Why is TT fixated on Aliya? And towards the beginning of this week's sedra, this is what G-d, through His chief prophet is saying to us: Preserve (keep, observe) the Mitzvot of HaShem your G-d, to follow in His ways and to revere Him. For HaShem your G-d brings you to a good land, a land of streams and springs and deep underground water sources...to a land of wheat and barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, to a land of olives and dates, to a land that bread will be eaten without scarceness, nothing will be lacking... you shall eat and be satisfied and bless G-d for THE GOOD LAND WHICH HE GAVE YOU. This is definitely not the only time the Torah says these things. Keep Mitzvot. Be faithful to G-d. Listen to His voice. Where? In Eretz Yisrael, in the Land of Israel. Can I not keep Torah and Mitzvot anywhere in the world? Of course you can. But that is not what G-d wants. He told Moshe and then us, through Moshe, that He was taking us out of Egypt IN ORDER to bring us to the Land of Israel. As we've written often in the past, He wanted to hear from us the TWO pairs of "magic words". We actually said NAASEH V'NISHMA to His offer of Torah. We did good! But it was only Kalev who said the words we all should have said: ALO NAALEH. We disappointed G-d, so to speak, with the reaction to the Meraglim, with the incident of the Ma'pilim. And we disappointed Him again with our unfaithfulness during the time of the first Beit HaMikdash and again during the time of the second one. So we were exiled and them expected to look in the Torah, see what HaShem wants of us, and get it right this time. Let's not disappoint Him again. Simple formula. Torah and Eretz Yisrael. Let's. [The Parshat Eikev Homepage]
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