“On What Has the Land Been Lost?”
Chazal describe the Churban as “aveidas ha’aretz” — the loss of the land — following the language of Yirmiyahu HaNavi (9:11): “Is anybody so wise, as to understand this? To whom has Hashem’s mouth spoken, so that it can be related: Why is the land in ruins, laid waste like a wilderness, with none passing through?” When we examine this expression closely, it demands clarification. The land itself, after all, endures forever; it is only the people upon it who are lost from it. Why, then, is the Churban described specifically as the loss of the land?
Alongside this expression of “aveidas ha’aretz,” we find a parallel expression: “expulsion from the world.” Rashi (Bamidbar 22:11) notes that Balak said only “and I will drive him from the land” — he sought merely to dislodge Yisrael from his territory — while Bilam said “and I will drive him from the world” entirely, for he harbored a deeper hatred of Yisrael than Balak did. Similarly, the Ramban in Bereishis writes that when human beings sin to a high degree — as did the generation of the Mabul — the Borei Yisborach drives them from the world. Here, too, the expression demands explanation: Why is the loss described specifically in relation to the world, rather than simply in relation to the person himself, who was killed and perished?
The Purpose of Creation: Revealing Kedushah
To understand this, we must first grasp that the entire purpose of the creation of the world is to reveal kedushah. All of man’s avodah consists of revealing and expressing that kedushah in every dimension of his life in the world, and his deeds directly affect his capacity to reveal kedushah in the world.
When a person sins, chas v’shalom, his capacity to reveal kedushah in the world progressively diminishes, and the land — which was the very place where he could and was meant to reveal kedushah — is, little by little, lost to him. Thus, in the generation of the Mabul, when all flesh had corrupted itself, the Borei Yisborach declared that their degraded form was no longer fit to reveal and express kedushah in the world — and they were therefore lost from the world, for they had lost any capacity to express kedushah.
So too, the impure outlook of the wicked Bilam was fundamentally opposed to the basic premise that kedushah must be expressed in the world. His view held that the world is not the proper domain for the expression of kedushah, and that kedushah need not manifest itself within the realities of life. It was for this reason that he sought by every means to prevent Yisrael from being able to express kedushah in the world — and this, therefore, was the essence of his wicked scheme to drive them from the world.
Intellectual Knowledge Alone Is Not Enough
This is the deeper meaning of what the Gemara (Nedarim 81a) says regarding the question as to why Eretz Yisrael was destroyed: “This matter was asked of the Chachamim and of the Nevi’im, but they could not explain it — until Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself explained it, as it is written (Yirmiyahu, 9:12): ‘And Hashem said: because they have forsaken My Torah…’” That is to say, the abandonment of the path of Torah brings a person to the point where he can no longer reveal kedushah within the realities of his life — and on that account, the land, which is the place for the expression of kedushah, is lost to him, רח”ל.
When we examine ourselves honestly, we find that we struggle to perceive ruchniyus as something real. We tend to assume that kedushah belongs primarily to the realm of the intellect — to the attainment of ever-deeper and loftier understandings, or to knowledge of hidden and wondrous matters — and thereby fall into the error of thinking that kedushah, at its core, has no real connection to the practical world of action.
But the truth is otherwise: The essence of kedushah must express itself within the realities of our lives, and its entire significance lies in the life of deed and action. Only when kedushah finds expression in reality do we have any genuine contact and connection to it. So long as it remains purely a matter of intellectual comprehension, with no connection to lived reality, it is nothing more than abstract knowledge — without any true contact with a life of kedushah.
Reclaiming the Land
In the era of the Beis HaMikdash, people experienced ruach hakodesh; there was an expression of kedushah pervading every dimension of life — ruchniyus was tangible reality. But now we are bereft of this, and the primary deficiency is the inability to express kedushah in the world. Even if one possesses a great deal of Torah knowledge pertaining to kedushah, ultimately it finds no expression in reality; we do not perceive ruchniyus as something real, and so the core of kedushah is, in effect, completely absent. The land that was the place of kedushah’s revelation has been lost, and no longer expresses kedushah in the world.
Now, particularly during these days of aveilus and contemplation of aveidas ha’aretz, we are called upon with even greater urgency to try to restore ourselves to the land and to reveal kedushah in our lives — to perceive ruchniyus as real, and not merely as an abstract idea. We can work on this across a wide range of areas: through a proper relationship with the simple, everyday things in our lives — such as eating and drinking — as well as by treating even the smallest and most modest ruchniyus thought or utterance, whether expressed by a friend or even by ourselves, with genuine respect and regard, as something meaningful and truly real.