Making the Holy Land Bloom – Template
April Dixon | July 2, 2026
The boy had heard stories. Swamps. Stones. Fields abandoned for generations.
The old kibbutzniks always talked like that. But that wasn’t what the boy saw.
He saw young trees to the horizon. He saw wheat swaying in the wind.
He saw irrigation water gleaming in the sun.
He saw blossoms. Blossoms. Everywhere, blossoms.
And here, a sapling his father had planted years before. It was taller than he was now.
He leaned back against its trunk and looked across the land.
Leviticus 26:32-33
I myself will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who live there will be appalled. I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins.
The final section of the Book of Leviticus is hard to read. It lays out in great and horrible detail the punishments that await the people of Israel if they forsake the laws of the Torah—the primary punishment being exile from the Promised Land. And many of our sages reflected on the painful verses above—these words that describe the ruin of the Holy Land.
Rashi, perhaps the greatest Jewish biblical commentator of them all, made an astonishing statement. He said: “This is a favorable message for Israel, implying that their enemies would find no ease in their land, which would be desolate before its new inhabitants.”
Many of the sages had trouble understanding how Rashi could put a positive spin on this verse. While it is true that no nation that conquered Israel was ever able to make the land bloom, that doesn’t ease the pain of thousands of years of exile, does it?
But the Rabbi of Prague, the great sage called Maharal, gave this explanation. Maharal taught: “Rashi is prompted by the Divine use of the first person—‘I Myself will lay waste the land.’ God is full of lovingkindness, and so, the implication is that when He Himself performs an action, it is always activated by kindness.”
The Jewish people have lived with—and lived by—this difficult explanation for centuries. We believe that God is compassionate and loving; that despite all of our suffering, He is a God of love. Our exile was painful, but our belief that we would return and rebuild never wavered.
Now, we have returned and have made the land bloom once again, fulfilling God’s promise and His prophecy. And this is a miracle that could only have been performed by a God of love. May we be worthy of His love.
