For the week ending 19 May 2012 / 26 Iyyar 5772
The First Land
Eretz Yisrael was the first land to be created by G-d.
Bereishet, the first word of the Torah describing the beginning of the world, is explained in the midrash as meaning that for the sake of reishet a title for the Jewish People was the entire world created. It then follows that the land, which was to be the home of the nation for whom the world was created, should be the first to be created.