Do not copy the doings of the land of Egypt": Rabbi Hiya opened, "That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it." (Job 38:13) We have learned that in the future, G‑d will cleanse His land [Israel] from all the defilement of the idolatrous nations that desecrated it [through their idolatry and wicked deeds], just as one takes hold of a garment and shakes out all the filth from it, All those wicked who are buried in the Holy Land, will be cast them out and the Holy Land will be purified from the Other Side [This refers to the cleansing the malchut of Holiness called the Holy Land from the attachment of the Other Side]. It was is as if She was sustaining the other ministers of the nations, from whom She was defiled, by their attachment to Her that was required in order to guide them. And He will cleanse Her and cast them out.
Rabbi Shimon was cleansing the marketplaces of Tiberias [which was built by Herod Antipas on the site of an ancient graveyard, and Rabbi Shimon responded to the request of the Jews living there to make the town ritually pure]. He caused all the bones of the dead to come to the surface, and cleansed the land. We have learned that it is written, "But when you entered, you defiled My land." (Jeremiah 2:7) Rabbi Yehuda said: Fortunate is the portion of he who deserves during his lifetime to make his dwelling in the Holy Land. All who merit it will cause the dew of the heaven above to continue to descend upon the earth so all who deserve the Holy Land in this lifetime will later deserve the higher Holy Land [the elevation of the soul in the secret of Feminine Waters to yesod of Nukva]
But the verse continues regarding all those who did not merit to live in Israel during their lifetime and are brought there later to be buried, it is written, "And they made My heritage an abomination". His spirit expired under another, strange dominion and his body came under the dominion of the Holy Land, so he made, so to speak, the sacred profane and the profane sacred. And all those who merit that their souls expire in the Holy Land will have their sins forgiven and will merit to be bound under the wings of the Shechinah [yesod of malchut], as it is written, "And the land will cause forgiveness for His people." (Deut. 32:43) Moreover, if he merits a long life, he will merit to have the Divine Spirit drawn upon him. Those who dwell under another dominion will have drawn upon them a foreign spirit [from Other Side].
We have learned that when Rav Hamnuna Saba (the elder) ascended there, twelve students from his Yeshiva accompanied him. He said to them: If I go this way, it is not for my own sake that I do so but to return the pledge to its owner. We learn from this that all those who did not merit this [to live in Israel] during their lifetime, return the Master's pledge to another.
Rabbi Yitzhak said: Because of this, whoever brings into the [Holy] Land any of the evil forces [of the Other Side like witchcraft or black magic] or draws them down by his wicked acts, he defiles the land. Woe is to him [to his body], woe to his soul, as the Holy Land [the Shechinah] will not receive him [his spirit] after that. Of him, it is written, "The sinners will be consumed out of the earth" (Psalms 104:35) in this world and in the World to Come. Then, "the wicked will be no more" during the resurrection of the dead. Then "Bless you G‑d, my soul, Haleluyah".
BeRahamim LeHayyim: If the above is true, why are some of us still living in exile?! The Holy Land is one world higher—we in exile are in the World of Asiya, while the Holy Land is of the World of Yetzira. Even those who spend Yom Kippur on the Tel Aviv beach are "higher" than us pouring out our souls in the Diaspora. But, perhaps, the Holy Land is a "spiritual place." So the major Kabbalist R. Avraham Azulai posited. Then, the attachment of our soul to this place would not require mere physical presence. If we never forget Jerusalem, and keep it by our right hand always, then maybe we would receive the flow as described above. This is not to in anyway discourage aliyah. Rather, for those of us in exile, to sharpen our focus on the Holy Land perhaps can only inure to our spiritual benefit.
Bracketed annotations from Metok Midevash and Sulam commentaries
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