Read Rabbi Kook’s proclamation to Diaspora Jewry.
Whether it be a haredi community in North Miami Beach or a hasidic community in Brooklyn or a Modern Orthodox community in Boca, Scottsdale, Dallas, or LA, it is not the center of Torah Judaism. That is in the Land of Israel and not in a foreign gentile land. The entire narrative of the Chumash and the Tanach is the establishment of the Children of Israel in Eretz Yisrael. Two-thirds of the Torah’s commandments can only be performed in the Land of Israel. Our Sages inform us that mitzvah observance outside the Land is merely a form of practice so we will remember how to do them when we return to Eretz Yisrael, the place where the commandments are meant to be performed.
Only in the Land of Israel can the Jewish People become the holy Nation which brings the word of Hashem to the world, as the verse says, “For out of Zion shall go forth the Torah and the word of Hashem from Jerusalem.”
The narrative of the Jewish People is the return of the Israelite Nation to Zion. The mission of the Jewish People is prophetically bound up and indivisibly united with Eretz Yisrael. The inner heartbeat and life force of the Jewish People is the yearning for the ingathering of our scattered exiles, for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, for the Salvation from foreign lands to our own Jewish sovereignty in our own Jewish Land.
The Gaon of Vilna teaches that the Sin of the Spies which caused the death of the entire generation of men in the wilderness still continues throughout our wanderings, even trapping outstanding Torah Scholars in its net.
Dear friends, make no mistake. Hashem hates the Exile. In the beginning of the Talmud it states that Hashem cries out inightly in anguish over the exile of His children in foreign lands (Berachot 3A). Our Sages formulated the recital of Tikin Hatzot to express the terrible suffering of the Shechinah which cries out in lament over being exiled with the Jews in the impure lands of the gentiles. T
The great Rabbi Yosef Karo, compiler of the Shulchan Aruch, informs us that the Shechinah (Divine Presence) weeps, telling Jews in the Diaspora, “If you could imagine even one-thousand-millionth of the suffering which I must endure being with you, you would not experience any happiness in your heart nor laughter in your mouths remembering that because of you I have been discarded into the dust.”
Dear brothers and sisters still residing outside the Land of Israel – please understand the meaning of these words. They are as true today as when they were uttered. Wherever Jews live in foreign among the gentiles this forces the Shechinah to be with them in the dust. The Divine Presence is shamed.
This is expressed not only when Jews live in Germany or Russia, but also when they live in sunny Boca or in the suburbs of LA. What matters to the Shechinah is to be at home with her children in Eretz Yisrael.
Rabbi Kook wrote a proclamation to Diaspora Jewry which he titled “The Great Call”:
“TO THE LAND OF ISRAEL, Gentlemen, To the Land of Israel! Let us utter this appeal in one voice, in a great and never-ending cry.
“Come to the Land of Israel, dear brothers, come to the Land of Israel. Save your souls, the soul of your generation, the soul of the entire nation; save the Shechinah from desolation and destruction, save her from decay and degradation, save her from defilement and all evil — from all of the suffering and oppression that threatens to come upon her in all the lands of the world without exception or distinction….
“Escape with your lives and come to Israel; G-d’s voice beckons us; His hand is outstretched to us; His spirit within our hearts unites us, encourages us and obliges us all to cry in a great, powerful and awesome voice: Brothers! Children of Israel, beloved and dear brethren, come to the Land of Israel, do not tarry with arrangements and official matters; rescue yourselves, gather, come to the Land of Israel…
“From the time we were exiled from our Land, the Torah has accompanied Israel into exile, wandering from Babylon to France, Spain, Germany, Eastern and Central Europe, Poland, Russia, and elsewhere. And now, how happy we would be if we were able to say that she has returned to her first place, to the Land of Israel, together with the people of Israel, which continues to multiply in the Holy Land.
“And now, who is so blind that he does not see the L-rd’s hand guiding us in this, and does not feel obligated to work along with G-d? A heavenly voice in the future will cry aloud on top of the mountains and say, ‘Whoever has worked with G-d, let him come and receive his reward.’ Who can exempt himself from doing his part in bringing additional blessing and swifter salvation; from awakening many hearts to return to the Holy Land, to Hashem’s legacy, that they may become a part of it, to settle it with enterprises and buildings, to purchase property, to plant and sow, to do everything necessary for the foundation of life of a stable and organized settlement…
“Come, my brothers and save your souls. With all of my heart I implore you. Return to Hashem. Return to yourselves. Save yourselves and our Nation, now!”
