress and thought he was joking.”
“One Shabbat evening, we were walking home. On the way, we saw a Bukharian Jew with his son. When they saw Father from afar, they hurried to catch up with us, and that Jew turned to Father: ‘Chacham Chaim, this child came into the world thanks to you.’ It turned out that when Father was in Bukhara, this Jew, who was childless, approached him and asked for a blessing. Father left Bukhara and throughout the entire period had not met that Jew, who in the meantime had established a splendid family with several children.”
(From an interview with the daughters of the Grach Na’eh)
The Grach Na’eh serves as a prime example of a Torah scholar who was accepted in almost all Jewish communities—from Bukhara and Egypt to Russia and Hungary. His teachings, based on Jerusalem custom, received the blessing of Jerusalem’s great rabbis from all circles and became the accepted ruling. Even the Chazon Ish, his halachic opponent, greatly appreciated his Torah greatness. Simultaneously, the Grach was a Chabad chasid with all his heart and soul. He headed a yeshivah in Jerusalem that worked to spread Chasidut among those unfamiliar with it, he traveled to Lubavitch many times, and was one of the first to passionately connect with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, even when there were Chabad chasidim in Jerusalem who hesitated to do so. When Chabad chasidim in Jerusalem signed a letter requesting the Rebbe to accept the leadership, he insisted that they write the customary honorific titles at the head of the letter saying: “For me, he is already Rebbe!” It is possible that the support of a Torah scholar of such stature influenced the Rebbe’s decision to ultimately accept the yoke of leadership.
The Grach’s devotion to the Alter Rebbe is also evident in his writings, to which he was especially dedicated. He used to say that in the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch, there are hidden “teachings within teachings,” and when one toils and delves deeply, one discovers entire topics folded within individual words. The Grach also engaged in the rulings in the Alter Rebbe’s siddur, clarifying their correctness and delving into them. Interestingly, his occupation with measurements and their precise sizes also has a source in the words of the Alter Rebbe: “Because the commandments were given to us through the embodiment of the attribute of gevurah (might) and contraction… most commandments have a precise measure.”
Indeed, this is what Rabbi Avraham Chaim’s daughters recount:
When father was writing his book Shiurei Torah, he was constantly engaged in these matters. Throughout the day, father was occupied with measuring various objects. I, as a little girl, would go to bring him the scale from the goldsmith. He told me to bring a scale specifically from him, since a goldsmith has an almost perfect scale, as he uses it to weigh very small gold particles. With this scale, he would weigh all sorts of objects. On the table in our room, where father would sit and study, there was no space for so much as a matchstick. Half the table was covered with father’s books, and on the other half stood various weights, large and small eggs, and different types of olives. (Eggs and olives are used as basic measurements in Jewish law).
Father would also call various people and measure their thumbs and the length of their palms, to examine different opinions in accordance with today's reality. Besides this, when father was in the synagogue, he would always measure the length of people’s tzitzit. Once when he measured someone’s tzitzit on Shabbat. The person said to him: “Are you not measuring, which is forbidden on Shabbat?” But Rabbi Chaim immediately answered him: “This measurement is a mitzvah, and it is permitted to do so on Shabbat!”
When father arrived in Bnei Brak, one of the daughters recounts, he came to visit the Chazon Ish, and the Chazon Ish walked several blocks to greet him. The Chazon Ish respected him greatly, despite disagreeing with him on fundamental issues.
Partzuf
Three Principles for Dividing the Land of Israel
The Three Principles for Dividing the Land
Our holy land, the Land of Israel, “a land which Havayah your God seeks it, the eyes of Havayah your God are upon it, from the beginning of the year to year’s end,” was divided between all the Jews, each and every one of us, based on three principles.
The first principle is found in our parashah, “the land will be divided by a lottery”[9] (אַךְ בְּגוֹרָל יֵחָלֵק אֶת הָאָרֶץ). The lottery is above and beyond reason. It corresponds to serving God with simple faith and complete self-nullification to God, who is the Master of His will. The task of succumbing to this principle is placed upon the root and essence of the Divine soul that dwells within every Jew.
