וַהֲשִׁמֹּתִ֥י אֲנִ֖י אֶת־הָאָ֑רֶץ וְשָֽׁמְמ֤וּ עָלֶ֙יהָ֙ אֹֽיְבֵיכֶ֔ם הַיֹּשְׁבִ֖ים בָּֽהּ׃
Yo asolaré también la tierra, y se pasmarán de ella vuestros enemigos que en ella moran:
Kol Dodi Dofek
All the trembling and fear for the geographical integrity of the State of Israel, all the suggestions of our enemies which are directed at territorial concessions by the State of Israel, and all of the brazen demands of the Arabs for boundary changes are based on only one fact: the Jews have not populated the Negev and established hundreds of settlements there. Had the Negev been settled with hundreds of thousands of Jews, even Nasser would never have dreamed of the possibility of rending it from the State of Israel. Wide and unpopulated expanses constantly and perpetually endanger the tranquility of the State. The Torah has already emphasized this notion when it states, “You shall not be allowed to quickly destroy them, so that the wild animals will not over whelm you” (Exodus 23:29). The fact that the Jews have conquered the Negev is not enough, its settlement is what is important. The great sage Maimonides ruled that the first sanctification of the Land of Israel was not a lasting one because it was the result of a military conquest, which was annulled by the violent attack of an enemy whose army was vast and armaments numerous, who conquered the Land and took it from us. The second sanctification of the land, which was carried out through occupation and settlement by Divine sanction, through toil and sweat, was never annulled.8 The sanctity that is based on the settlement of the Land is, simply stated, for now and for all time! We are terribly guilty for this gross negligence. American Jewry could have certainly accelerated the process of colonization. Yet, why should we examine the faults of others and place the responsibility on the shoulders of nonobservant Jews? Let us admit our own faults and confess to our own derelictions. Among the Jews of America, Orthodox Jews bear the most blame for the slow pace of the conquest of the Land through settlement. It was for us, the loyalists of Judaism, to heed the call of the Beloved more acutely, and to respond to it immediately with extraordinary effort. In commenting on the verse “And I shall lay desolate the land” (Leviticus 26:32), Rashi states in the name of Midrash Torat Kohanim: “This is a boon to Israel, that its enemies will not find tranquility in its land when it shall be bereft of its true inhabitants.” The Land of Israel cannot be built by any other nation or people. Only the Jewish people have it within their power to settle the Land and make its desolation blossom. The Creator’s promise was turned into a wondrous reality in different periods in the annals of the history of the Land of Israel. We cannot forget even for a moment, that the Land of Israel, like a magnet, attracted the nations of the world — both Christians and Muslims. The Crusades in the Middle Ages were undertaken with the purpose of conquering the Land of Israel and populating it with Christians. All the toil of the Crusaders was for naught. They did not strike roots in the Land. Even the indigenous Muslims did not succeed in properly settling the Land. It remained a barren desert, as is said, “And your land shall become a desolation” (Leviticus 26:33). Even in modern times, when European nations, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, settled and populated entire continents, the Land of Israel remained desolate and in a more primitive state than its neighboring Arab lands: Egypt, Syria, and the Lebanon. Had the Land been settled by an industrious, successful, and cultured people, had the Land been properly populated and developed, our attachment to it would have been eroded by the course of events, and no Jewish foot would have trod upon it. Strangers would have eaten its bounty and its fruit, and our rights would have become null and void. However, the Land of Israel did not betray the Jewish people. It was loyal to them, awaiting redemption throughout the years. Logic dictates, then, that when the Jewish community was given the opportunity to return to its Land — which had withheld its treasures from foreigners and stored them for us — Orthodox Jews should have hastened to perform so great a mitzvah, to plunge with joy and enthusiasm into the very midst of this holy work: the building and settling of the Land. However, to our regret, we have not reacted that way. When the “desolate one,” which longingly waited for us from era to era, invited us to come and redeem her from her desolation, and when the Beloved who watched over the desolation for almost nineteen hundred years, and decreed that during this time no tree should grow, and no wells should fructify the Land, beckoned at the door of the Lover, we the Orthodox Jews — the Lover — did not bestir ourselves from our beds to open the door for our Beloved. If we had contiguous settlements throughout the Land from Eilat to Dan, our situation would be very different.