THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING
In this week’s Parsha, Vayishlach, HaShem tells Yaakov “The Land that I gave to Avraham and to Yitzchok I will give it to you and to your children after you I shall give the Land.” The redundancy jumps out at us. Why does HaShem indicate giving the Land to Yaakov and his children twice?
The Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh explains “if HaShem did not repeat the second giving, the implication would be that Yaakov will receive the Land for the sake of giving it to his children. With the additional giving, HaShem is telling Yaakov that He is giving it to Yaakov for himself and He is also giving it to Yaakov’s children.”
How are we to understand the words of the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh? With the single statement that HaShem is giving the Land to Yaakov then automatically the children of Yaakov will get it. Whenever a person takes ownership of an object or property it moves on to his children upon his death. Why should a second giving be necessary to Yaakov’s children?
The Torah teaches us in Parshas Behar regarding the laws of Yovel that one may not sell their property in perpetuity. In fact, if one does sell their property in perpe-tuity when Yovel comes, the property returns to the owner. The reason for this is because although every member of the Jewish people has their designated proper-ty in the Land of Israel, nevertheless, it is not theirs to sell. The Torah actually states this explicitly “The Land shall not be sold in perpetuity because the Land is Mine and you are only sojourners living with Me.”
Behold! The gift of the Land being given to Yaakov is not to become his in perpetuity but rather it is to become his with respect to allowing him to sojourn there with HaShem. We could therefore wonder if this right to sojourn with HaShem can be bequeathed to one’s children. Perhaps HaShem is al-lowing Yaakov to sojourn with Him but that does not entitle Yaakov’s children to sojourn.
The words of the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh bring light to this question. If HaShem would have told Yaakov “The Land that I gave to Avraham and to Yitzchok I will give it to you and to your children after you” without repeating “I shall give the Land”, the implication would be that Yaakov will receive the Land to give to his children just as one bequeaths their property to their heirs. There would be no need for an additional giving.
HaShem, therefore, added the second giving to Yaakov’s children to imply that Yaakov’s ownership does not naturally pass on to his children because Yaakov was not given the Land in perpetuity. There must be a constant giving of the Land every time a father passes the property on to his heirs. Every generation that receives the Land from their fathers is actually receiving a continuous gift from HaShem granting them entitlement to sojourn in His Land.
May we merit to see the day that HaShem gives the Land back to Yaakov’s children so that we may once again sojourn in the Land with Him.
Have a very safe and very wonderful Shabbos.
Paysach Diskind