We pray daily for the return of all Jews to Eretz Yisrael. Is there really room in this country for so many people?

The same question was put to Rabbi Chanina by a heathen skeptic who scoffed at the claim made by the Sages that millions of Jews once lived in just a portion of the Holy Land that appeared to him too small to hold so many. Eretz Yisrael, explained the Sage, is compared by the Prophet Yirmiyahu 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. Similarly, when Jews live in Eretz Yisrael the land expands to absorb them, but when they are in exile it contracts.

The answer then is yes, there is room in Eretz Yisrael for every Jew.

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