[Avodah] Borders of Eretz Yisrael - Rashi

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, July 5, 2007 9:53 am, Rabbi Ari Enkin wrote:
: On Bamidbar 34:6
...
: RASHI-
: The western border And what was the western border?
: [It shall be for you] the Great Sea As a boundary. and the border. The
: islands in the sea are also included in the border. These islands are
: called isles in old French. — [Gittin 8a]

: COULD THIS MEAN THAT CYPRUS MAY BE CONSIDERED ERETZ YISRAEL?

Yes. In fact, I once had the honor of giving a chumash shiur where one
of the attendee's father had the experience of making it as far as
Cyprus but didn't live to see Israel. IIRC, his experiences in Europe
left him in very poor health.

And it was of great comfort to this man to think that leshitas Rashi,
his father did make it to Eretz Yisrael in this sense of the term.

Rashi's old French reference seems to refer to the Greek Islands, not
just Cyprus. I would think Sicily and even Sardinia and Corsica too.

Tir'u baTov!
-mi

-- 
Micha Berger             Spirituality is like a bird: if you tighten
micha at aishdas.org        your grip on it, it chokes; slacken your grip,
http://www.aishdas.org   and it flies away.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            - Rav Yisrael Salanter