Dvar Torah for Parshat Ekev

Based on Likutey Halakhot, Hilkhot Birkhot HaPeirot 2:1

Arguably the most distinguishing feature of the Jewish people is = their inherent holiness (kedushah). Since we are holy, it follows = that all our nourishment should be holy. And since all the produce of = Eretz Yisroel (the Land of Israel) is holy we should eat nothing = but that which comes from there. However, not all of us are always in = Eretz Yisroel. What can we do to draw our nourishment from the = Holy Land, to invest our food with its special kedushah?

The problem is compounded by the fact that because of our holiness we = must not contaminate ourselves with UN-holy food, the produce not of = Eretz Yisroel. Again: what do we do to make our food befit our = status?

Happily, the solution is simple: to make a b'rakha (blessing) = before eating. Whenever we bless and thank God we transform the place we = are located at to a piece of Eretz Yisroel. For that which makes = the Holy Land inherently holy is that it proclaims God's rulership over = the world. Once upon a time God wanted the Canaanite nations to live = there and so He gave them The Land. When He wanted the Jews to live in = Eretz Yisroel, God dispossessed the Canaanites and gave it to us, = the holy Jews.

Anything, any time, any place that proclaims that God created the = world and can do with it as He likes is akin to Eretz Yisroel. = When you take that delicious piece of fruit in your hand (the one you = write with) and say the blessing carefully, you're turning the place = where the fruit grew into Eretz Yisroel. Voila! the piece of = fruit is now produce of the Holy Land. It's not magic. It's the = realization of potential.

This can help us to better understand the resolution of a = contradiction that the Talmud deals with (Berakhot 35a). One = verse says, "The world, and everything in it, belongs to God" (Psalms = 24:1). However, "....the land He gave to mankind" (ibid., = 115:16). Is it His or ours? The Talmud responds: before the blessing [on = food] the world is His. Afterwards it is ours. Rashi, in his commentary = to Psalms, writes that the word ha'eretz used in Psalms 24 refers = to Eretz Yisroel and all the other countries of world, as = well. However, in Psalm 115 Rashi takes the same word, ha'eretz, = to mean what it usually does, Eretz Yisroel.

Thus, with each b'rakha you make you proclaim again and again = that God is the Creator and your location becomes more and more Eretz = Yisroel-like. With that you protect yourself from contamination and = are nourished with delicious holiness. Ess gezundter heit = (b'teiavon)!

Agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!