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

Yitzchak -
Fulfillment of a Prophecy

When Yaakov returned to Eretz Yisrael after being in the home of Lavan for twenty years, he first settled just outside of Shechem. This was the same area which his grandfather Avraham had reached when Hashem appeared to him and informed him that this was the land which He would give to his posterity.

Avraham built an altar there in gratitude to Heaven for the tidings that he would be blessed with children and with a land. It was also the place where Avraham prayed on behalf of Yaakov's children who would wage a war against the people of Shechem who had abducted their sister Dinah.

Now Yaakov, who already represented the fulfillment of his grandfather's prophecy about posterity and land, was setting the stage for an answer to Avraham's prayers for the triumph of his great grandsons over their Shechemite enemies.