The second principle is, “According to Havayah”[10] (עַל פִּי הוי'), which Rashi explains refers to Ru’ach HaKodesh (the holy spirit) residing within the High Priest when he wears the Urim and Thumim. This principle corresponds first and foremost to the sefirah of knowledge (da’at)[11] which unites and includes all ten inner faculties of the soul from wisdom—which is also referred to as the wellspring, from which the Ru’ach HaKodesh is drawn—to kingdom—also referred to as lower wisdom. Dividing the land based on this principle is meant to rectify the character attributes (the emotional and habitual sefirot: from loving-kindness to foundation), which all depend on knowledge, as in the verse, “Even without knowledge, the soul is not good.”[12]
The third principle, dividing the land based on rational considerations, is also found in our parashah, “You must give a larger inheritance to the large [tribe] and you must give a smaller inheritance to a smaller [tribe].”[13] In our service of God, this principle reflects the requirement that, “You shall refrain from evil, but do good.”[14] In other words, every individual has a different “lot” in life, each based on the particular mission his or her soul is required to complete, “to the large… a larger, and to the smaller.” To properly rectify one’s “lot,” one needs to engage life and his character through both pillars of “refraining from evil” and “doing good.”
To summarize, the three methods employed to divide the land can be seen as a super-rational reason behind the division, an inspired reason, and a rational reason, which can also be described as division based on simple faith, on Ru’ach HaKodesh, and on rationality.
The Three Perfections
The foundation of our survival as the eternal people, the people chosen by God as His inheritance (as it were) in this world is our adherence to the three perfections, which are interdependent: the perfection of Torah, the perfection of the people, and the perfection of the Land. All three are as hinted to by the gematria that “Torah, people, Land” (תּוֹרָה עָם אֶרֶץ) equals 1012 and the value of “one” (אֶחָד), when the letter alef is considered equal to 1000 (the word for thousand in Hebrew is spelled just like the name of the letter alef: אֶלֶף אָלֶף).
One of the most prominent principles pertaining to those things that are holy is hitkallelut (inter-inclusion), meaning that when there are several aspects and levels that are connected together, it is necessary that each one be found and revealed in its counterpart. When considering the division of the Land of Israel in the physical sense (and likewise in the service of God in both spiritual and physical rectification, as mentioned above), all three perfections—Torah, people, and Land—are found to correspond to the three methods for division.
Torah, people, and Land in the Division of the Land of Israel
The division according to a lottery is the aspect of “land within the land” represents a level of choice, which is super-rational, akin to Adam choosing Eve as his mate and then explaining his choice with the words, “this time [she is] bone of my bones, etc.”[15]—meaning that the lottery revealed the essential connection between each parcel of land and the particular soul of a Jew that is essentially and super-rationally connected to that parcel.
The division according to Rua’ch HaKodesh corresponds to the aspect of people within the Land, a concept captured in the words, “I will pour out My spirit… and your sons and daughters shall prophesy….”[16] God’s spirit is included in the parcel of land that goes to each individual and only by dwelling and developing that parcel can each individual reach his ultimate perfection and complete his or her mission in life, a state that is akin to prophecy.
The division according to reason—“to the many, etc., and to the few, etc.”—corresponds to the aspect of Torah within the Land. The Torah’s is what sets a person’s reason straight. Torah is what refines the intellect of the natural soul. By the intellect of the Divine soul strengthened by the power of studying the Torah (that emerged from wisdom), our rational mind is clarified and cleansed.
Torah, people, and Land in Our Connection with the Land of Israel
We find the same structure of three reasons regarding our connection to the holy soil of our Land When addressing this issue, the Lubavitcher Rebbe mentioned three reasons that we are obligated, with full strength and might, to never hand over any part of the whole Land of Israel, including the Sinai, “until the River of Egypt.”[17]
First, for reasons of our security—piku’ach nefesh. This ruling applies equally to Jewish places of settlement both in the Land of Israel and in the Diaspora, but it is especially relevant to a settlement located on a frontier. The legal ruling is that even if enemies attack us because of “straw and chaff,” we must go out in force against them with weapons, even on Shabbat (as ruled in the Shulchan Aruch[18]). With regard to any settlement in the Land of Israel, this reason is the aspect of Torah within the land.
