Let’s face it. The Judaism of Galut is a dry, juiceless Judaism. Just as the Prophet Ezekiel describes Jewish life in the Diaspora as a valley of dry bones (Ezekiel, 37:1-14), the Torah practiced in impure foreign lands is a juiceless Judaism of dry scattered bones in its lacking the Torah’s national essence which only comes to expression in Eretz Yisrael. One of the clearest signs of this lifelessness is the tragedy that the yearning for Redemption is missing.
What is the Yearning for Redemption? It is the yearning to be redeemed from Galut. A Galut may seem pleasant like Monsey or Boca Raton but it is Galut all the same where the Jewish People are cursed in not having a sovereign land of their own. At the very heart of Judaism stands the yearning for Redemption. A Jew is to actively yearn in his heart for salvation from the Exile, for the ingathering of Jews scattered all over the world, for the rebuilding of the Nation in the Land of Israel, for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, for the Israelite Nation’s return to Torah, for the return of the exiled Shechinah and the coming of Mashiach, and for the restoration of Hashem’s Kingdom in Zion. This yearning constitutes the thrust of our daily prayers. Yet one of the striking and tragic aspects of Judaism in the Exile is that a true heartfelt yearning for Redemption is missing. As the book “HaKuzari” points out, the requests for Redemption are nothing more than empty prayers, ‘the chatter of nightingales,” void of emotion and meaning (HaKuzari, Part Two, 24).
Jingles for the coming of Mashiach – “Moshiach, Moshiach, Moshiach la la la la la la…” are also empty of meaning. Instead of building more new Jewish communities, multi-million dollar synagogues, and glatt-kosher steakhouses in Arizona, Texas, and Mexico City, Jews who truly yearn for Redemption should be rushing to move to Israel as fast as they can.
Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook is famous for his towering love for all of the Jewish People and for all of mankind. He even strove to help individuals who vilified him, sending them secret gifts of charity if they were in need. And while he himself kept all the commandments of the Torah in the most precise fashion, no less than any “Ultra-Orthodox” Jew, he was known for his great tolerance for others, firmly believing in the pure inner soul of all Jews. Nonetheless, when he learned about brazen violations of the Torah, whether it be regarding the laws of Kashrut, Shabbat, or Family Purity, he wrote strident public proclamations condemning such heretical behavior in the Holy Land. In sentences sweetened with outpourings of love, he ardently called all transgressors to repent and return to the true path of Torah.
Yet despite his towering love – or because of it – Rabbi Kook called the Judaism of the Exile a dry, superficial, juiceless practice of Torah. While praising the true reverence for Heaven wherever it was found, he harshly condemned the practice of learning Torah in the dry shallow fashion which characterized the yeshiva learning during his time, a course of learning which neglected the deeper inner aspects of the Divine. In his holy proclamation, “The Great Call,” Rabbi Kook wrote:
“Dear brothers, Sages of Torah, and influential scholars! We too acted foolishly and sinned! We studied and researched the sources; we debated the fine points of the Talmud and discovered new insights; we wrote and explained; but we forgot Hashem and His might. We failed to hear the words of the true prophets, the exalted voice of our eternal sages, to hear the voice of the Tzaddikim (righteous ones) and Hasidim (saintly ones), the sages of Mussar, and the possessors of the secrets of Torah, who called out and proclaimed in the most strident of voices, that in the end, the river of Talmudic analysis would turn arid and dry if the deep ocean of Kabbalah, and the Torah’s inner understandings, weren’t constantly drawn into the learning – the waters of the knowledge of Hashem, the pristine waters of pure faith which flows from our inner souls, and which stream forth from our life source,” (Orot, pg. 101).
In the beginning of “Orot” he writes:
“By being alienated from the recognition of the secrets of Torah, the holiness of Eretz Yisrael is understood in a foggy, unfocused fashion. By alienating oneself from the secrets of G-d, the highest Segulot of the deep Divine life become extraneous, secondary matters which do not enter the depths of the soul, and as a result, the most potent force of the individual’s and the nation’s soul will be missing, and the Exile is found to be pleasant in its own accord. For to someone who only comprehends the superficial level, nothing basic will be lacking in the absence of the Land of Israel, the Jewish Kingdom, and all of the facets of the nation in its built form. For him, the foundation of the yearning for Salvation is like a side branch that cannot be united with the deep understanding of Judaism, and this itself testifies to the poverty of insight which is found in this juiceless perspective. We are not rejecting any form or contemplation which is founded on truthfulness, on sensitivity of thought, or on the fear of Heaven, in whatever form it takes; but only rejecting the specific aspect of this perspective which seeks to negate the secrets of Torah and their great influence on the spirit of the nation — for this is a tragedy which we are obligated to fight against with counsel and wisdom, with holiness and with valor” (Orot, 1:2).
At the time of the Gaon of Vilna, the city of Vilna had a large Jewish community with many great synagogues and yeshivot. Nonetheless, the “Gra” termed Jewish life in the Exile “a graveyard.” He stated that the gentile cultures surrounding even the most hermetic ghettos devoured the foundations of Torah like worms. Without being our own sovereign nation in our own Holy Land, our hearts and bodies were “dead.” Accordingly, he urged his students to make Aliyah and settle the Land of Israel.
Rabbi Kook emphasized:
“The secrets of Torah bring the Redemption and return Israel to its Land, because the Torah of truth in its mighty inner logic demands the complete soul of the Nation. Through this inner Torah, the Nation begins to feel the pain of Exile and to realize the absolute impossibility for its character to fulfill its potential as long as it is oppressed on foreign soil. As long as the light of the supernal Torah is sealed and bound, the inner need to return to Zion will not stir itself with deep faith” (Orot HaTechiya 64).
