Selections from classical Torah sources
which express the special relationship between
the People of Israel and Eretz Yisrael

LAND OF MILK AND HONEY

When he once visited Bnei Brak the Talmudic Sage Rami bar Yechezkel saw goats eating beneath a fig tree. Honey oozed from the ripe figs, milk dripped from the goats, and the two combined into one flowing stream.

This is the meaning, he exclaimed, of "a land flowing with milk and honey!"

Maharsha points out that the surface understanding of this tribute to Eretz Yisrael (Shmos 3:8; 13:5) is that it is a graphic description of the extraordinary bounty overflowing with wholesome and tasty natural resources. But then the Torah should have written "flowing with milk and flowing with honey." By using the term "flowing" only once it signaled that these two elements combined into a single flow. This became demonstratively clear to the sage when he saw how they actually blended.

Perhaps the significance of his discovery is that not only is Eretz Yisrael blessed with wholesome and tasty natural resources, but that these two seemingly disparate dimensions of food are naturally and perfectly blended for the health and enjoyment of the inhabitants of the land "flowing with milk and honey."