“And you shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety.” (Vayikra 25:18)

There is a famous parable told about a man who was looking for an apartment to rent. An agent showed him an appealing apartment for a reasonable price, he signed the contract and moved in. As he was unpacking his belongings, the next door neighbor knocked on the door and demanded to know, “What are you doing here?” He responded, “What do you mean? I just rented this apartment!” To which the neighbor responded, “I really feel sorry for you because this apartment belongs to me and I have not rented it to anyone. This is my second apartment, and as you can see,” as he opened the closet door, “I have my possessions here. In fact, I am planning to annex it to my apartment next week!” The renter was in disbelief. “That can’t be! I rented it from a reliable realtor. This is not your apartment!” To which the neighbor says, “So prove it isn’t mine!” As the decibel levels rose, a crowd gathered to watch the spectacle. Most of the people did indeed remember the neighbor using the apartment occasionally and therefore sided with him. Suddenly a limousine pulled up and an obvious wealthy individual came out and asked, “What is all this ruckus?” The renter explained the quarrel to him, and the wealthy man looked at the neighbor and roared, “How dare you! I was benevolent enough to let you use my property without charge, and then you try to steal it from someone to whom I rented it to?!” The tycoon then proceeded to show documents which proved that he was the owner of this apartment, thereby resolving the quarrel.

I am acquainted with a family of traditionally religious people who have been living in this country since their grandparents migrated about a century ago. When I first met them, their observance of Yiddishkeit was rather symbolic. It seems to me that their last decade of interactions with religious people has brought their appreciation of their heritage to a new level (and with the help of G-d it should continue to grow). The matriarch of the family recently passed away and I went to the shiva home. I asked the family where they lived when they came to Israel and in the course of our conversation they told me something which excited me. Their family lived in a home in the area known as “Sheikh Jarrah” and after the War of Independence they lost their home and had to start over. I asked them, “Do you have documentation showing your ownership of the property” They did, and they put a lawyer on the case. Just recently they were awarded ownership of their property!

The first story is used as a parable to explain that as long as Jews serve Hashem properly, they will be able to prosper and live peacefully in our holy land. However, situations might arise that force them to leave, resulting in others taking over the land and claiming it to be theirs. The Nations of the world could be up in arms trying to figure out who the real owner is. I believe that there is a sign from Heaven which shows clearly our natural claim on the land: All of the nations around us who have at least as many natural resources as we do, yet still do not hold a candle to the advancements of our holy land.

To me it is obvious that the growing strength of the country has to do with the growing numbers of people who abide by the Torah and its values. This concept is attached to the verse “…and you shall dwell in the land in safety.”

These acquaintances of mine, simultaneously with strengthening their commitment to Torah, regained control over their property. This concept is not only relevant to the physical ground, but also to our prosperity in our land.

As we read about shemita in the Parsha, and we think about the past year of shemita, there are those who say that possibly by the next shemita under natural conditions the majority of Jews will be here in Israel (according to statistics already 47-49% of Jews in the world live here), and possibly the majority of them will be shemita observant (According to Keren Hashvi’is, this was the first year that over 50% of the farmers in Israel kept shemita without the leniencies they used in the past). May we merit in our times to secure our land by increasing our service of Hashem.