In this week's parashah, Vaet'chanan, we read about the Holy Land as "Eretz zavat chalav u'dvash."  "A land flowing with milk and honey."

 

What does it mean for the land to be "flowing with milk and honey"?

 

We find this phrase 13 times in the entire Bible, 6 times within the Book of Deuteronomy.

 

This phrase, that may be familiar due to the wonderful melody to these words written by Eliyahu Gamliel,  tells about some of the choice products of the Land of Israel.  In the ancient world, the Jewish people living in the Holy Land cultivated honey that they produced largely from the syrup of native fruits.  They collected milk mostly from goats but also from cows.

 

We might think that the Land of Israel is not a friendly place for the cultivation of these and other products.  With its dry season and high temperatures, we might think it is not a productive land. In the modern world, Israeli farmers employ some of the latest in irrigation and agricultural technology that make farms produce well despite the climate.  In the ancient world the Land of Israel was already known by other peoples as a place full of flora and fauna as well as a place that was full of significant agricultural activity.

 

When we speak of the Holy Land as "flowing with milk and honey", we are praising its inherent qualities but also its promise to the people who have settled there.  After all, when the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness, a group of them suggested that Egypt had been a better place to live, that Egypt was a "land of milk and honey."  Though there might have been milk and honey in Egypt, the Israelites did not share in the sweetness of those choice products.  Rather, God reserved those things for them when they would enter, settle, and cultivate the Holy Land, and they they would benefit from the milk and honey that they could harvest, collect, and enjoy themselves with God's blessings.