{"id":2981,"date":"2019-08-22T00:00:13","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T04:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mainesynagogue.org\/wp\/?p=2981"},"modified":"2020-01-22T09:12:39","modified_gmt":"2020-01-22T14:12:39","slug":"ekev-5779","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mainesynagogue.org\/wp\/ekev-5779\/","title":{"rendered":"Ekev 5779"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2026And you shall eat and be satisfied, and you shall bless\nthe Eternal your God over the good land that God has given you (Devarim 8:10).<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Ramban explains there, this is a positive commandment;\na \u201cthou shalt\u201d type of commandment. Ramban also points out that this\ncommandment to say Birkat Hamazon<\/em>, blessing after meals, is similar to\nother positive commandments: making a railing for one\u2019s roof to prevent falls\n(22:8), making the Pesach offering (16:1), and taking first fruits (26:2). All\nof these commandments are because of \u201cthe good land\u201d; that we should Bless God\nwhenever we are satiated because of the \u201cgood land\u201d that God gave us; \u201cthat it\nwas given as an eternal inheritance to you, and you will be satiated from its\ngoodness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramban connects eating to satiation with the Land of\nIsrael. He points out that the Land of Israel is something given to the Jewish\npeople, just as food and life are. Birkat Hamazon,<\/em> then, is\nacknowledgment of good done to us by the Creator of the universe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sefer Hachinuch (430) points out that there is no\npositive good that we can possibly give to God by making blessings over our\nfood. If God is the source of all blessing, then anything we say would be like\nadding droplets to the sea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Birkat Hamazon <\/em>is one of two blessings that are actually commanded by the\nTorah. The other is Birkat Hatorah,<\/em> the blessing said before studying\nTorah. All other blessings that we recite are commanded by the Rabbis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two blessings that have a d\u2019oraita<\/em> status,\nmeaning that they are commanded us by the Torah itself and not by the Rabbis,\nare over that which keeps us alive physically, and that which characterizes the\nJews as a people and defines the relationship between Jews and God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sefer Hachinuch does not mention the connection to the\nLand of Israel in its discussion of Birkat Hamazon<\/em>. It focuses instead\non the infinite and incomprehensible nature of God that we are bound to\nacknowledge after each meal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ramban, of course, lays out a teaching here that is\nvery conducive to religious Zionism. He says that we are to remember the Land\nof Israel each time that we eat a meal. This is accomplished not only by\nreciting the verse that mentions \u201cthe good land\u201d during the Birkat Hamazon<\/em>,\nbut by the fact that the grains which can halachically constitute bread; those\ngrains which can become either chametz<\/em> or matzah <\/em>on Passover are\nthe grains of the Land of Israel: wheat, barley, spelt, oats, and rye. It is\nafter consuming bread from those grains to satiation that we are obligated to\nsay Birkat Hamazon. <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can  take this to\nmean that Jews have an obligation to live in Israel, as most religious Zionists\nbelieve, or that we have a connection as a people to that land, and that\nhowever the connection to that land shifts with history, our connection to the\nland is permanent, even when we live away from it. We may, as individuals, or\nmay not have plans to live in Israel, but we can remember as we recite Birkat\nHamazon<\/em>,  that the sources of our\nlives as individuals and as a people: food, Torah, and the land, are gifts, and\nthey come to us from the Source of existence itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shabbat Shalom!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2026And you shall eat and be satisfied, and you shall bless the Eternal your God over the good land that God has given you (Devarim 8:10). As Ramban explains there, this is a positive commandment; a \u201cthou shalt\u201d type of commandment. Ramban also points out that this commandment to say Birkat Hamazon, blessing after meals, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,43],"tags":[44],"class_list":["post-2981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rabbi_blog","category-weekly-drasha","tag-44"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainesynagogue.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainesynagogue.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainesynagogue.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainesynagogue.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainesynagogue.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2981"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainesynagogue.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2982,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainesynagogue.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2981\/revisions\/2982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainesynagogue.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainesynagogue.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainesynagogue.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}