Take Care of the Land of Israel
Healthy Jews value their nation's body.
Healthy Israel Part 6
Read the first 5 parts here.
Every Healthy Jew’s spiritual journey begins by using their mind to keep their body healthy.
Even when we progress to spiritual work, the body is always at the center of the action.
When immersed in Torah study, our brain - part of our body - holds our thoughts.
With our body’s actions, we emulate God’s ways and live by God’s instructions.
“All my bones will say, no one is like You, God.” (Tehillim/Psalms 35:10)
When we live as Healthy Jews - in body, heart, mind, and spirit - God blesses us with great material lives:
I will give the rain of your land in its time… you will gather your grain, grapes, and olives. (Devarim/Deuteronomy 11:14).
Our path to God isn’t through the perfect wisdom of soul-life, but through striving to become better in our imperfect body-lives. Our path travels through Land of Israel, the body of the Jewish nation.
As individuals, we find God when inside our physical bodies. As a nation, we find God inside our physical body: Israel.1
Bodies Come First
Let’s explore the parallels between these two lives - individual and national.
Individual Life:
We become genuine people when our minds guide our bodies’ actions toward physical health.
Once we’re purposeful people, we then progress to spiritual purposes: knowing and emulating God.
National Life:
Israel’s national mission begins with caring for the Land of Israel: its earth, water, plants, and animals. We can’t skip the simple meaning of the verse with which R’ Yehuda Halevi closed the Kuzari (as we learned last week):
“Get up, have compassion on Zion, now is time for mercy, the time has come! Because your servants want its stones, and it’s earth they seek.” (Tehilim/Psalms 102:14)
Then we find God in Israel by living there with God’s Torah.
“From Zion, Torah will go out, and the word of God from Jerusalem.” (Yeshiah/Isiah 2:3)
We appreciate and value our bodies because they hold our personal “image of God.” We also appreciate and value Natural Israel because it holds the spirit of our nation.
Care For Israel’s Environment
Am I suggesting that Jewish national life begins with environmental advocacy for this corner of the Middle East?
Exactly!
But only as the first step of a larger goal.
Cherishing and supporting Israel’s land, and stopping there, is just like caring for our physical health as the final purpose of life.
Again, let’s look at the parallel between individual and national Jewish life.
Individual Life:
The Rambam (Maimonides) noted that living healthy to get more pleasure and prestige for more years isn’t very different than mindlessly chasing after unhealthful pleasures and prestige. It’s all the same selfishness.
Therefore, healthy Jewish living aims for a larger purpose: enabling us to understand and emulate God.
National Life:
Caring for Israel’s land only to protect its beauty - or to escape antisemitism - isn’t very different than mindlessly building skyscrapers while ignoring their effects on environment. It’s all the same unhinged materialism.
Therefore, Healthy Israel suggests a deeper mission in caring for the land’s natural world: finding there God’s presence, living there by God’s word. This is where the Jewish people observed the Torah for millennia. Their stories are told in its hills, valleys, rivers, plants, and animals.
The Healthy Jew’s yearning for Healthy Israel begins with cherishing Natural Israel: not only because pretty views are nice, but because God and Israel dwell in those pretty views.
And so this Healthy Israel series comes to a close.
This is what we’ve learned:
Chanukah’s tiny lights prepare for the day we’ll return to Israel by wanting Israel.
The Healthy Jew and Healthy Israel are one and the same.
I hope you’ve found Healthy Israel interesting and meaningful. Next week we’ll be back to regular schedule: Natural Israel on Sunday, Healthy Jewish on Wednesday. I’ve got a few fascinating things I’ve been waiting to share with you.
In the meanwhile, I’d love to hear your thoughts and feelings in the comments below, or by responding to this email.
And oh right, my regular reminder: The Healthy Jew is supported by readers like you. If you find this newsletter interesting or helpful, consider a paid subscription. Proactively advocate for wellness: don't wait for illness. Israel Needs Healthy Jews!
There could have been another way, Jewish tradition teaches. Had we not abandoned God for a golden calf just 40 days after meeting God on Mount Sinai, we would have achieved perfection, and with it the immortal life of the soul. In that life, we would happily ignore the body’s needs and desires, because God would directly nourish our lives through the Torah that’s called the “tree of life.”
To make the point clear, the only Jew who wasn’t around during the calf debacle - Moshe (Moses) - reported that he “didn’t eat bread or drink water” (Devarim/Deuteronomy 9:9) during the 40 days and nights when he was up in heaven receiving the Torah.
If we had received Moshe’s first tablets on the 40th day, we too wouldn’t need bread and water. But they went crashing down, and our lives descended from soul to body.