In Parshat Devarim we see a reaffirmation of God’s gift of the Land of Israel to the Jewish People. “Turn and travel for yourselves and arrive at the Emorite hill region and at all its neighbors- on the plain on the mountain in the lowland in the Negev and on the sea coast; the land of the Lebanon up to the great river, the Euphrates River. See, I have set the land before you; come and inherit the land that God promised to your forefathers Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov to give them and their descendents after them”.

According to Sifrei, the seacoast includes Ashkelon, Gaza and Caesarea.

The borders listed here including Lebanon and Jordan and extending all of the way to the Euphrates are the ideal borders of the land of Israel.

As Tisha B’Av and the planned disengagement from Gaza approaches, let us hope and pray that the time will come speedily in our day that we will all take part in the mitzvah of inheriting the Land of Israel and that the ideal borders outlined above will be restored.