Every day in our Amidah prayers we pray for the ingathering of the Jews still lingering in the Exile. Every holiday we pray for the ingathering of the Jews still ensconced in foreign Gentile lands.
Why do we pray for this? Because Hashem wants all of the Jewish People to live in the Land of Israel.
The recent Torah portion began, “V’haya ki tavo” - “And it shall be when you come in to the Land….” The proper translation of the word “ki” (which has several meanings) in this verse is “when” - not “if.” The word “if” is not relevant here. “If” implies choice. However, the commandment for a Jew to live in the Land of Israel is not a matter of choice. It is a command.
The Torah used the word “when” because it is assumed without question that a Jew is to live in the Land of Israel, our inheritance from Hashem. This is similar to saying, “When you wake up in the morning….” - not “If you wake up in the morning….”
Unfortunately, during our long generations of spiritual darkness and oppression in alien countries, the true understanding of Torah became distorted. So-much-so that when the State of Israel was established and all Jews finally had the chance to return to their Homeland, the Jews of the West balked, preferring to remain in the material comfort of galut. The tragedy of this failing is so great that Hashem Himself cries out nightly in anguish because His People remain outside the Holy Land which He gave them (Tikun Hatzot; Beruchot 3A).
Make no mistake - the Diaspora is a curse. Could this be stated more clearly than it is in the terrifying admonitions in the portion Ki Tavo? The galut is a curse whether it is in Nazi Germany or in the sunny comfort of Australia or South Florida, where a Jew is transformed into a watered-down comparison to his Israeli counterpart, where assimilation reaches seventy percent, and where anti-Semitism increases every hour.
Referring to the end of the Torah portion, Rabbi Kook stresses the urgency in abandoning the Exile and hurrying home to Eretz Yisrael. He says that it is no coincidence that Moshe is called upon to slay the King of Heshbon before the Jews can enter the Promised Land (Devarim 29:6). Rabbi Kook refers to the fact that the Hebrew word “Heshbon” means “an accounting.” Thus, in order to make Aliyah a Jew must do away with all of his accountings and just come, trusting that Hashem will bless his path.
A Jew is not to worry: “How will I find a job, and how will I learn Hebrew, and why should my children fight in the Israeli army? and a dozen other reckonings which keep him languishing in the Diaspora.
Diaspora education has failed. Diaspora Rabbis and Diaspora leaders have tragically failed to emphasize the Torah’s clear call for Jews to live in the Land of Israel.
We can only pray that this year our hearts of stone will be turned to flesh and hear the Great Shofar of our Freedom, the Shofar of Redemption calling us all to thrust aside all accountings and return in haste to the Land of Hashem, the Land of Israel, our one and only home.