The Torah says that during the exile of the Jewish people, as they wandered the ends of the Earth, the Land of Israel will be desolate and barren, unable to support large thriving populations. And then comes the next part.
The middle of the section of the ‘rebuke’ the ‘Tochachah’, contained in this week’s Parshah, Bechukotai, forewarned the Jewish people telling of the future exiles of the Jews. It mentions the sufferings the Jews will face, and contains the following words, ”I will make the land desolate; and your foes who dwell upon it will be desolate.” Vayikra, 26:32
During the exile of the Jewish people, as they wandered the ends of the Earth, the Land of Israel will be desolate and barren, unable to support large thriving populations. Empires will come and go and the land will remain desolate.There are numerous accounts of travelers and residents of the land over the centuries who vividly described the land’s desolation.
Rashi (1040-1105) comments on this sentence that amid the forecasts and descriptions of exile that “This is a good measure, (for Israel) that the enemies will not find contentment in (Israel’s) land for it will be desolate of its inhabitants.”
The Ramban (1194-1270) also states that this is a good tiding since it is “A great proof and promise; for in all civilization there can’t be found a land that is good and spacious. And that has always been settled that is (left) desolate as Eretz Yisrael is now, which from the time we left it has never received any nation or nationality, and (though) all of them have attempted to settle it that have not been able.”
It is good news to know that others will control your land, but never truly possess it. A sign that there was perpetual hope that the Jews would someday return to their home en- masse. When that time arrives, they will come home, as foretold by the prophets and it would begin as part of a natural process.
Upon the entry of Bnei Yisrael into the Land of Israel following the Egyptian exodus, the land was occupied by existing tribes and nations. The first commentary of Rashi in the Torah (Bereshit 1:1) discusses why the Torah in Bereshit goes into detail on the history of the beginnings of the Jewish people? Rashi answers, “So if the nations of the world will say to Israel ‘You are bandits for you conquered the lands of the seven nations who inhabited the Land of Canaan’ (Israel) will respond to them, ‘The whole world belongs to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, He created it and He gave it to the one proper in His eyes’
This accusation by the nations applies to the conquest of the Canaanite nations during the Israelite entry into the land under the leadership of Joshua. The nations of the world might criticize and condemn the Jews for conquest and they would reply that their claim is based upon Hashem’s promise. That conquest established the eternal connection between the Jews and the land.
The reference here to the desolation of the land refers to the future return to Zion following a prolonged exile. Unlike the first return to the Land of Israel from Egypt through the Sinai wilderness, this time it would be to a sparsely inhabited land.
Thus, in today’s times the opponents of Zion claim the Jews have displaced the native populations when in fact there was no conquest. Throughout the nineteenth century, immigrants purchased lands which they used to build for the future. With sweat and determination, while enduring oppressive Ottoman laws, fending off sporadic attacks and the onset of malaria, and suffering poverty, they built and created.
The wars fought after achieving Israel’s independence in 1948 were defensive, forced upon them by those who sought to eradicate their national existence.
Unlike the entry of the Israelites into the Promised Land, The return to Zion in modern times has been a natural event within the confines of nature. The Jews would come home to the land that awaits them; largely unoccupied and barren. In its desolation, the Jews would suffer impediments and challenges, but they would build and the land would respond and produce.
So within the darkness of exile, there was hope in the dream of returning to Zion. That is good news!
