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

LAND OF THE DEER

A heathen skeptic once scoffed at the claim made by the Sages that millions of Jews once lived in a part of Eretz Yisrael called Har Hamelech; he accused them of being liars because the area could not possibly hold so many people.

To this Rabbi Chanina responded with the description given by the Prophet Yirmiyahu of Eretz Yisrael as "the land of the deer." Why is it compared to a deer? When the skin of a deer is removed from its carcass it is impossible to once again have it envelop the deer's flesh, because it has contracted. In similar fashion, when Jews live in Eretz Yisrael the Land expands to absorb them but when they do not live in the Land it contracts.