“On the other side of the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this Torah, saying…" Before delivering his final address, Moses our teacher had no need for Aristotle’s principles of rhetoric, which teach that a speech must begin with a compelling introduction to capture the audience’s attention and establish its purpose.

Instead, Moses opens with the central message he wishes to leave with the people of Israel as they stand on the threshold of entering the Land: “The Lord, our God, spoke to us at Horeb, saying: ‘You have stayed too long at this mountain. Turn and journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors, in the Arabah, the hill country, the Shephelah, the Negev, the coastal plain, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates. See, I have set the land before you. Go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.’"

The people had become deeply absorbed in the Torah they received at Sinai, yet they had overlooked its essential purpose. “Great is action," the Sages teach, and the true fulfillment of Torah and its commandments can only be achieved in the Land of Israel. That is why Moses’ charge is so direct: “Go in and possess the land."

Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim of Luntshitz, author of the classic Torah commentary Kli Yakar, written more than four centuries ago after recovering from a life-threatening illness, explains that the words, “You have stayed too long at this mountain," constitute the Torah’s first rebuke of those who rejected the Land of Israel. They had become comfortable at Mount Sinai, treating it as a permanent home instead of directing their hearts toward the Land, the unique place where the commandments can be fully observed.

Could such complacency be considered so serious a failing? Indeed it could. They had elevated life at Sinai into an ideal, forgetting that it was only a stage in their journey. Moses therefore commands them to turn their faces toward the Land and return to their true roots. According to Kli Yakar, the Land of Israel is the place from which the very substance of Adam was formed, echoing God's command to Abraham: “Go forth from your land, from your birthplace, and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you" (Genesis 12:1).

This, then, is the opening of Moses’ final address before his death. He continues his rebuke by recalling: “And we journeyed from Horeb and went through all that great and terrifying wilderness that you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites" (Deuteronomy 1:19).

Kli Yakar notes a striking detail. The verse does not say, “We turned and journeyed from Horeb," even though God had commanded, “Turn and journey." Why? Because, he explains, the people failed to do the most important part, they left Mount Horeb physically, but they never truly turned their hearts toward the Land. Moses had instructed them that after receiving the Torah, they were to direct themselves toward the place where its commandments could be lived, for study alone is not the ultimate goal; action is.

Instead, says Kli Yakar, another spirit accompanied them. Rather than fixing their gaze on the Land where the commandments would be fulfilled, they looked toward the wilderness and continued to harbor resentment toward the Land itself. This is reflected in the verse: “And we journeyed from Horeb and went through all that wilderness." Their attention remained fixed on the desert rather than on their destination, just as the spies later declared: “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt" (Numbers 14:4).

Only after the sin of the spies, when God imposed severe punishment upon the nation, did they finally change course. It is only then that Scripture states: “And we turned and journeyed" (Deuteronomy 2:1). Their turning came at last, but only after painful consequences had forced them to recognize what they had failed to understand from the beginning.

Commenting on the words, “Go in and possess the Land," Rashi explains that had Israel not sinned by becoming attached to life in the wilderness and rejecting the Land of Israel through the sin of the spies, there would have been no need for war at all. Had they trusted God's promise and refrained from sending spies, they would not even have required weapons.

Ramban, consistent with his understanding of the commandments to conquer and settle the Land, sees this passage as more than a promise, it is a direct commandment. The instruction, “Turn and journey," reminds the people of both their destination and the route they were meant to take. Only afterward does the Torah declare: “See, I have placed the land before you... Go in and possess the land." As Ramban explains, this is not merely a prediction of what will happen, but a mitzvah obligating Israel to conquer and settle the Land, a point he also develops in his commentary on Numbers (33:53).

The Malbim likewise outlines what should have been the swift and proper course from Mount Sinai to the conquest of the Land. First, Israel was not meant to linger in the wilderness but to proceed directly to the hill country of the Amorites. Second, they should not have taken the lengthy route around Edom and Moab, but instead traveled through Edom by the most direct path. Third, they were intended to inherit the full extent of the land promised to Abraham, including the territories of the Kenites, Kenizzites, and Kadmonites, identified with the lands of Edom, Moab, and Ammon. Moses' words, “and to all their neighbors," indicate that Israel's inheritance would extend even further, encompassing the Arabah and reaching as far as the great Euphrates River, fulfilling God's promise in Parashat Mishpatim: “I will set your borders from the Sea of Reeds to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the great river..."