Second, for reasons of gratitude for the gift given to us by the Creator, which in our generation is a gift given through open miracles, when the few defeated the many. A miracle does not occur without reason. To return such a gift, God forbid, borders on denial of the personal Divine Providence God has shown us. This reason is the aspect of “people within the land”—the gift of the God of Israel to the people of Israel, a gift from a father to a son.
Thirdly, we must hold on to every inch of land because of the sanctity of the Land of Israel, and the necessity of its wholeness. This reason is the aspect of “land within the land” and the aspect of the supernatural lottery, as explained above.
These same three “reasons” apply to the issue of the presence of non-Jews in our holy land (in all those parts of the land currently held in our hands until God will broaden our borders to the borders promised to Abraham). The Torah commands us, “Do not show them favor,”[19] which the sages explain means “do not give them possession of [or even rest[20] on] the Land”) and “They shall not dwell in your land.”[21]
First, for reasons of security, etc. (as the Rebbe said that in the Old City of Jerusalem there now dwell such and such tens of thousands of “terrorists,” and no one pays attention, etc. And so is the case in every place in the Land), and in order that the verse not be fulfilled: “And if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, it shall come to pass that those whom you let remain of them shall be thorns in your eyes and pricks in your sides, and they shall harass you….”[22] This is the aspect of “Torah within the land” as above. This reason is based on straight rational thought.
Second, for the reason of “gratitude” to God who gave us our Holy Land so that we be able to live up to His aspiration that we be for Him a treasured people by to meriting to attain through our living in the Land Divine inspiration. The spiritual (or even, God forbid, physical) “assimilation” that results from the presence of non-Jews among us corrupts (be it consciously or subconsciously) our spirit, especially the spirit of the youth, and influences us to be “like all the nations,” God forbid. To drive this point in, the Torah warns us, “They shall not dwell in your land lest they make you sin against Me,”[23] “and they will make your sons go astray after their gods”[24]—this is the aspect of “people within the land.”
Finally, for the reason of the very fulfillment of the commandment not to give dwelling and settlement to non-Jews in the land, as the clear ruling of our teacher the Rambam: that it is forbidden to allow to dwell in the land (even temporary dwelling or passage for trade) anyone who is not a ger toshav (i.e., a resident alien). This status cannot be conferred upon a non-Jew except at a time when the Jubilee is practiced, and consequently, today it is forbidden to allow any non-Jew to remain in the land. This is the aspect of “land within the land” (as the necessity of the wholeness of the land from its own side). This reason especially depends on simple faith (the aspect of lot), that so it must be and so it is possible.
(based on Malchut Yisra’el volume 1, pp. 227-232)
[1]. Also corresponds to the two remaining types of intelligence, intuitive intelligence to the right and instinctive intelligence to the left.
[2]. Isaiah 51:7.
[3]. Particularly in the Song of Songs.
[4]. Psalms 122:8. These words are spoken by King David through Ru’ach HaKodesh.
[5]. Proverbs 7:4.
[6]. Deuteronomy 6:4.
[7]. Exodus 20:
[8]. See Zohar 3:83a.
[9]. Numbers 26:55.
[10]. Joshua 19:50.
[11]. Rashi on Exodus 31:3 explains that “knowledge” (דָּעַת) refers to Ru’ach HaKodesh.
[12]. Proverbs 19:2.
[13]. Numbers 26:54.
[14]. Psalms 34:15.
[15]. Genesis 2:23. Note that in Hebrew the word for “bone” (עֶצֶם) alludes to the highest level of essential being; in other words, Adam is suggesting that the choice he made was an essential, existential choice.
[16]. Joel 3:1.
[17]. According to most opinions, the River of Egypt refers to the Nile.
[18]. Orach Chaim 329:6.
[19]. Deuteronomy 7:2.
[20]. Avodah Zarah 20a. Hilchot Avodah Zarah 10:3 and ff.
[21]. Exodus 23:33.
[22]. Numbers 33:55.
[23]. Exodus ibid.
[24]. Ibid. 34:16.
