Answers to Quora Queries (19 February, 2018, 4 Adar, 5778)
The Land of Israel is potentially very fertile.
The first "Green Line" was historically named after someone called "Green" responsible for an armistice line in one of the Arab-Israeli conflicts. The term came to connote the border line between Jewish and Arab settlements. It also has come to symbolize the border line between Jewish and Arab settlements. "Green" represents greenery.
The expression "land flowing with milk and honey" in the Bible is actually part of a threatened curse.
Deuteroneomy (NASB) 31:
20 For when I bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to their fathers, and they have eaten and are satisfied and become prosperous, then they will turn to other gods and serve them, and spurn Me and break My covenant. 21 Then it shall come about, when many evils and troubles have come upon them....
Commentators explain that realization of the promise entailed in the expression "flowing with milk and honey" depends on our actions.
See:
A Land Flowing With Milk and Honey. The health of the land depends on our responsible behavior.
BY RABBI YUVAL CHERLOW
https://www.myjewishlearning.com...
# Interestingly, Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky, one of the Torah leaders of the previous generation, was 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. #
Other verses speak of the blessings in the Land:
Deuteronomy (NASB) 8:
6 Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. 7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; 9 a land where you will eat food without scarcity, in which you will not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you.
These blessings apply to all the Promised land taken as a whole from the Nile to the Euphrates.
Genesis 15:
18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, 'To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.'
This does not mean that Israel has to go and conquer those lands tomorrow morning. If however, somehow or other, portions of the Promised regions do fall into our hands we should say "Thank you, very much!"
and make use of them!