Beyond halachic obligation, does the Torah command us to love the Land? Rav Shlomo Katz brings down a striking Rambam in Hilchot Melachim and a teaching from Rav Eliezer Melamed that reframes everything: when Chazal kissed its stones and rolled in its dust, it wasn’t poetic symbolism. It was halacha. If the Rambam records this in Mishneh Torah, then this is how a Jew is meant to feel. This episode reminds us that love for Eretz Yisrael isn’t just the soul of the mitzvah. It’s the mitzvah itself.