The nations cannot understand why the Jewish people should have a land. “If it is G‑d and scriptures and heaven that you are all about,” they claim, “then why do you want a piece of earth? Is G‑d in a place? Will you find G‑d in settling land, in governing a country, in defending it? Make up your mind: Is it heaven you want, or earth?”

Those words, perhaps, are never said. They are quiet words, engraved within the human psyche. And they are the bias behind all their contentions with us: We don’t belong here, on earth, where they belong, playing by their rules. Because G‑d is in the heavens, and the earth belongs to humankind.

But this is the mission of the Jewish people: For all to see that the same G‑d in heaven is here within the earth, within all the endeavors of humankind. For there is nothing else but Him.

Beginning with that specific, well-defined, very special piece of earth to which our destiny is tied.