A Daled Amos

Chazal teach that for every daled amos that a person walks in Eretz Yisroel he receives another mitzvah. 

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That works out very nicely for those that are in a position to walk the LAND.  But what of those that are forced by the circumstances of our exile to trod the unsanctified paths and byways of Chutz L’Aretz?

They are emotional hostages to the angst laden pintele daled amos secreted within their hearts.

And it tortures them something fierce.

In EmunahSpeak: Samayach B’Chelko, we said, in commenting on the famous Mishnah in Avos that: One who is samayach b’chelko may well be dissatisfied with the pain in his life, but he doesn’t allow that pain to take over and become the center of his life.  The pain can be pain, but it doesn’t take way from the joyousness inherent in a life in which everyday blessings are counted like pearls.   

While this is no doubt a five star prescription for insuring one’s emotional and mental stability in his dalliance with this world, the pintele daled amos that pulsates beneath the surface of our consciousness is off the reservation on this inyan and will have none of it.

It’s not exactly what one would call a team player.

In its rebellion against being placed in that part of the world where feet actually touch the ground, the pintele daled amos, the GPS of all Jews in ChutzL’Aretz, pines to float above it as is the case with the Holy Ones who walk the Land with their souls as opposed to their feet.

And sometimes, even the pygmies amongst are zoche to float a little.  Although it has long receded from the front end of my memory, thirty-five years hasn’t been quite enough for my pintele daled amos to let go of such an experience.

If you have ever felt a palpitation when reciting words in davening or benching that reference the Land or have emotionally succumbed to a passage in Tanach or words of Chazal that extols its virtues, then know as of a surety that your pintele daled amos was kicking away inside as a baby in the womb. 

It was trying to tell you something.

It was trying to tell you that it was lonely.  It was trying to tell you that it was tired of having to kick a tear out of you.  It was trying to tell you that it was tired of flying solo while you go about your business, satisfied with your lot as you should be, your emotional speed bumps, notwithstanding.  It was trying to tell you that it would suffer a lot less if it’s longing was replicated in yours.

In Divrei Hayomim II, the posuk says: My eyes and heart shall be there at all times. In addition to the posuk’s literal meaning in relation to the Land, maybe it can also be applied to our mitzvos.

If we get a mitzvah for every daled amos that we walk in the Land, maybe the flip side of the equation is also true.  Maybe every mitzvah we do is as if we walked a daled amos in Eretz Yisroel with every posuk, every blatt Gemora, every dollar of tzedaka, every chesed, and every sound of the shofar and shake of the lulav tracing such a path. 

We will be in sync with our pintele daled amos, and if we perform all of our mitzvos with the idea that we are traversing daled amos in the Land, we will also be fulfilling the posuk of My eyes and heart shall be there at all times.