As I was saying my morning prayers as I usually do at the Cave of Machpela in Hebron and have been doing for the past twenty five years, I was impressed by the fact that I am still awestruck by the miracle which enables me to do so. Most activities that we do on a regular basis, no matter how interesting, usually lose their novelty after a short time. Yet the concept of Aliyah, going up to the Land of Israel, never seems to lose its aura of wonder. It was nothing short of a tremendous miracle that saw me pick up my family and move to Israel. Yet, on top of that, to have the incredible privilege to pray every morning at the very place where our Father, Abraham would say his morning prayers, and where he is buried along with Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob and Leah, not to mention Adam and Eve, simply defies the imagination.

We Jews have been living in Exile for over two thousand years. During that time we never ceased yearning for our homeland, yet we had a need to adapt to our temporary surroundings in order to survive. After a while we learned to put our yearning for home on a back burner and accepted the fact that the Exile was something we just had to live with. We thus became loyal citizens of the country in which we lived and were actively involved with helping those countries to develop. We were proud to be Germans, Frenchmen, Italians, Greeks, Americans and good citizens of just about any country you can name.

To be sure we continued to pray for an end to the Exile, but those prayers and much of our religious practice became relegated to a kind of subculture which rarely interfered with our new found national identities. In countries where we were oppressed as Jews our Jewish identity, by necessity, became stronger, or, in some cases, was abandoned. In those countries where antisemitism was at a minimum, many Jews found it advantageous to keep their Jewish identity camouflaged, others abandoned it altogether, and some continued to hold strongly to it. But even those who were proud of their Jewish identity and tried to keep themselves apart from the culture in which they lived, could not help but be affected by their environment. As our rabbis tell us, "One cannot work in a tannery and come out unaffected by the odor".

I had the good fortune to move to Israel with my family when my children were still young. Two of them were even born here. I am now further privileged to watch the next generation growing up in our homeland. There is a very clear difference in the way my children view their Jewish identity, and the way those who continue to live in the Exile view theirs. While most American Jews have little or no interest in the Jewish State, even those who do have an interest are not likely to consider leaving their pleasant Exile to come home. A small percentage do come to visit, and a tiny percentage of those will eventually come to live here, but most still see Israel as a foreign country. This is today's reality which seems destined to lead to disaster, G-d forbid.

The miracle of the newly reborn Jewish State in spite of so many seemingly insurmountable obstacles, both within and without, should be conclusive evidence that our Exile is coming to an end. Clearly the Arab nations never wanted to see a Jewish State and have never ceased trying to find ways to destroy it. Considering their numbers, their vast wealth and political clout, it is nothing less than a miracle that they have been unable to achieve their goal to destroy this tiny country. This too is proof positive that, in spite of our hapless leaders and their failure to accept Jewish obligations, this state is under Divine Protection and part of Biblical Destiny.

The government of the Jewish State is riddled with ineptitude, irresponsibility, moral depravity and even outright crime, yet, amazingly, the country continues to grow and thrive! Our leaders have expelled whole Jewish communities from their homes and invited terrorists to take over parts of our homeland. They claim to be making peace as they help to build up enemies who are determined to destroy Israel. They consider it an obligation to help Arab terrorists to build yet another enemy state on Jewish soil, and are working to do so even as our population faces missiles from those lands that we have given to our enemies!

While, on the one hand, it is easy to understand why no normal Jew would think to leave a comfortable exile to move to such a country, even if it is a Jewish one; on the other hand, if we look a bit closer we can clearly see the Hand of G-d here. No other country in the world could survive such a leadership. Yet, with all of our disastrous mistakes, we continue to thrive as a nation. There can be no other explanation other than Divine Intervention. When one understands this he cannot help but want to be part of the Divine Process; part of the Jewish People; and part of our Divine Destiny.

Throughout the centuries it was always an obligation to live in the Land of Israel. But when our homeland was under the control of others it was a virtual impossibility to do so. None the less, even in those times there were Jews who risked their lives to live here. Ever since 1948, when Jewish sovereignty was returned to parts of our ancient inheritance, there was no excuse for a Jew not to come home. Today we have a strong thriving modern nation. To refuse to leave the Exile at a time like this is to spit at miracles and reject our destiny.

How does one explain this to a comfortable Jew happily living in the United States? How does one explain that it is a sin to be happy to live in Exile? We are an ancient People created by G-d to prove to the world that He exists, and to teach the world to worship Him. This is not an elective role, rather an inherited obligation that we must fulfill. If we seek to fulfill it we can hasten redemption. If we seek to avoid it we bring tragedy upon ourselves and, in the end, we will still fulfill our Divine role. We are living in a generation which is on the threshhold of redemption. All of us must seek ways to participate in this wondrous era. To do otherwise is to reject the Divine and choose folly.

[ Published: January 27, 2007 ]