Yearning to be in Your Own Land

An Israeli child of my Tribe having fun in his country and ancestral homeland on Independence Day, in the "Britania Park" next to the Eylah Valley, where David defeated Goliath as told in the First Book of Samuel.

Beit Yaakov

(the House of Jacob)

by Rabbi Jacob Lainer

“And I pleaded with G-d at that time saying, A-donai E-lohim! Your who have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your power…” (Deuteronomy, 3:23)
“And it will be, before they shall cry out, I will answer. And while they are still speaking, I will hear.” (Isaiah, 65:24)
Crying out means yearning and desire. When the Holy One, blessed be He, desires to receive a man’s prayer, He first sends understanding to the man’s heart; he needs to to understand why he yearned for this at the depths of his heart to begin with. (The advice is to deeply contemplate why it is that he has such a great desire for the things that he prays for. Betsalel) In man’s limited understanding it seems to him that there are prayers which are not accepted, yet it seems this way only because he never asked why he yearned for them in the first place. Thus it appears as if his prayers are not accepted. This is because God investigates his heart, and sees that he did not pray over the very matters that arose in his consciousness.
This is the meaning of, “and I will answer.” That is, I will give him the space in which to arrange his prayers (and the reasons for his prayers). By means of this, “while they are still speaking, I will hear.” (Hearing often means understanding.)
It says in the Gemara (Ta’anit, 25b), “What is the (highest and most accepted) praise of the congregation? When they say, ‘He makes the wind blow,’ and the wind blows. When they say, ‘He makes the rain fall,’ and it rains.”
When one is answered before he opens his mouth to pray, it is a sign that God does not want to receive or hear his prayer. (This is not the case with the above passage in the Gemara, where they are answered easily immediately after they pray.) This is as it is written (Deuteronomy, 7:10), “And He will repay those that hate Him before them (to their face)…”
Truly, Israel has a hand and portion in the upper worlds. This is as it is explained in the Midrash (Bereshit Rabba, 1:4), “Israel arose in God’s thought even before the creation of the world.” This is as it is written (Deuteronomy, 32:9), “Yaakov is the cord of His inheritance.”
Every soul of Israel, even before a man’s soul was created, is a portion of G-d above. the soul descended into the world was in order for it to be incomplete, needing to cry out to G-d, and be answered. This is the main principle of completeness.
This Parsha is a testament to the great brazen sanctity (tekifut) of Israel. The Gemara anthropomorphically describes G-d as wearing Tefillin (Berachot, 6a). However, in the Tefillin of the Master of the World differs from ours, in that in His, it is written (Chronicles 1, 17:21), “Who is like you, Israel, one unified nation in the land.” The word Tefillin teaches of connection. This is as it is written (Genesis, 30:8), “great wrestlings (naftulei in Hebrew) with G-d have I wrestled.” (And Naftulei is the same letters as Tefillin. Connection, in that two wrestlers must be closely connected.) The glory of God will never be disconnected from Israel! This is as it is written (Deuteronomy, 4:7-8), “for who is a nation so great as to have G-d so close to them… who is a nation so great with such laws and judgments.” In the Tefillin of Israel it is written (Exodus, 13:9), “in order that the Torah of G-d should be in your mouths.”
So too, all of the passages written in the Tefillin express the deep connection of Israel to G-d. And both of them (The Tefillin of G-d and the Tefillin of Israel), teaches us that God answers the Jews whenever they cry out to them. Clearly it seems as if even the greatest Israelites pray and are not answered. That’s why is says, “Va’etchanan, And I pleaded to G-d,” as is explained in the Mei HaShiloach. (At the end I have inserted the entire teaching refered to from the Mei HaShiloach, the father of the Beit Yaakov.) Yet truly, all those who ask are answered. This is why it says, “(And I pleaded to G-d) at this Time, to say,” for whenever it is written, “to say,” it means clear and explicit to the eyes of man.
God gives desire to man. By means of that desire one could achieve anything, for all depends on desire, all depends on will. God effuses the words of Torah to the depths of the heart of man in order that necessarily he will be given all kind of effluence. This is the meaning of (Haggai, 2:8), “Mine is the silver (Kesef in Hebrew, like Kisuf, meaning yearning), and Mine is the Gold, says God.” In this way God gives effluence to man. The pure and simple will of God (ratzon hapashut) only necessitates that He gives something pure and simple like it.
Therefore, all drawing of effluence depends on really wanting. When the Holy One, blessed be He, sends his saying (clear communication) in his desire down to the earth, this of itself necessitates that He give all kinds of effluence. And man will surely know why the Holy One, blessed be He, gives him this strong desire. Man will turn from this understanding, and know how to incline it to its proper place. By means of this, he will be successful with everything that he asks for.

(Mei HaShiloach, Parshat Va’etchanan.)
“And I pleaded to G-d at that time, saying.” (Devarim, 3:23)
Why did Moshe Rabeynu’s tell these words to Israel? Even though on the surface it seems as if his prayer had no benefit whatsoever, nonetheless, he caused them to understand that his prayer was not in vain. (It is as if he is saying to them,) even in the course of actions in the land of Israel I am your teacher and Rabbi, and likewise he showed them that his prayer was effective. This is why “Vaetchanan,” Hebrew for, “and I pleaded,” (the verb for giving mercy, “chanan,” is intensified into meaning imploring for mercies,) because he was made full of entreatment for G-d’s mercies, and his prayer flowed naturally from his mouth. This is a kind of proof that God sent him the awakening from below to pray. Therefore he surely would not be turned away empty handed. This is hinted at in, “at that time,” for even though G-d had already promised me that I would not enter the land, still it did not prevent me from praying. This is as it is written in the Gemara (Berachot, 10a) of Hizkiyah king of Yehuda who said to the prophet Yeshayahu (who had just prophesied that he would die), “Son of Amots! Stop your prophecy and leave, for thus I have received from my father’s house (David, that even in the face of certain death), never to prevent oneself from praying for G-d’s mercies.” For there is nothing that stands to prevent one from the mercies of G-d. (And that it said that Hizkiya turned his face to the wall to pray,”) The Gemara learns from this there should be nothing separating one from the wall, meaning that there should be nothing preventing one from prayer, and not to loose heart even if it seems that the decree has come from G-d, for “wall,” teaches of the source of life. (As in Yirmiya, 4:19 where the same word for wall, “Kir,” is used for the chambers of the heart, hence the source of life.) Even though it may seem that there is no salvation from the source, one may not prevent himself from G-d’s mercies.