Everywhere I Go: Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson

God began to gather the body of Adam from the four corners of the world, so that the earth should not say, “The dust of your body does not come from me,” so that if he was taken from the east and expires in the west, the western part of the earth should not say, “the dust of your body is not from me, so I am not accepting it.” Therefore God took it from the four corners of the world, so wherever h. [...] This teaches that the Holy Temple is higher than all the rest of the Land of Israel, and that the Land of Israel is higher than all the other lands. [...] Midrash Mishlei, Chapter 17 The Land of Israel and the Torah have a closeness and a relationship similar to that of the life- force to the heart.… It is more meritorious to perform the commandments in the Land than outside. [...] Rabbi Moses Cordovero, Or Ne’erav, III:5 The Challenge and the Paradox ּובבל הויא רּובא דעלמא? And is Babylonia most of the world? Eruvin 28a ויהודה הויה רובא דעלמא? And is Judea most of the world? Kiddushin 6a ויהודה ועוד לקרא? Judea in addition to Scripture? Kiddushin 6a Palestine is not a refuge from the vicissitudes of the Golah; it is the avant-garde of the Golah. [...] Hans Jonas Memoirs 118 The establishment of the state of Israel is the most profound modification of the Galut which has occurred, but it is not the end of the Galut; in the religious sense, and perhaps not only in the religious sense, the state of Israel is a part of the Galut.