The History of Eretz Israel - Eretz Israel and Yaacov Avinu

We now turn to the last of our forefathers as we continue our journey through the history of the land of Israel.

Yaacov went out of Israel, but it was not out of his choice, rather because he had to flee from his brother Esav.

On his way out of the land, he got his famous dream in which he saw “a ladder set up on the ground and its top reached to heaven; and behold, angels of God were ascending and descending upon it.” (Bereishit 28:12). Rashi explains ascending and descending - Ascending first and afterwards descending. The angels who escorted him in the [Holy] Land do not go outside the Land, and they ascended to heaven, and the angels of outside the Holy Land descended to escort him.[From Gen. Rabbah 68:12]. From his dream we saw, once again, the special holiness of the land of Israel

Once he had 11 sons, he was ordered by God: “Now, arise, go forth from this land and return to the land of your birth.” (31:13)

In the Zohar, it says that when Yaacov returned to Israel, he had an even greater level than when he left. I heard from a Rav that the reason for that was that he came back with his 11 sons, as a Tsibur, a collective, not alone, as a yahid. This is a much greater level of aliyah!

Yakov then went to Schem and he bought a peice of land. With this kinyan, there is a proof for generations that we a have double claims to these places: Schem, Maarat Hamachpela as we saw with Avraham, and the Beit Hamikdash which David will eventually buy.

There was, afterwards, another famine, and Yakov had to go to Egypt there, finding Yossef there. Through this descent the promise of brit ben habeitarim given to Avraham – that we will be foreigners in a land which is not ours, was becoming a reality. In the torah, God tells Yacov not to worry since he will be buried in Israel. From this, we see that Yacov was worried not to be buried in Israel. God promised him his sons will return to Israel.

Right before his death, one of his last wishes was to be buried in Israel. He also had an influence on Yossef who also ended up being buried in Israel.
From these things we see the importance of being buried in Israel. The Gemara in Ktuvot says that those who are buried in Israel are as if they are buried under the sanctuary. It is also said that those who are buried in Israel are alive during their deaths – an obviously positive reference (even if difficult to understand precisely). There has been a minhag for generations to burry people with some land from Israel, once again showing the importance and holiness of this land even to this death.

Here, I want to add a little note: I heard a few people say that since it is so important to be buried in Israel, they will want to be buried there when they died. This is praiseworthy. However, as Jews living in a special generation of rebirth, our goal should not simply be to be buried in Israel, to die in Israel, but rather to live in Israel. Eretz Israel is called the land of the life, and it is by living in Israel that we can truly integrate the holiness of the land into our being, not simply by being buried there.