The Land I Will Show You, sec. 5, chapter 1
Opposition of the Jews in Israel toward Diaspora Jews
Section 5: Who Should be in Exile and When?
1: Opposition of the Jews in Israel toward Diaspora Jews
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The manifest opponents of the Babylonians weren’t content with holding the opinion that the exiles in Babylonia sinned in the past by virtue of the fact that they remained in Babylonia and didn’t ascend in the days of Ezra. From their antagonistic relationship towards the Babylonians’ descendants’ descendants and from their rejection of them, even when they returned to Eretz Yisrael, we learn that the question wasn’t merely historical. Resh Lakish didn’t accept the outstretched hand of Rabbah bar bar Channah the Babylonian, and this when he arrived in Eretz Yisrael, and Resh Lakish would chastise groups of Babylonians that he found gathered in the markets of Eretz Yisrael. When Rabbi Yochanan would meet Babylonians in Eretz Yisrael, he would harass them. That simple person acted similarly to Rabbi Zeira who ascended from Babylonia to Eretz Yisrael and crossed the Jordan River without a ferry, out of his great yearning to ascend to the Land. This is all very strange: If the Jews of Babylonia sinned in the distant past, why are their grandchildren’s grandchildren guilty? How did the sin of a certain generation turn into the guilt of a whole communinty? And why were the Babylonians distanced at the very time that they were returning to the Land in order to rectify the sins of their fathers, as if they weren’t welcome in it?
But the truth is that the issue is not merely a sin and the response to it, as weighty as that might be, but rather something deeper and far-reaching: The Babylonian community was considered different forever, different and distanced, and was therefore not welcome in Eretz Yisrael. For those who reject Eretz Yisrael are not able to simply change their approach and embrace the Land the moment they change their mind. Once they have missed the opportunity to adopt the virtues of Eretz Yisrael, they are not invited to just come. Like the verse that Rabbi Yochanan quoted as a proof for his dismissive attitude toward the Babylonians: “Let my God reject them, for they didn’t listen to Him, and let them be wanderers among the nations” (Hosea 9:17). Those who didn’t listen were sentenced to wander in exile. Until the time of the Redemption arrives, the Babylonians are not supposed to return to Eretz Yisrael, as per the continuation of the midrash after the words of Rabbi Yochanan: “If you see benches full of Babylonians in Eretz Yisrael, look for the feet of the King Messiah”;[1] until the time of the Messiah, the Babylonians will remain in Babylonia.
The story of the spies serves as a sign for this dynamic. After rejecting the cherished land, the Children of Israel were punished with 40 years of exile, and it was even forbidden for them to push ahead, as it says: “Do not go up!” (Numbers 14:42). The reason is that residing in Eretz Yisrael has a purpose, and when it is done properly, it anchors the whole entire Torah. One who properly understands the virtues of Eretz Yisrael and is ready and worthy for it to influence him for the good, will ascend to it the moment he is able to do so; if a person didn’t ascend when the opportunity arose, that is a sign that he doesn’t yet understand its virtue, and that it won’t influence him. Therefore, he is also not invited to ascend; on the contrary: He must keep a distance and attempt to cultivate anew his approach to Eretz Yisrael, so that he will be ready to ascend and grow when the opportunity arises again. Until he is ready for this, he is distanced, different and hated. For if he would come to Eretz Yisrael without understanding its virtue, he might – Heaven forbid! – never see the land for what it is in truth, since he is already used to seeing it incorrectly.[2]
To what is this comparable? To a person who refused to marry a woman who wanted to marry him. The woman is brokenhearted. What would happen if he suddenly changed his mind the next day and agreed to marry her? Why should she accept him? It’s too late once he demonstrated that he doesn’t love her. If he were to marry her at that time, the marriage would be liable to fail. Perhaps after a year he’ll have a new position on the matter and the relationship could start anew; until then, it’s better that he stay away.
So too, regarding Eretz Yisrael. The generation that rejected the desired land and didn’t have faith in the word of Hashem must wait in exile in order to cultivate the proper approach to Eretz Yisrael, and only after that to come. This is what we find in the narrative of the spies, and this is what we find in the narrative of our father, Abraham and the promise of the land. As Chazal say regarding Abraham’s doubt about the promise of the land, saying “By what shall I know that I shall inherit it?” (Genesis 15:8):
The Holy, blessed be He, said to him: “Abraham! The whole world stands by My word, and you don’t believe in My word, but you say ‘By what shall I know that I shall inherit it?’?! By your life, twice: know shall you know,” as it says, “And He said to Abraham, ‘Know shall you know [that your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years]’” (ibid., 13).[3]
The decree of exile is the expected result, almost natural, of not recognizing the promise of the Land and its virtue. One who rejects Eretz Yisrael doesn’t belong there; repentance is a process that requires time.
This is the root-cause of the hatred toward the Babylonians. They simply became like another nation from the time they disconnected themselves from the divine plan that the nation of Israel should return to its land. According to the opinion that all of the children of Israel were obligated to return together, as a wall, once the nation didn’t fulfill its duty it automatically split into two nations: the people of Eretz Yisrael, who responded to the call and continued the divine plan that the nation of Israel should be in its land, and, on the other side, the Babylonians, who turned their backs to it and were distanced from Hashem, and therefore from His people as well.
When was this split established? At the end of the period of the invitation to the exiles to return; as has been explained (sec. 4 chapter 6), the dividing line of the era in the end of the Tannaitic era. Whoever didn’t arrive in time, is distanced from the nation of Israel and hated.
We have learned that those who hold the opinion that all of Israel was obligated to return at a set time hold that whoever didn’t arrive in time is no longer invited to come. He is distanced. Before we treat of the question whether we could establish by our own opinions that it is appropriate for a certain person or a certain community to remain in exile without an explicit godly decree, we will treat of a small point: How much time were the Babylonians supposed to remain in exile before they would be welcomed in Eretz Yisrael?
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[1] Song of Songs Rabbah 8, 11.
[2] The clear and simple meaning of all of this – what is the virtue of Eretz Yisrael, how is it attained, and how a person could train himself to attain it – will be explained fully in Section 7, “The Concept of Eretz Yisrael”; for now, we must discuss this abstractly.
[3] Pirke d’Rebbe Eliezer, chapter 48.