Malbim adds an important distinction between these passages. In Parashat Mishpatim, God says He will not drive out the nations in a single year, lest the land become desolate before Israel has grown numerous enough to settle it. There, the gradual conquest, “little by little", is itself presented as a blessing, allowing the nation to expand naturally.

By contrast, the blessing implied in our portion is even greater. Here the expectation is that Israel would have multiplied so rapidly and possessed such strength that it could conquer and settle the entire promised land immediately, without the need for a gradual process. The very possibility of an instant inheritance reflects an extraordinary divine blessing.

Later in his address, Moses repeats God's instruction: “You have circled this mountain long enough; turn yourselves northward" (Deuteronomy 2:3). Kli Yakar sees these words as carrying significance far beyond their immediate context, describing them as a message that resonates throughout the generations.

According to his interpretation, Israel's circling around the mountain foreshadows the long centuries during which the Jewish people would wander around the Land of Israel without possessing it. Generation after generation would remain in exile until the fulfillment of the prophecy: “His feet shall stand on that day upon the Mount of Olives, which lies before Jerusalem on the east" (Zechariah 14:4). As long as Israel continues to wander "around and around" in exile, the instruction remains: “Turn northward."

The Sages understood this phrase as an allusion to discretion. When the time demands it, the Jew living in exile should conceal his prosperity rather than display it openly. According to Kli Yakar, this advice is particularly relevant because Esau, and, by extension, those who see themselves as his heirs, harbors deep jealousy toward Israel, believing that the Land and its blessings were taken from them. He extends this observation to Ishmael as well, describing both as sharing resentment toward Israel's inheritance.

For this reason, Kli Yakar connects the verse with Jacob's instruction to his sons during the famine: “Why do you show yourselves?" (Genesis 42:1). Rashi explains that Jacob warned them not to appear prosperous before the descendants of Esau and Ishmael, who would envy their success. Isaac's blessings and Jacob's inheritance remained a source of bitterness, making public displays of wealth both unwise and dangerous.

Kli Yakar concludes by lamenting that many Jews in exile have ignored this lesson. Those blessed with wealth often feel compelled to display it through luxurious clothing, grand homes, and visible signs of status, provoking jealousy among the surrounding nations. In his view, such ostentation has contributed to many of the hardships the Jewish people have endured throughout history. His closing appeal is therefore directed to the wise: let those who understand these lessons take them to heart.

In other words, Moses' message is clear: the children of Israel are to ascend to the Land of Israel without delay. Yet so long as exile remains their reality, they are to live with humility and modesty, avoiding unnecessary displays that draw attention to themselves. The Torah underscores the severity of rejecting the beloved Land by twice declaring that “God's anger flared up." First: “The Lord's anger flared up on that day, and He swore, saying: ‘Not one of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land that I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they did not wholly follow Me’" (Numbers 32:11). Shortly afterward, the Torah repeats: “The Lord's anger flared up against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years" (Numbers 32:14). God's anger intensified because Israel failed to move forward to conquer and settle the Land.

For many centuries of exile, however, there existed a well-known argument against returning to the Land as a national undertaking, based on the doctrine of the “Three Oaths": “I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem... that you not awaken or arouse love until it so desires" (Song of Songs 2:7). But once the binding force of those “Three Oaths" had come to an end, it follows, the author argues, that God's anger would instead be directed, God forbid, toward those who continued to cling to exile or feared ascending to the Land because of the dangers of travel. In this context, he cites Rabbeinu Chaim of Tosafot, who explains at the end of tractate Ketubot (110b) that in earlier generations, if a husband wished to immigrate to the Land of Israel and his wife refused because the roads were dangerous, she was not compelled to go, since the danger was considered genuine.

When, then, did the force of the “Three Oaths" cease? Rabbi Moshe Kalfon HaKohen of Djerba, known as Chacham Kalfon and regarded as a spiritual heir to Ezra the Scribe, maintained that this occurred more than a century ago. He points to a brief note submitted by Menachem Ussishkin to Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook during a memorial address delivered at Jerusalem's Hurva Synagogue following the fall of Joseph Trumpeldor and his comrades at the Battle of Tel Hai on the 7th of Iyar, 1920. The note reported that the San Remo Conference, involving the prime ministers of Britain, France, Italy, and Greece, together with representatives of Japan and Belgium, had formally recognized the Jewish people's right to return to the Land of Israel and establish their national home there.

