The Land of Israel in the Bible and the End Times (12 February 2025, 14 Shevat, 5785).
Jewish History shows a pattern of settlement in the Land, Exile, Return and Re-settlement of the Land or constant attempts at it. So too, in our time the Jews are returning but yet must struggled to retain that which they obtain. If they would keep the Torah things would be easier but we do what we can.
The Land had been promised to the forefathers of the Hebrew People.
It was promised to Abraham.
Genesis (CTC) 12:
1 AND THE LORD SAID TO ABRAM, "GO FORTH FROM YOUR LAND AND FROM YOUR BIRTHPLACE AND FROM YOUR FATHER'S HOUSE, TO THE LAND THAT I WILL SHOW YOU.
2 AND I WILL MAKE YOU INTO A GREAT NATION, AND I WILL BLESS YOU, AND I WILL AGGRANDIZE YOUR NAME, AND [you shall] BE A BLESSING.
3 AND I WILL BLESS THOSE WHO BLESS YOU, AND THE ONE WHO CURSES YOU I WILL CURSE, AND ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH SHALL BE BLESSED IN YOU."
It was promised to the offspring of Abraham.
Genesis (CTC) 12:
7 AND THE LORD APPEARED TO ABRAM, AND HE SAID, "TO YOUR SEED I WILL GIVE THIS LAND," AND THERE HE BUILT AN ALTAR TO THE LORD, WHO HAD APPEARED TO HIM.
Genesis (CTC) 12:
8 AND HE SAID TO HIM, "I AM THE LORD, WHO BROUGHT YOU FORTH FROM UR OF THE CHALDEES, TO GIVE YOU THIS LAND TO INHERIT IT."
The Promised Land had definite borders.
Exodus (CTC) 23:
31 AND I WILL MAKE YOUR BOUNDARY FROM THE RED SEA TO THE SEA OF THE PHILISTINES, AND FROM THE DESERT TO THE RIVER, FOR I WILL DELIVER THE INHABITANTS OF THE LAND INTO YOUR HANDS, AND YOU SHALL DRIVE THEM OUT FROM BEFORE YOU.
The Promised Land had been Promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and to their descendants after therm.
Deuteronomy (CTC) 1:
7 TURN AND JOURNEY, AND COME TO THE MOUNTAIN OF THE AMORITES AND TO ALL ITS NEIGHBORING PLACES, IN THE PLAIN, ON THE MOUNTAIN, AND IN THE LOWLAND, AND IN THE SOUTH AND BY THE SEASHORE, THE LAND OF THE CANAANITES, AND THE LEBANON, UNTIL THE GREAT RIVER, THE EUPHRATES RIVER.
8 SEE, I HAVE SET THE LAND BEFORE YOU; COME AND POSSESS THE LAND WHICH THE LORD SWORE TO YOUR FOREFATHERS, TO ABRAHAM, TO ISAAC, AND TO JACOB, TO GIVE THEM AND THEIR DESCENDANTS AFTER THEM.
In the End Times the Promised Land was to expand even further than the previous delineated borders.
Deuteronomy (CTC) 19:
8 AND WHEN THE LORD, YOUR GOD, EXPANDS YOUR BOUNDARY, AS HE SWORE TO YOUR FOREFATHERS, AND HE GIVES YOU ALL THE LAND OF WHICH HE SPOKE TO GIVE TO YOUR FOREFATHERS;
9 IF YOU WILL KEEP ALL THIS COMMANDMENT TO PERFORM IT, WHICH I COMMAND YOU THIS DAY, TO LOVE THE LORD, YOUR GOD, AND TO WALK IN HIS WAYS ALL THE DAYS, YOU SHALL ADD THREE MORE CITIES FOR YOURSELF, IN ADDITION TO THESE THREE.
Genesis (CTC) 15:
18 ON THAT DAY, THE LORD FORMED A COVENANT WITH ABRAM, SAYING, "TO YOUR SEED I HAVE GIVEN THIS LAND, FROM THE RIVER OF EGYPT UNTIL THE GREAT RIVER, THE EUPHRATES RIVER.
