The Other Side of the Coin

14 Kislev 5785
Shavua tov! 

   Seventeenth of Tamuz                               Ninth of Av

 

I first heard about Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro's book The Empty Wagon in a shiur on Torah Anytime given by Rabbi Yossi Michalowicz.  I have learned a lot of useful information which helped me understand some of the misgivings I had about certain positions taken on both sides of the "Orthodoxy" coin.  

After reading the chapters on Zionism followed by those addressing Religious Zionism, the basis for "State Worship" made more sense, however wrong it is.  But, I was also a bit stunned to discover the basis for the rejection of Aliyah to Eretz Yisrael among hareidi Jews in chutz la'aretz.  

Keep in mind now that aliyah has always existed.  It is not the domain of Zionism as some might think.  In fact, the Zionists advocated for selective aliyah and religious Jews didn't pass muster.  Today, we've reached a point where Chr*stian Zionists are "making aliyah," r"l!

It suddenly occurred to me this morning that the positions taken by these two camps of "Orthodoxy" are very much rooted in the original two worst national sins we committed just after being redeemed from Egypt.  One cost us the first set of luchot and the second cost us the Beit Hamikdash - Torah and Avodat Hashem.

Here we are well on the way to the year 6000 - where all roads end at the Full and Final Redemption - and these two sins - failure to wait for Mashiach (Moshe) and refusal to enter The Holy Land - are still with us today.  These are the sins HKB"H is waiting for us to do teshuvah for and the proof of the truth of that statement is that we are still fasting on these days up to our own time!  

Ok, so let's move on to the issue of aliyah.  What does Rabbi Shapiro reveal about the reasons why Jews should not be making aliyah as written in The Empty Wagon . . .

"...Currently, Hashem cannot (kav'yachol) send Moshiach and transform the world, because the world is not ready for it.  Not just the people, but the very world itself.  The world is much too unspiritual now to be able to exist in the atmosphere of spiritual energy that Moshiach will bring.  In a nutshell, if Moshiach would come now, it would be like getting spiritually "nuked."

Our job, given to us by Hashem, is to condition ourselves and the world, raising us and it to a sufficient level of spirituality to be ready and fit for the spiritual energy of Y'mos HaMoshiach (the post-Messianic era).

We do this by performing mitzvos and learning Torah.  The spiritual energy generated by Torah and mitzvos sanctifies us and the world, raising it higher and higher until it reaches the point where it is ready for Moshiach.

...What was supposed to happen was that we were supposed to fulfill the Torah in Eretz Yisroel until the world would be ready for Y'mos HaMoshiach.

Unfortunately, we messed up.  We sinned.  And the spiritual energy that we generated in Eretz Yisroel was no longer strong enough to sanctify the world.  Eretz Yisroel is the arteries, but Klal Yisrael is the heart.  If the heart isn't pumping, the arteries are useless.  Never mind the fact that they get clogged up due to our mistreatment of them.

We were no longer able to do our job from within Eretz Yisroel.  Eretz Yisroel as a home no longer served any purpose for the nation.  We became too spiritually weak for the land.  

We were no longer accomplishing our job by being there.

So we went into galus, to be spread all over the world to manually sanctify it everywhere, where previously we were supposed to do it remotely.  We lost the ability to use Eretz Yisroel to fix the world, but we can do it locally, by learning Torah and performing mitzvos while wandering throughout the world, thereby sanctifying it piece by piece."

Well, that's obviously not working, judging by the current condition of the world, even after 2000 years of "wandering"!  This idea is not logical and does not conform with the historical record for exile.

"Whatever happened to the forefathers are signs for the children."

We've already been told that the final redemption will be similar to the redemption from Egypt.  And we are told that we had reached the 49th level of tumah when Moshe Rabbeinu, the Mashiach of that time, arrived to lead us out from there.  This is like the flip side of Zionism, we have to do Mashiach's job for him, but in this case, we don't take charge, we give up and leave it to others while we take care of the corner where we live - supposedly.

Also, if this were really true, we would never have been returned from Bavel and built the Second Beit Hamikdash.  Maybe that was the flawed reasoning then, too, why the majority refused to return, no matter that HKB"H told the people through the prophets that the exile would be limited to 70 years and when those prophets informed the people it was time to return, the majority simply refused.

So what about the final exile?  All historical and biblical evidence points to an "End" not a rising above it all.  With God's help, that will be the focus of the next blog post.

To be continued, iy"H . . .

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