The Bread of the Land

At first the Bas Ayin's family found it hard to adjust to the climate and harsh conditions of Eretz Yisroel, but he did his best to help them accept the hardships with love. The Rebbetzin complained about the flat, dry pitas, because she was unused to baking with the coarse flour she had to grind by hand. The Avritcher Rav reacted in the opposite way. He was delighted to eat such bread and would repeat again and again, with happiness, the pasuk that speaks of eating the bread of the Land. He would break the bread and joyfully share it with everyone around him. His household and followers later testified that they had never eaten bread so tasty as those pitas that the Rebbetzin baked and the Avritcher Rav handed out himself.

One year there was a severe drought and the local people had to use imported grain from the Diaspora. The Bas Ayin refused to eat any bread baked with it. He explained his position from Vayikra 25:20, where the Torah asks what will be eaten in the seventh year. Why would they worry about lacking food in the Shemittah year, when they could simply import grain from outside the Land? The answer lies at the end of the same pasuk, he said: they would not be able to plant or gather their own grain. The emphasis is on their own grain. What do we do if we lack our own grain from Eretz Yisroel? This is a clear proof from the Torah, he concluded, that the primary objective is to eat from the produce of Eretz Yisroel.