19 THE KENITES, THE KENIZZITES, AND THE KADMONITES,
20 AND THE HITTITES AND THE PERIZZITES AND THE REPHAIM,
21 AND THE AMORITES AND THE CANAANITES AND THE GIRGASHITES AND THE JEBUSITES.
The Sages understood the above verse to indicate an expansion beyond the borders previously mentioned.
This is how they understood it:
18 ON THAT DAY, THE LORD FORMED A COVENANT WITH ABRAM, SAYING, "TO YOUR SEED I HAVE GIVEN THIS LAND, FROM THE RIVER OF EGYPT UNTIL THE GREAT RIVER, THE EUPHRATES RIVER.
The above borders are what they will receive at first. Unto this will be added:
19 THE KENITES, THE KENIZZITES, AND THE KADMONITES,
20 AND THE HITTITES AND THE PERIZZITES AND THE REPHAIM,
21 AND THE AMORITES AND THE CANAANITES AND THE GIRGASHITES AND THE JEBUSITES.
The Hatam Sofer (see RABBIS QUOTED) quoted the above verse (and others) and understood it to indicate that the Future Land of Israel shall reach to Western Europe and then stretch across the Atlantic Ocean.
See:
Predicted Hebrew Islands
https://hebrewnations.com/articles/rabbi/sofer.html
# The Hatam Sofer... wrote that all the Islands in the Great Sea up until the end of the Okeanos Sea [Atlantic Ocean] shall all belong to the Land of Israel, at all events they are part of the Lands of the Ten Nations [Promised to Abraham]... Levushei Mordecai heard from his teacher, who heard from the Hatam Softer, that the Land of England as well is part of the islands of the Holy Land...
One of the sources for the Hatam Sofer included the Talmud (Gittin 8a see Rashi) on the verse:
Numbers (TCT) 34: 6 THE WESTERN BORDER: IT SHALL BE FOR YOU THE GREAT [Mediterranean] SEA AND THE BORDER THIS SHALL BE YOUR WESTERN BORDER.
The above translation places as one of the borders “the Great [Mediterranean] Sea.” The word “Mediterranean” is not in the original text. The text says “the Great Sea.” This is understood to mean the Atlantic Ocean (see “Rabbi Yehudah, Gittin 8, Rashi and Tosefot"), which in Talmudic Literature is sometimes referred to as THE GREAT SEA. Different opinions are quoted.
Rabbi Yehudah is understood to say - according to Rashi (1040-1105 CE) the most revered commentator of them all:
The Border reaches unto: # .. ALL THE SEA PARALLEL TO THE LAND OF ISRAEL UNTIL THE ATLANTIC OCEAN IN THE WEST AT THE END OF THE WORLD... (after which the border) INCLUDING THE ISLES IN THE SEA... SPREADS OUT NORTH AND SOUTH PARALLEL TO THE LAND OF ISRAEL... # In other words through the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean where it spreads out and takes in the Land on the other side.
This is just one opinion out of several quoted BUT the Hatam Sofer appears to accept all the opinions only applying each one to a different time frame.
The early settlers of the USA seem to have intuitively understood this. They were often learned and deeply religious in their own way. We do not agree with all of their theology but they had insights of their own.
cf.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promised_Land
American colonialism
# Many European colonists saw America as the "Promised Land", representing a haven from religious conflicts and persecution. For instance, Puritan minister John Cotton's 1630 sermon God's Promise to His Plantation gave colonizers departing England to Massachusetts repeated references to the Exodus story, and later German immigrants sang: "America ... is a beautiful land that God promised to Abraham."
The “German immigrants” referred to here are those of the Great Migrations in the 1700s and 1800s. These were often descendants of Israelite separating themselves from their Gentiles neighbors and moving to what for them had an aspect of the Promised Land.
So too:
# In a sermon celebrating independence in 1783, Yale president Ezra Stiles implied Americans were chosen and delivered from bondage to a Promised Land: "the Lord shall have made his American Israel 'high above all nations which he hath made'," reflecting language from Deuteronomy of the promise.
Note:
We need to thank Mark Williams for the above findings. He encouraged us to pursue this line of inquiry we thought we had reached a dead end. It was Mark who wrote us several times and urged us to keep going and track down the sources.