The Land I Will Show You, sec. 5, chapter 4
Is the Redemption Really Dependent on Us?
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4: Is the Redemption Really Dependent on Us?
After a thousand years of exile elapsed, Rabbi Yehudah Halevi called upon all of Israel to return to their land. The danger associated with a complete ascent had ceased, and God was ready and waiting to be available to us, to the extent that we prepare to meet Him. Thus, he wrote:
If this be so, you fall short of the duty laid down in your law, by not endeavoring to reach that place, and making it your abode in life and death…
The Rabbi: This is a severe reproach, O king of the Khazars! It is the sin which kept the divine promise with regard to the Second Temple – “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion [for I am coming to dwell amongst you]” (Zechariah 2:10) – from being fulfilled. Divine Providence was ready to restore everything as it had been at first, if they had all willingly consented to return. But only a part was ready to do so, while the majority and the aristocracy remained in Babylon, preferring dependence and slavery, and unwilling to leave their houses and their affairs. An allusion to them might be found in the enigmatic words of Solomon: “I sleep, but my heart is awake” (Song of Songs 5:2-4). He designates the exile by sleep, and the continuance of prophecy among them by the wakefulness of the heart. “The voice of my beloved knocks” means God's call to return; “My head is filled with dew” alludes to the Shechinah which emerged from the shadow of the Temple. The words: “I have put off my coat,” refer to the people's slothfulness in consenting to return. The sentence: “My beloved stretches forth his hand through the opening” may be interpreted as the urgent call of Ezra, Nechemiah, and the Prophets, until a portion of the people grudgingly responded to their invitation. In accordance with their mean mind, they did not receive full measure. Divine Providence only gives man as much as he is prepared to receive; if his receptive capacity be small, he obtains little, and much if it be great. Were we prepared to meet the God of our forefathers with a pure mind, we should find the same salvation as our fathers did in Egypt.[1]
The actualization of the “Divine Providence” – God's relation to humanity – depends on us. If we prepare for it a little, we achieve it a little; if we prepare for it greatly, we achieve it greatly; and at the center of the preparation to meet the God of our fathers is the settling in Eretz Yisrael, the axis of the book, Kuzari, and the anchor of the entire Torah.
There is no point more important in the study of residing in Eretz Yisrael than this clear position: Everything depends on us. The return of the Shechinah, prophecy, and providence – all the promises of redemption – depend on us, on the extent of our longing and effort to meet Hashem, the God of our fathers.
And one must ask: Is this great idea agreed upon by all the sages of Israel, or is it subject to dispute? For Rabbi Yehudah Halevi based this idea on the fact that the negligence of the Babylonians in not ascending was the cause for the non-fulfillment of Zechariah's prophecy of the return of the Shechinah; but this is a matter of dispute between Rabbi Yochanan and Resh Lakish. Resh Lakish's opinion indeed matches that of Rabbi Yehudah Halevi, that if all the Babylonians had ascended, the Shechinah would have returned. According to him, the great disappointment of the Shechinah not returning to the Second Temple is simply our fault. As narrated:
Resh Lakish was swimming in the Jordan River. Rabbah bar bar Channah came along and extended his hand to him. He said to him, “God, we hate you! For it is written, ‘If she is a wall, we will build towers of silver on her. If she is a door, we will enclose her with panels of cedar’ (Song of Songs 8:9) – had you made yourselves like a wall and ascended all together in the days of Ezra, you would have been compared to silver that doesn’t rot; now that you ascended like doors, you are compared to cedar that rots.” What is meant by “cedar”? Said Ula: “Sasmagor.” What is “sasmagor”? Said Rabbi Abba: “A heavenly voice,” as was learnt: “From the death of Chagai, Zechariah and Malachi, the later prophets, the holy spirit left Israel, but they still availed themselves of a heavenly voice.”[2]
The departure of the Holy Spirit, according to Resh Lakish, is due to the fault of the Babylonians. But Rabbi Yochanan disagrees. According to him, even if everyone had ascended, the Shechinah would not have returned to dwell in the Second Temple, built by the Persians, descendants of Japheth:
When he came before Rabbi Yochanan, he said to him: “That isn’t the reason! Even had they all ascended in the days of Ezra, the Shechinah would not have dwelt in the Second Temple, for it is written, ‘God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem’ (Genesis 9:27) – even though God enlarges Japheth, the Shechinah dwells only in the tents of Shem.”[3]
It emerges that according to Rabbi Yochanan, the return of the Divine Providence in the days of the Second Temple was actually beyond our control. At first glance, it would seem that Rabbi Yehudah Halevi's opinion is subject to dispute, and his view aligns with that of Resh Lakish. And not only Resh Lakish holds this view, but also Rabbi Shila and Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani, as we will see; perhaps Rabbi Yehudah Halevi sides with these three sages, and not Rabbi Yochanan. Let us first examine the sources that bring these sages’ opinions, and then return to the explanation of Rabbi Yochanan's own view to see if he indeed disputes Rabbi Yehudah Halevi's fundamental determination.
