Though the heavens remain under the confines of God, He bestowed the earth to man in order to spread His holy name. Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk explains beautifully: “the land was given to man to raise it up to the lofty level of the heavens.” This is especially true in the Land of Israel. The bible warns that there is a higher standard for one’s behavior in the Land of Israel, as it says in Leviticus 26-28: “Ye therefore shall keep My statutes and Mine ordinances, and shall not do any of these abominations… that the land vomit not you out also, when ye defile it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.” Tens of thousands of Holocaust survivors are living in abject poverty and loneliness in Israel. It is our responsibility to help those who suffered so much at the beginning of their lives to live out the end of their days with the knowledge that there are good people, Jews and Christians, in the world who care and remember them.
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