My Thoughts on Exile

I know that I have been absent for some time.  I have been taking time off to be with my new family.  Maybe I will write a bit about my experiences of fatherhood so far sometime down the line.  But, first, I am going to attempt to answer my question from my last post.  Are we Jews still in Exile?

No.  Exile was a condition of degredation.  I've taken some flack for saying this before, but I don't see antisemitism as a real threat to American Jews.  Sure, there is always some fringe wacko, or stupid kids with stupid pranks in middle school, but if you think about it, we Jews have made it in America.  I don't see the gentile population or the government turning against us.  (We are disproportionally represented in the government.)  50 years ago, it was hard for Jews to get into Harvard.  Today, there has been a Jewish president of Harvard.  50 years ago, gentile fathers would not want their sons or daughters marrying Jews.  Today, intermarriage rates are huge.  Jews are seen as desiralbe marriage material.  We are at home in America.

But, on the other hand . . .

Yes.  I am a Zionist.  Something in my heart tells me that I should be living in Israel.  As the great Medieval poet and philosopher Yehudah HaLevi writes, "My heart is in the East and I am at the edge of the West."  My Zionism says that Israel is the only place were we can create an ideal society as Jews.  Sure, in America, I bring my Jewishness with me when I engage in social issues, but Israel is the only society where public transportation is a Jewish question.  I often want to be part of that great experience.  My Judaism is pushing me to it, but alas, I am quite comfortable here in Exile. 

So, on the other hand . . .

No . . . I am not in Exile.  I choose to live here in America.  I feel my mission right now is to help Jews in San Diego (and at Beth Israel specifically) find meaning through owning their own Judaism.  I can easily board the next El-Al flight to Tel Aviv and make aliyah, but I'm not going to.  Doesn't exile imply some sense of coersion?  We as Jews have a choice.

So, what do I think.  Are we Jews in Exile?  I think we are all in Exile, Jews in America and in Israel and anywhere else Jews live.  I don't mean Exile as a geographic destination, be an existential situation.  I see our mission as Jews is (among other things) to make the world a better place, and that is an infinate task.  We should not be comfortable until it is complete, so in a sense, we Jews should never be totally comfortable.  We are in Exile from a perfected world.     

Exile?

Tonight at CBI Rabbi Berk is speaking on the Babylonian Exile as an outreach program for the San Diego Opera in preparation for the performance of the opera "Nabucco" that takes place during said exile.  We were just discussing in his office the question: Are we Jews still in Exile?  I need to think about it for a little.  What do you, my loyal readers, think?