Living Outside the Borders of the Land of Israel
Question
Shalom, honored Rabbi,
I would like to ask regarding the definition of the Land of Israel in our times,
since we rule that the first sanctification sanctified the land for its time
but did not sanctify it for the future, whereas the second sanctification sanctified it for its time
and sanctified it for the future. If so, then someone who lives in places outside the border, such as Ofakim and Be’er Sheva, is not considered as living in the Land of Israel and loses everything said about one who dwells in Eretz Yisrael, and becomes like one who has no God? Yet there are communities of God-fearing people there?
Answer
Shalom u’vrachah.
There is no opinion that Ofakim and Be’er Sheva are not within the borders of the Land of Israel.
There are also communities of God-fearing and upright people outside the Land of Israel, but they do not have the special virtue of the Land of Israel.
“Like one who has no God” is not to be understood literally, since for thousands of years the overwhelming majority of the Jewish people lived outside the Land of Israel.
