What Is Stopping Us?

15 Kislev 5785

Of course, I had heard the concept of gathering or redeeming sparks, but "planting" sparks was a new one for me.  This is how Rabbi Shapiro explains the value of maintaining the Jewish Diaspora in his book The Empty Wagon . . .

. . . our job currently is to wander throughout the world and plant sparks of holiness all over, until we accomplish locally what we could have accomplished long-distance from Eretz Yisroel had we not chosen sinas chinam over Eretz Yisroel.

. . . Because the galus is not just a punishment but also a necessary ingredient for our very existence (in terms of both our physical survival and our spiritual mission), it is vital that we not break out of its confines until the era of galus has truly ended.

Rather than baggage to be discarded, the galus is actually a life-support system and a healing mechanism for the sickness that we instilled within ourselves by our sinas chinam, a sickness that so weakened us that we are no longer able to lead a normal, natural life; a sickness that caused us to be unable to utilize Eretz Yisroel the way a healthy Klal Yisroel can.

But Hashem in His mercy gave us this life-support system called galus.  Life support is unnatural, something you pray should go away, and something that prevents you from living a normal life, but if you need it, it is much better being on it than not being on it and dying.

Of course we all pray that this unnatural lifestyle outside of Eretz Yisroel should end.

. . . When we do teshuvah, Hashem, the Doctor, will come and take us off life support.  Until then, yes, it is unnatural, agonizing, and painful.  But it is our only hope.  Just like when we pray for a patient to get off life support we mean that he should no longer need it.  But as long as we do need it, we would not consider a return to Eretz Yisroel as an answer to our prayers.  We would consider it a catastrophe.

It's just my own opinion, but it sounds to me like "galus"  is more like a drug dependency than a life-support system.  The only way to know if someone can survive off of life support is to disconnect them from it and see if they can keep breathing on their own.  What might be the metaphoric equivalent of that in the real world, I wonder?

The Rav continues . . . 

. . . The Jewish nation was not designed to live in galus.  We were designed to serve Hashem in Eretz Yisroel.  But currently, our nation as a whole cannot do that, because we must fulfill our mission in the world.

. . . Our instructions are:  Shelo yaalu kachomah* - Remain dispersed.  Do not return to take control over Eretz Yisroel.  You may live there as individuals - it may even be a mitzvah to do so - but as a nation, it's not yours anymore.  You're in galus.  Do not try to fight the galus.  It will not work.  Instead, live in it.

. . . This is the only way for us to accomplish our mission in this world.  We brought this upon ourselves.  We are behind enemy lines and our job is to lay low and plant sparks of holiness around the world so that when Moshiach comes these sparks will erupt into a conflagration of spiritual energy that will bring the ultimate victory - Y'mos HaMoshiach.

Of course, Eretz Yisroel is still holy.  But it no longer serves its purpose as a home for Klal Yisroel.

The main problem I see with this reasoning is that the reality is that, over the course of a hundred (plus) years, enough Jews have already successfully returned so as to constitute the majority of world Jewry now resident in Eretz Yisrael.  And a great many of them came unwillingly, being forced out of their homes with no place else to go. . .

[See "Where Can We Go?  Who Will Have Us?" and "Where to Go?  Holocaust Survivors Return to Life"]

Now, let's go back and address this reference . . .

* "Our instructions are:  Shelo yaalu kachomah - Remain dispersed."

This is in reference to "The Three Oaths," one of which forbids Klal Yisrael to go up to Eretz Yisrael "like a wall."  I'll let the Rav continue on . . .

. . . The Ramban (Sefer Hamitzvos #4) holds that yeshivas haAretz is a mitzvah d'Oraisa even nowadays, but only with regard to individuals.  Klal Yisroel as a whole is not commanded - indeed not permitted - to ascend to Eretz Yisroel en masse as that would constitute a violation of the galus, as per the Shalosh Shevuos in Kesuvos 111a (Tehuvos Rashbash #2).

. . . What was the purpose of the Three Oaths?  First, that the Jews should not ascend [to Eretz Yisroel] as if surrounded by a wall; second, Hashem made them swear that they would not rebel against the nations of the world; and third, Hashem made the nations of the world swear that they would not oppress the Jews more than required.

Klal Yisrael was released from the Three Oaths in the 20th century in the following way:

(1)  The Balfour Declaration - a public statement issued by the British Government in 1917 during the First World War announcing its support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, then an Ottoman region with a small minority Jewish population.

(2)  After World War II, in August 1945, President Truman asked for the admission of 100,000 Holocaust survivors into Palestine, . . .  In April 1946, the Committee reached a unanimous decision for the immediate admission of 100,000 Jewish refugees from Europe into Palestine [and] rescission of the White Paper restrictions of land sale to Jews, . . .

The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine - On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly voted 33 to 13, with 10 abstentions and 1 absent, in favor of the [creation of a Jewish State].

(3)  The Holocaust - European Jewry had their civil rights systematically stripped from them until six million of them had been murdered between 1938 and 1945.

Some believe that the first two events absolved Klal Yisrael from the first two conditions of the Oaths, as the nations gave their approval and permission to the Jews' return to Eretz Yisrael.  The third was null and void when the nations violated their oath not to oppress Klal Yisrael over much.

Some final quotes from the book . . .

. . . There are additional benefits to the galus as well:  First, Eretz Yisroel is a holy land.  It does not take well to sinners.  It gets nauseous from them and eventually vomits them out.  And the punishment for sinning in Eretz Yisroel is much more severe than the punishment for sinning in chutz laAretz.  . . . So Hashem said, for our own good, until we learn how to behave, until we are worthy once more, we are kicked out of Eretz Yisroel (Bais Halevy, Vayetzei).

. . . Second, the galus is granted to us as a much preferable substitute for Gehenom, which, if not for the galus, we would be punished with because of our sins (see Bereishis Rabbah 44:21).

. . . Third, the atonement that galus accomplishes not only protects us from the punishment of Gehenom in the next world, but it is also what ensures that Hashem protects us in this world.  . . . it is our being in exile among the nations that results in Hashem's protection for us.

What can I say to that?

To be continued, iy"H . . .