Whose land is this holy land anyway? What does God have to do with it?
The bitter questions at the heart of the Israel-Palestinian conflict are rooted in theological claims that are already mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.
The historical connection between Jewish people and the holy home land is disputed by many different voices in the world, especially during these divisive and complicated days. Today’s Psalm, yet another alphabetical acrostic with two Hebrew letters per verse, includes one of the more famous claims for Jewish links to this land - because of Divine will.
Psalm 111 starts global - it lists alphabetically precise praise for the many divine wonders for which one must be grateful. The initial praiseworthy acts are universal - wisdom and food, beauty and compassion -worthy of gratitude by any faithful human. By verse 6, however, we are reminded that this psalm, like the book it is part of, belongs to a specific cultural and local context. The psalmist is in awe of the divine sovereignty that handed this homeland to YHWH’s own people:
כֹּ֣חַ מַ֭עֲשָׂיו הִגִּ֣יד לְעַמּ֑וֹ לָתֵ֥ת לָ֝הֶ֗ם נַחֲלַ֥ת גּוֹיִֽם
מַעֲשֵׂ֣י יָ֭דָיו אֱמֶ֣ת וּמִשְׁפָּ֑ט נֶ֝אֱמָנִ֗ים כׇּל־פִּקּוּדָֽיו׃
“God has declared to his people the power of God’s works, so that God may give them the estate of the nations.
The works of God’s hands are truth and justice; all God’s commandments are sure.
Ps. 111:6-7
What does ‘estate of the nations’ mean exactly? Some of the English translations use words like ‘heritage’ or ‘inheritance of the nations’ to adapt the Hebrew words ‘Nachlat Goyim’. But most commentaries and translators agree that it’s a reference to the holy land - given by God to the Jewish people. This is one of the prooftexts popular in pro-homeland circles for generations before the modern political concept of Zionism was created.
This question of the land’s divine mandate was already a contested and controversial idea in the medieval period.
In the 11th century, Rashi, the French-Jewish scholar began his commentary on the Torah with a famous paragraph that quotes today’s chapter. Rashi begins by quoting his own father, questioning why the Hebrew Bible begins with the mythic creation of the entire world - and not the Jewish story:
“Rabbi Isaac said: The Torah should have commenced with: "This month shall be unto you the first of the months" (Exodus 12:2), which is the first commandment given to Israel. What is the reason, then, that it commences with the account of the Creation of the World? Because of "God declared to God’s people the strength of God works to give them the heritage of nations” (Psalms 111:6). For should the peoples of the world say to Israel, "You are robbers, because you took by force the lands of the seven nations of Canaan," Israel may reply to them, "All the earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He; He created it and gave it to whom He pleased. When it pleased Him, He gave it to them, and when it pleased Him, He took it from them and gave it to us.”
There’s a certain tragic irony to Rashi’s words, penned in Europe 1,000 years after the last Jewish stronghold in the holy land was brutally crushed by the Romans. For all of history - the land was rarely in Jewish hands -- ruled by Canaanites, Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, Mongols, Turks, and British -- whose land is this anyway?
A century after Rashi, Nachamndies, writing in Spain ponders the same question, writing this in his commentary to the same verse in the Psalms:
“It is appropriate that when a nation continues to sin, it will be destroyed from its own place and another nation will inherit its land, for this is the law of God in the world from always… And God gave them the lands of nations and the labor of peoples they shall inherit so that they shall keep God’s laws and guard God’s instructions."
Unlike Rashi, Nachmanides is focusing on the conditional aspect of the land’s legacy: It was given by God to the Jewish people - but on condition. If the nation violates the moral codes and is bent on transgressions - the lease will be revoked, and others will lay claim to the land instead.
In the 1,000 years since these two great scholars pored over the Psalms to make sense of these verses, many many have added their voices - on all sides of this complex debate.
Here we are today, attuned to this loaded legacy and aware that the political and theological, traumatic and aspirational - are all intertwined.
Beyond the notion of divine will is the question of human agency and choice in prioritizing narratives that promote peace and hope, salvation and solutions -- and not necessarily recycling big ideas, no matter how old or sacred, that may no longer serve the common good. Perhaps we are living through a time in which the old ideas are evolving and transforming - mirroring the praise in this psalm, and in so many other sacred scriptures -- the entire land is holy, the whole earth is divine, and it’s not up to us to decide and divide it between people and nations - without fair, equitable and just solutions.
We belong to the land and not the other way around.
Why can’t we remember?
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