From that moment, the call of this week's Torah portion took on renewed relevance: “You have stayed too long at this mountain. Turn and journey... See, I have set the land before you. Go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them." The same theme appears in the commentary of Rabbeinu Bachya ben Asher on the phrase, “to give to them and to their descendants after them." The Sages interpreted “to give to them" as referring to those who left Egypt, “their descendants" as those who returned from Babylonia, and “after them" as an allusion to the days of the Messiah. Moses' appeal, therefore, is not limited to his own generation but echoes throughout history. In the author's view, it speaks with particular urgency today: “You have stayed too long at this mountain. Turn and journey. See, I have placed the Land before you. Come and possess the Land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them."

Reflecting on the period before the Holocaust, when many Jewish leaders discouraged immigration to the Land of Israel for a variety of religious and practical reasons, the author cites Rabbi Yissachar Shlomo Teichtal's anguished reassessment in his 1942 work Em Habanim Semecha, written during the Holocaust. Teichtal lamented that those devoted to settling and building the Land had been dismissed as insignificant. Looking back, he concluded that this judgment had been a grave mistake. He placed heavy responsibility upon the leaders who had discouraged aliyah, writing that they could not simply “wash their hands" and declare, “We did not shed this blood."

Some also opposed the establishment of a Jewish state before the coming of redemption, arguing that such a step might lead Jews to neglect the proper observance of the commandments. Variations of this concern, the author notes, continue to be voiced today, rooted in the fear of acting before the proper time. Yet he asks whether fear can ever exempt a person from fulfilling the commandments. Have the Jewish people not already suffered enough because of the sin of the spies, the first of the tragedies associated with Tisha B'Av, a sin born of fear of battle and a preference for remaining outside the Land, content to remain at the mountain rather than continue the journey?

Others opposed cooperation with Zionist institutions, using this as another justification for remaining, as it were, “at the mountain." Among them was Rabbi Chaim Elazar Shapiro, author of Minchat Elazar of Munkatch, in the Carpathian region (today in Ukraine), who strongly opposed Zionism. In his view, the cooperation of Agudat Yisrael with the settlement efforts in the Land of Israel, as well as the establishment of Beit Yaakov schools, were serious mistakes. Most of the members of his community were later murdered in Auschwitz in 1944.

This stood in sharp contrast to Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook, who viewed the Balfour Declaration not as a danger, but as a means through which the divine promise could begin to be fulfilled. While Rabbi Shapiro described the declaration as “the harm caused by Baal Peor," Rabbi Kook recognized it as part of a historic process guided from Above.

In Letter 106, Rabbi Kook discusses the Torah of the Land of Israel and its unique significance. He explains that the spiritual decline and suffering found throughout the world are connected to the fact that “the Land of Israel is not publicized." He therefore called for increased writing and teaching about the holiness of the Land, as a way of repairing the sin of the spies, who spoke negatively about it. Rabbi Kook called upon the entire House of Israel to ascend to the Land, to participate in its rebuilding, and to prevent spiritual assimilation within exile. In the language of this week's portion: “You have stayed too long at this mountain; turn and journey for yourselves and come", come to the Land of Israel.

Had the Jewish people merited to hear “the voice of my beloved knocking" and to understand the significance of the Balfour Declaration, issued on the 17th of Marcheshvan 5678 (1917), as Rabbi Kook understood it during his speech in London, history might have taken a different course. Rabbi Kook emphasized that he had not come to thank Britain for the declaration, but rather to bless Britain for being granted the great privilege of serving as an instrument in the fulfillment of the divine promise.

Had the Jewish people merited to hear “the voice of my beloved knocking" once again, two years later, through the words of Rabbi Moshe Kalfon HaKohen of Djerba regarding the San Remo Conference and its recognition of the Jewish people's right to return to the Land of Israel and establish their state there, the message might have transformed the course of Jewish history. Had this call been heard and internalized by Jews in exile, by the nation as a whole, and by its leaders, perhaps many of the tragedies that befell the Jewish people during that terrible century, including the Holocaust, could have been prevented.

Blessed are we to live in a generation of the ingathering of exiles, a generation like that of those who were privileged this year to establish the community of Karmei Hanadiv. We live in a generation in which God's anger has subsided, as He has returned Zion to us, a reality that for many generations existed only as a dream. We live in a generation in which an even stronger and clearer voice is heard calling to our brothers and sisters who remain in exile: Rise up and ascend to Zion, for the time of mercy has arrived, and the appointed moment has come.

The author is the CEO of Tzifha International Real Estate