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O ur portion of Ekev devotes much praise to the glories of the Land of Israel — its majestic topography, its luscious pro- duce, and its freely flowing milk and honey. In this commentary — heavily inspired by Rav Elchanan Samet's Studies of the Weekly Portions — I shall attempt to understand what it is that makes the Land of Israel so special. The Israelites are hardly enamored with the manna they receive in the desert. Again and again, they complain about the lack of meat and fish, about the scarcity of water and fruits. In Ekev, God describes the desert years as years of "hard- ships to test you," of "chastise- ment and training." The moral message of the inexhaustible manna was merely to teach the people that the ultimate source of food is God, "so that you may observe His com- mandments and fear Him." Indeed, the desert's difficulties are contrasted with future life in the Land of Israel, the Torah narrative praising the Promised Land's blessings. The wondrous descriptions depict a wide range of foods and natural resourc- es produced by the Earth — from bread and olive oil to copper mines — all of which require human ingenuity, input and energy to create a partnership with God to properly develop the gifts inher- ent in the land. After all, to properly irrigate the fields, rainwater must be collected and gathered through the underground springs; the making of bread requires 11 agricultural steps; oil must be carefully extracted from the olive trees by means of olive presses; and the copper must be pains- takingly quarried from the depths of the mountains. It is precisely this partnership between God and humanity that is critically necessary to develop — and ultimately perfect — the world which we have been given. It shouldn't surprise us that lush Egypt, representing the antithesis of the desert, is where agriculture had initially devel- oped — a development which made the land of the pharaohs the most com- manding power of the ancient world. Because the fertility of Egyptian land and the cultivation of its crops do not depend on rainfall but are effectively irrigated by the Nile's natural overflow, Egyptians did not need to turn to the heavens for rain. However, while Egyptian land may be easily cultivated, it remains a dry, desert valley, unlike Israel, a land flowing with milk and honey: milk derived from livestock grazing on fields of natural growing grass and honey from bees that thrive in areas blessed by a natural abundance of flora. It may be difficult to live only on milk and honey — but it is possible. And more important- ly: "The land you are crossing to occupy is a land of mountains and valleys, which can be irrigated only by rain. It is therefore a land constantly under the Lord your God's scrutiny; the eyes of the Lord your God are on it at all times, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year." (Deuteronomy 11:11, 12). Ancient Egypt had very little to offer in the God-human partnership. The rich, fertile soil of the "gift of the Nile" makes the agricultural process a relatively sim- ple one, its dependency on rain removed. Israel, abundant in its natural supply of resources, nevertheless, must rely heavily both on plentiful rainfall as well as human input for a successful agricul- tural crop. And because Israel must rely on God — the obvious source for rain — the Israelites must be worthy of God's grace by dint of their ethical and moral conduct, their fealty to God's laws. Ekev concludes with a call to sensitive fulfillment of God's laws as the key to our successful harvesting of the land's produce. Perhaps this is really why Israel is called the land "flowing with milk and honey"— only milk and honey can be garnered without destroying any form of life whatsoever — human, animal or plant. * Shlomo Riskin is chancellor of Ohr Torah Stone and chief rabbi of Efrat, Israel. Rabbi Shlomo Riskin spirituality » t o r a h p o r t i o n Parshat Ekev: Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25; Isaiah 49:14 -51:3. The Land Of The Land Of Milk & Honey Milk & Honey 2118220 August 25 • 2016 55