The Land Of Israel

"For the land into which you are entering to possess it" (Deuteronomy 11:10). This was said as an inducement to Israel at the time they went out of Egypt, for they were saying: Perhaps we will not enter into so fair a land as this one? The Omnipresent said to them: "For the land into which you are entering to possess it is not like the land of Egypt." This teaches that the Land of Israel is more praiseworthy than it. Does Scripture speak in praise of the Land of Israel, or in praise of the land of Egypt? Therefore the verse states: "And Hebron was built seven years before Zoan of Egypt" (Numbers 13:22). What was Zoan? A place of royalty, and so it says: "For his princes were at Zoan," and so forth (Isaiah 30:4). What was Hebron? The refuse of the Land of Israel, as it is said: "Mamre, the city of Arba, which is Hebron" (Genesis 35:27). And behold, the matter is an inference from minor to major: if Hebron, the refuse of the Land of Israel, is more praiseworthy than the praise of the land of Egypt, which is more praiseworthy than all lands, then how much more so for the praise of the Land of Israel! And so you find in the ways of the Omnipresent that whatever is more beloved precedes its fellow: the Torah, because it is more beloved than all, was created before all; the Holy Temple, because it is more beloved than all, was created before all; the Land of Israel, which is more beloved than all, was created before all, as it is said: "Before He had made the earth and the open fields" (Proverbs 8:26). Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai says: "Tevel" (the world) refers to the Land of Israel, as it is said: "Rejoicing in the world (tevel), His earth" (Proverbs 8:31). Why is its name called Tevel? Because it is seasoned (metubelet) with everything, for all the lands have in this one what is not in that one, and have in that one what is not in this one; but the Land of Israel lacks nothing, as it is said: "You will lack nothing in it" (Deuteronomy 8:9).