In his introduction to the Book of Shmot, the Ramban writes that the topic of the book is the Egyptian exile and the redemption of Israel from that exile. That redemption would not be completed until the Jewish nation returned to the relationship that had existed before the exile between G-d and Israel s forefathers, when the Divine presence would once again dwell among them as it did with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This, writes the Ramban, was achieved only with the inauguration of the Tabernacle after the Torah was transmitted to Israel at Sinai.
Once the Jewish People was fully established in the desert as the bearer of the Divine presence, no land other than the Land of Israel, writes the Ramban (Ha emuna V habitachon ch.18), was appropriate to them. The conquest of the Land of Israel began only after the Torah was given at Sinai and the Tabernacle was built because the conquest of the Land by the Nation of Israel is the assertion of the sovereignty of the Torah, the life-force of the Jewish People throughout all generations, over the land which itself is suited only to what the Ramban calls the rule of the Torah and will not be governed by nations unworthy of it.
Now, as then, the reassertion of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel is the return of the Torah to its natural place, a place where the Torah can flourish and the Divine presence which did not abandon the Jewish People even in exile will once again find full expression.
Once the Jewish People was fully established in the desert as the bearer of the Divine presence, no land other than the Land of Israel, writes the Ramban (Ha emuna V habitachon ch.18), was appropriate to them. The conquest of the Land of Israel began only after the Torah was given at Sinai and the Tabernacle was built because the conquest of the Land by the Nation of Israel is the assertion of the sovereignty of the Torah, the life-force of the Jewish People throughout all generations, over the land which itself is suited only to what the Ramban calls the rule of the Torah and will not be governed by nations unworthy of it.
Now, as then, the reassertion of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel is the return of the Torah to its natural place, a place where the Torah can flourish and the Divine presence which did not abandon the Jewish People even in exile will once again find full expression.
