Rabbi Roodyn

יא) אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּעְתִּי בְאַפִּי אִם יְבֹאוּן אֶל מְנוּחָתִי:

So that I swore in my wrath: ‘They shall not enter into my rest’.

Rashi notes that the word מנוחתי, ‘My rest’ is a reference to the Land of Israel and Yerushalayim. He bases this on a pasuk later on in Tehillim 132:14 that says

זֹאת מְנוּחָתִי עֲדֵי עַד פֹּה אֵשֵׁב כִּי אִוִּתִיהָ: This is my resting place to the end of time. Here will I dwell for I have desired it.

The Malbim there says that this resting place is unlike one who pauses for a rest or respite on a long journey. This resting place is the permanent location of Hashem’s dwelling place in this world. The Medrash tells us that Hashem looked at all the countries in the world and could not find anything as suitable for Him and us as the Land of Israel.

The relationship between Hashem, the Jewish people and the land of Israel is one that has been intertwined ever since Hashem told Avraham to leave his birthplace to go to Eretz Yisrael. It is a unique relationship that has no parallel among the nations of the world which perhaps explains why so many people are unable to understand it.

Eretz Yisrael is called מונחה, my resting place just as Shabbos is day of מנוחה. The idea behind being at rest is living with the mind-set of ‘where I am is where I need to be and I don’t need to go anywhere else’. It is accompanied with a sense of satisfaction and comfort of having arrived. Just as on Shabbos we are meant to feel at peace and at rest, living with a sense of ‘being at home’ So too in Eretz Yisrael we are meant to feel a similar sense of harmony and tranquillity that one can only feel when they are ‘at home’.

Eretz Yisrael is not just our ancestral homeland, it is simply ‘home’.