“The Lord said to Jacob: Return to the land of your fathers, and to your birthplace, and I will be with you” (Genesis 31:3). “The Lord said to Jacob: Return to the land of your fathers, and to your birthplace.” It is written: “I cried out to You, Lord, and said: You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living” (Psalms 142:6) – but is “the land of the living” not Tyre and its environs; there is plenty there, there are low prices there, and you say: “My portion in the land of the living”?1Regarding Israel.
It is, rather, the land whose dead come to life first in the messianic era. Reish Lakish in the name of bar Kappara cites it from here: “Who gives breath to the people upon it, and spirit to those who walk in it” (Isaiah 42:5). The Holy One blessed be He said to him: ‘You said: “My portion in the land of the living.” “Return to the land of your fathers” – your father is awaiting you; your mother is awaiting you, I, Myself am awaiting you.’
Rabbi Ami said in the name of Reish Lakish: Possessions outside of the Land of Israel, there is no blessing in them. But, ‘When you return to the land of your fathers, I will be with you.’ Elsewhere it says: “I have been with you wherever you have gone” (II Samuel 7:9). It is, rather, that David, because he led Israel, He would say to him: “I have been with you wherever you have gone.” But Jacob, because he led his family, he says to him: “Return to the land of your fathers…”