Rabbi Shila’s opinion is explicitly like Resh Lakish; had all Israel ascended as one from the exile, the Second Temple would have been the final, awaited Temple:
Rabbi Shila was sitting and expounding: "If she is a wall" – had Israel ascended as a wall from the exile, the Temple would not have been destroyed a second time.[4]
It can be proven that Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani’s opinion is also the same based on the following opinion of his:
Rabbi Yochanan and Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman; Rabbi Yochanan said: "It is written, 'Hashem shall give you there a trembling heart, [failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind]' (Deuteronomy 28:65); once they ascended, the trembling was given and ascended with them." Rabbi Shmuel said: "There trembling of heart – once they ascended, they were healed."[5]
It is disputed whether the characteristic of anger that the children of Israel acquired in exile ascended with them upon their return to the Land: whether the returnees of Zion could leave behind the negative traits that exile had instilled in their hearts – namely, a tendency to anger, a sense of helplessness, and sorrow.[6] This is none other than the same dispute as to whether the Second Temple was fit for the indwelling of the Shechinah, that is, achieving the Holy Spirit, the return of prophecy. Rambam established that the reason for the cessation of prophecy during the exile is essentially these same bad traits caused by exile and subjugation of kingdoms:
This is undoubtedly the essential and immediate cause for the departure of prophecy during the exile. What laziness or sadness could be greater for a person in a more difficult situation than being a bought and enslaved servant to brutish criminals who combine a lack of true intellect with the perfection of animalistic desires... And so it is said: 'Her king and her princes are among the nations, the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the Lord' (Lamentations 2:9). This is true, and its reason is clear... And this is also the reason for the return of prophecy to us in the days of the Messiah, may he be revealed soon, as He promised.[7]
The reason prophecy departed in the exile is that prophecy does not dwell amidst laziness or sadness.[8] These are the two negative impacts of exile, as written: 'Failing of eyes and sorrow of mind'; failing of eyes follows from an inability to act to achieve the good, and sorrow of mind as a result of suffering evil, leaving a person helpless and depressed and therefore unfit for prophecy.[9] They are what caused the cessation of prophecy, and with the correction of these traits, prophecy will return. It emerges that the dispute between Rabbi Yochanan and Resh Lakish regarding the reason prophecy did not return to the Second Temple is simply the question of why the children of Israel failed to free themselves from these bad traits. According to Resh Lakish, the children of Israel could have completely freed themselves from exile and its effects, and thus regained the stature of prophecy – had they all chosen it. While according to Rabbi Yochanan, since the children of Israel were under Persian control, there was no ability to cleanse themselves from the bad traits of laziness and sadness.
It emerges that Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani's opinion is like that of Resh Lakish and Rabbi Shila – the return of the Divine Providence was dependent on us, and thus all the words of Rabbi Yehudah Halevi.[10] Now we turn to Rabbi Yochanan's opinion, and through a deep examination of the dispute, we shall see that indeed he also agrees with Rabbi Yehudah Halevi's fundamental idea.
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[1] Kuzari, 2:23-24.
[2] Yoma 9b.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Song of Songs Rabbah 8, 11.
[5] Ibid.
[6] There appears to be a contradiction in the approach of Rabbi Yochanan. Here, he maintains that ascending to Eretz Yisrael does not free the immigrant from the negative traits of the exile. However, a different implication arises from what is narrated in Nedarim 22a: 'Upon his ascent to Eretz Yisrael, two men from Choza accompanied him. One rose and slaughtered the other... When he came before Rabbi Yochanan... Rabbi Yochanan was astonished, saying, "Does it not say 'and the Lord will give you a trembling heart' – written about Babylon!" He replied, "At that time, we had not yet crossed the Jordan." ' This indicates that crossing the Jordan erases the negative traits. For a possible resolution to this contradiction, see Footnote 65 below.
[7] The Guide of the Perplexed, 2:36.
[8] See Shabbos, 30b, and the Guide ibid, above.
[9] The Rambam did not mention anger, ‘a trembling heart’. Exile does not lead a person to a state of constant anger, but rather it awakens in him a tendency towards anger (‘a trembling heart’ = a heart prone to anger), and this does not prevent prophecy.
[10] The approach of Rabbi Yehudah Halevi in explaining the relationship between prophecy and Eretz Yisrael, and the loss of prophecy with exile from it, differs significantly from that of the Rambam. According to the Rambam, the connection is natural, as mentioned: Only when residing in his land can the free people of Israel perfect the noble traits necessary for achieving human perfection; whereas for Rabbi Yehudah Halevi, the connection is essential: The Divine Providence has its own conditions and laws that are beyond natural explanation, one of which is that the divine light appears only in certain places and to certain people – namely, in Eretz Yisrael to the Children of Israel. See Kuzari, Essay 2, Sections 8–16; for an expanded explanation of his approach, see below, section 7, chapter 1. According to this, the return of prophecy is not directly related to the question of character traits. Nevertheless, it is clear that the debate over the possibility of shedding negative traits of exile, as brought in the Midrash of Song of Songs in the midst of the discussion on the return of the Divine Presence in the Second Temple, is related to the question of the return of the Divine Presence. In Rabbi Yehudah Halevi's version, the question is whether the Children of Israel can free themselves from the influence of other nations and lands and again adopt their original virtues and those of their land. If the exile ceases to influence their souls, it means that their return is complete and absolute; if not, it means that they are still, in the psychological sense, in exile, and their physical return alone will not be sufficient to achieve the promised divine light for the true Children of Eretz Yisrael.