We have previously noted that the 7th and 8th blessings of the weekday Amidah are strategically placed. The 7th blessing, “Redemption,” is a reminder of the seven day cycle of the Sabbath (“a taste of the world to come”) and the sabbatical and jubilee years when “the Land will receive its rest” and “liberty will be proclaimed throughout the Land.”
The 8th blessing, “Healing,” follows. It refers to healing of soul and body, both personally and collectively. It is the 8th blessing because the brit milah, the covenantal ritual of circumcision, takesplace on the 8th day after birth. The covenant in question is the promise to Abraham that the Land will belong to him and his inhabitants forever.
The 9th blessing “Years” follows on the themes of redemption and healing.
Our ancestors were acutely aware of the environmental devastation that comes with war and exile. Because of the ecological fragility of the Land of Israel, together with the large population that was intended to live there, a breakdown of protective environmental measures would be, and was, catastrophic.
Examples of this are legion. I’ll mention just three. Anyone who has been to Jerusalem has noticed the terrace agriculture in the surrounding Judean hills. It was here that terrace agriculture was first developed in the Western world. Terracing allows for tremendous agricultural productivity in a mountainous area, but it is a high maintenance system. If the terrace walls aren’t tended, a heavy rain will break through them. This is much more devastating than a mere rainfall. Imagine the damage a dam collapse would do. As a result of our exile, the terraces weren’t maintained. It is estimated that an entire meter of topsoil was washed away by the 1800’s.
Where did it go? Much of it washed toward the Mediterranean. But there are only so many streams that pass through coastal sand dunes to empty into the sea. These were regularly maintained by our ancestors, but during the exile, they were allowed to fill with silt. The result was that the coastal plain (today, filled with millions of inhabitants) was filled with malarial swamps and virtually empty of people.
Finally, the biblical Land of Israel had verdant forests. By the time of the Zionist return, it was nearly denuded of trees. (Google “Palestine in the 1800’s” pictures, and count the trees, if you don’t believe me). The classic story of tree planting (“My ancestors planted for me, I am planting for my children”) only makes sense if it’s your land and you intend to stay there.
So the Land of Israel was as much in need of healing as the People of Israel.
And just to make the link perfectly clear, my friend and teacher Rabbi Henry Balser taught me that just as “Redemption” is 7, linked to Shabbat, and “Healing” was linked to brit milah on 8, “Years,” which represents the reunification of the Land with the People of the Land is linked to 9, which, as we all know from the Passover song: “Who knows nine? Nine are the months until birth.”
And rebirth.