Over the past 3 decades in my Arutz Sheva essays I have used many metaphors to describe Jewish life in gentile lands. My goal is not to ridicule, Heaven forbid, as some people assert, but rather to inspire Diaspora Jews to open their eyes and see their truly terrible plight in an alien land. When I say that Judaism in the Diaspora is “Torah in a Jar” I don’t mean to negate whatever fear of Heaven can be found there, but rather to highlight the inexpressible difference between Torah in the Holy Land, where it is meant to be observed, and Torah in gentile lands where it is decapitated and compressed into what our Sages termed “four cubits of Halachah” – which can be called “Torah in a Jar.”
For example – in America there is a certain measure of holiness in an Orthodox synagogue and in a study hall, but immediately upon exiting the door, a Jew finds himself in a strange and impure land. It could be that he or she doesn’t feel the impurity, because they never experienced the real thing, or because they have become accustomed to the spiritual pollution, but absolutely nothing in their surroundings is holy – not the public parks, not the forests, not the beaches, not the mountains, not the parking lots or the roads, nor the air. In contrast, wherever you go in the Holy Land you are inundated with holiness. Your entire existence is immersed in holiness, not just your time in shul.
Another vast difference is that only one-third of the Torah’s commandments apply outside the Land of Israel. This great difference is not merely a matter of quantity but also of quality. The truncated Judaism of the Diaspora is focused only on the individual Jew and on the personal commandments which one can still observe in foreign lands like Kashrut, Tefillin, and Shabbat.
The entire NATIONAL FOUNDATION of the Torah is missing. In the Diaspora, Jews are scattered around the globe, minorities in alien lands. Judaism becomes like a gentile religion with no connection between the rituals of the religion and the operation of the State. Obviously, you can’t have a IDF base in South Florida or observe the Torah’s agricultural laws in California. In the Diaspora the Jewish People are not a NATION but, in the words of the Prophet, dry scattered bones.
Just from a simple straightforward reading of the Torah it is obvious that the Torah is meant to be kept on the expansive mountains and valleys of Israel, not squished between the walls of an Orthodox synagogue, no matter how plush it may be. The Torah is meant to go forth from Jerusalem, not from a shelf of books in Lakewood or from a tiny neighborhood in Brooklyn surrounded on all sides by wokes who don’t want the Jews to be there.
As Jewish history has proven again and again, the Torah cannot survive in a jar. Neither can the Jews.
So my dear friends – think about the metaphor. Why live pickled in a jar when you can live in the Jewish Homeland where Hashem wants us to live? Why?
Tzvi Fishman was awarded the Israel Ministry of Education Prize for Jewish Culture and Creativity. Before making Aliyah to Israel in 1984, he was a successful Hollywood screenwriter. He has co-authored 4 books with Rabbi David Samson, based on the teachings of Rabbis A. Y. Kook and T. Y. Kook. His other books include: "The Kuzari For Young Readers" and "Tuvia in the Promised Land". His books are available on Amazon. Recently, he directed the movie, "Stories of Rebbe Nachman."