Vayeilech: A Land Flowing with Milk and Honey
Original author - Rabbi Akiva Wolff, edited by the GrowTorah Summer Inchworms 2021 and Shoshi Ehrenreich
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Eretz Yisrael is well-known as “a land flowing with milk and honey,”—“eretz zavat chalav u’dvash”—and one of the many references to the phrase appears in our parsha this week, Parshat Vayeilech.[1] This description immediately conjures up a picture of a rich, fertile, and desirable land, but is also poetic and somewhat obscure. What milk and what honey? What does it mean for the land to flow with them?
In our parsha, “chalav u’dvash” is mentioned in a negative context: “For when I shall have brought them into the land of which I swore to their fathers, one flowing with chalav u’dvash; and they have eaten and filled themselves and grown fat; then they will turn to other gods, and serve them, and provoke me and break my covenant.” [2] This verse is critical in framing our understanding—the material abundance of “eretz zavat chalav u’dvash,” which is such a blessing, can also lead to forgetting the Creator who provided it.
The Talmud interprets the words “zavat chalav u’dvash,” as “milk that flows from the goats’ [udders], and honey that flows from the dates and the figs.”[3]
Focusing especially on the goats, we understand that, for a pastoral people, this indeed must have been an inviting description of the land. Goats were a source of meat as well as milk, a reflection of wealth, and very prolific.
However, the goat milk in question also draws attention to the surprising fact that in the land of milk and honey, the Jewish Sages later instituted a ban on the raising of small livestock (goats and sheep), at least in the settled areas.[4]
Rashi explains that the reason for the ban against raising sheep and goats in Eretz Yisrael was due to the mitzvah of yishuv ha’aretz. While literally referring to settling the Land, here it extends to the importance of living there in a way that will sustain Jewish existence on the Land for an unlimited time. Although very profitable for the owner, sheep and goats are especially destructive to fields and gardens as well as other green areas. [5]
Clearly, in their considerations for making the ban on raising sheep and goats in the land of Israel, the Sages were faced with a dilemma. On one hand, they needed to consider the economic benefits to those who raised sheep and goats. On the other hand, they needed to consider the environmental cost and the injury to the farmers whose crops were being damaged. The Sages, in prohibiting the raising of these small livestock, chose what today might be called the “sustainable” path. They ruled against inappropriate development that yielded a quick profit for some but damages others, and also caused extensive long-term ecological damage. They determined that this was clearly not the kind of responsible development demanded by the concept of yishuv ha’aretz.
Unfortunately, one does not need to look very far today to find examples of irresponsible development in the land of Israel (or the world). One example is the choice to develop an extensive automobile-based transportation system. This choice certainly contributes to Israel’s considerable air pollution issues.[6] Weighing the harm caused by automobiles, including long-term ecological damage, against the short-term benefits to those who benefit, it would appear that an automobile-based transportation system does not fit well with yishuv ha’aretz.[6] Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky, one of the Torah leaders of the previous generation, was even quoted as saying that had there been a Sanhedrin (Religious High Court) in his day, they may well have forbidden the use of private automobiles in Israel.[7]
In this way, the milk and honey of the phrase can inspire us with reference both to the prosperity of the land and to the limits and safeguarding of that prosperity. There are still other interpretations of the expression “flowing with milk and honey” that merit our consideration. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch[8] in his commentary on the expression “land flowing with milk and honey,” focuses on the meaning of “zavat” and writes:
It is very characteristic that the abundance of produce by “zov” only occurs in reference to Eretz Yisrael…In Tanach, the word zov never means overflowing. It occurs mainly to describe a human pathological condition, and otherwise as a flowing forth caused by miraculous power… “Eretz zavas…” does not seem to describe a land that develops the abundance in accordance with its natural fertility, but a land that only does this under special conditions. Palestine is a hard land…which can only blossom and flourish ‘under the continuous special care of G-d for it, from one end of the year to the other.’ When it gets water, it blossoms luxuriously. But it only gets the water from above. It is a land that makes it necessary for its inhabitants to be good.[9]
Rav Hirsch’s interpretation adds yet another layer. The land of Israel flows with milk and honey, but miraculously—dependent on the rainfall, which comes according to our actions. When our actions are not proper, then the land will no longer tolerate us. Inside Israel and out, our appreciation for the land and its prosperity must go hand in hand with long-term sustainability, reliance on Hashem, and correct actions taken towards Hashem and each other.
Suggested Action:
Examine your actions, and try to act more sustainably. For example, try to minimize our use of unsustainable modes of transportation, such as automobiles, and switch to walking, bicycling, and using public transportation as much as possible.
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Notes:
[1] This expression appears 16 times in the Torah and an additional 15 times in the other Scriptures.
[2] Devarim 31:20. (Translation by the author.)
[3] Ketubot 111b, s.v. zavat chalav u’dvash (third line from the bottom).
[4] Mishna Baba Kama 7:7. It is interesting to note that there is a disagreement over whether the ban on the raising of sheep and goats in the settled parts of the land of Israel still stands. Amongst those who take the position that the ban is still in effect are the late Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook – first Chief Rabbi of Israel (1906); Rabbi S. Wosner (Shut Shevet Levi chapter 4, siman 227); “Kaftur v’Perach” chapter 10; and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. Those ruling that the ban is no longer in affect include the Shulchan Aruch and the late Rabbi Tzvi Pesach Frank, the former rabbi of Jerusalem (from Nachum Rakover, Ichut HaSviva, Jerusalem, 1993).
[5] See, for example, Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Bava Batra p. 36a and Rashi there about goats devouring other people’s barley.
[7] See Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky (1899-1985), Pininei Rabbeinu HaKahillat Yaakov, p. 106.
[8] Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888) was the intellectual founder of the Torah im Derech Eretz school of contemporary Orthodox Judaism.
[9]Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, The Pentateuch – Translation and Commentary, (Judaica Press, Gateshead, 1982). In this quote, Rabbi Hirsch is commenting specifically on the verse Exodus 3:8.
