Ishay Ribo just released a new album, Sof Chama Lavo. This is Ribo’s fifth studio album, released on the 10th anniversary of his first album. On this album there are some very solemn songs dealing with the myriad of challenges in Israel and for the Jewish people this past year. There is one happier song, Eretz Yisrael, that much happier. Worth a listen:

Listening to the lyrics I can admit that it is a bit too jingoistic for my taste, but in this moment it is working for me. As a people we are in pain. We are feeling a level of hate around the world that feels so misplaced. We are alone among the nations. In this context it seems like a good idea to enjoy a love song from the Jewish people to the Land of Israel. There he sings:

Land of Israel
Land of Israel
You are the most beautiful in the world
Of all the places
By far, everyone who has dealings with you
You have the sea and the desert, the future and the past
The Sea of Galilee and Hermon in white
Land of Israel, you are the most beautiful in the world

Aren’t I the violin to all your songs,
Your gates will again float, like Nicanor,
To all your watchers, you are a ray of light
Even when you’re in a minor key, you’re in my major.
Beloved by fathers and mothers,
Flowing with milk, which brings one to tears,
A song of praise to you.

Land of Israel,
You are the most beautiful in the world,
Of all the places,
By far, everyone who has dealings with you
Commandments that depend only on you,
The ingathering of exiles,
And what a taste you have in your fruits.
Land of Israel,
You are the most beautiful in the world.
You have the lowest sea in the world,
Yet you are still the closest to the heavens.
And no matter how much we praise you,
We haven’t said it all.

There is a lot to unpack here. But, for now I wanted to explore this depiction of Israel’s fecundity.

I was thinking about this when reading Nitzavim-Vayeilech, this week’s Torah portion. There we read:

Therefore, write down this poem and teach it to the people of Israel; put it in their mouths, in order that this poem may be My witness against the people of Israel. When I bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey that I promised on oath to their fathers, and they eat their fill and grow fat and turn to other gods and serve them, spurning Me and breaking My covenant, (Deuteronomy 31:19-20)

This is not the only time that God was hyping the Land of Israel as a “land flowing with milk and honey”. It is noteworthy that it is this abundance itself that leads to our growing fat and leaving God. For now I am curious about this image of the “land flowing with milk and honey”. What does it actually mean?

Indeed, Israel is referred to numerous times in the Bible as “a land flowing with milk and honey,” indicating its abundant fertility. The phrase can be understood as both a physical description of the land and a spiritual metaphor.

In the Book of Exodus (3:8), God promises to take the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt to a “good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” It being spacious is juxtaposed the land of Egypt being mitzrayim, which literally means “narrow places.” Slavery is constricted and oppressive, while living in freedom in Israel is wide and spacious. This poetic description of Israel’s “flowing with milk and honey” emphasizes the fertility of the soil and bounty that awaited the people. The reference to “milk” suggests that many livestock could find pasture there; the mention of “honey” suggests the vast farmland available—the bees had plenty of plants to draw nectar from. Perhaps the promise is of nourishing food, or perhaps the promise is for spiritual nourishment. Or perhaps the promise is for both.

But was ancient Israel literally a fertile land? Was there milk? Was ancient Israel melliferous? The biblical references to milk and honey are generally understood as goats’ milk and date honey, although there is archaeological evidence of a bee-keeping industry in ancient Israel as well. What? You never told me. It was not actually honey. That said, even if the land it not the best in the world on gross capacity to produce food, it is beautiful to us because it is the land of our freedom.

When we eat our apples and honey this Rosh HaShana we should all be blessed a much needed sweet New Year. Remember, be it bee honey or date honey, there is nothing as sweet as a freedom. May the melliferous land of Israel and its inhabitants be blessed with peace.