The Longest Exile was Due to Baseless Hatred
….The sages were searching for reasons to explain cataclysmic events that seemed to spell the end of a civilization: the destruction of the Second Temple and of Jerusalem and the exile of the Jewish people from the Land of Israel. Their answer was most surprising: they attributed these catastrophes to the prevalence of baseless hatred among Jews in Israel (Talmud, Yoma 9, Arachin 15b). The causal link between calamities of historical proportions and a behavior like baseless hatred is not easy to comprehend. How could a whole people be defeated and become homeless just for that reason?.....
The Destruction of the Holy Temple. The very existence of the Temple of Jerusalem was predicated on the unity of the Jewish people. When the Land of Israel was divided among the twelve tribes, it was established that the Temple Mount would be divided such that the eastern part of the Temple would be part of the land of the tribe of Judah while the western part would be in the portion of Benjamin…..
The sharing arrangement between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin was supposed to remind all Jews that access to the Temple was a privilege based on their responsibility toward each other. When baseless hatred spread and destroyed the unity among Jews, the Temple no longer had a reason to exist..…
The Destruction of Jerusalem . Jerusalem was the point of unification of all the tribes….. Jerusalem became the common property of all the tribes of Israel. As explained by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan: “As one place common to all, it had a strong effect in uniting the tribes….. unity among tribes is not possible if individual Jews within each tribe are disunited. Therefore, when baseless hatred destroyed the unity of the tribes, Jerusalem had no reason to exist….
The Beginning of the Exile. When the generation of the Second Temple allowed hatred to spread, they created large psychological distances among themselves… When they ceased being a united people, they no longer needed the Land of Israel and it was taken away from them. The Land of Israel was promised and given to a people, not to a group of individuals. When the Jews do not form one people, they do not need the land!
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The Destruction of the Holy Temple. The very existence of the Temple of Jerusalem was predicated on the unity of the Jewish people. When the Land of Israel was divided among the twelve tribes, it was established that the Temple Mount would be divided such that the eastern part of the Temple would be part of the land of the tribe of Judah while the western part would be in the portion of Benjamin…..
The sharing arrangement between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin was supposed to remind all Jews that access to the Temple was a privilege based on their responsibility toward each other. When baseless hatred spread and destroyed the unity among Jews, the Temple no longer had a reason to exist..…
The Destruction of Jerusalem . Jerusalem was the point of unification of all the tribes….. Jerusalem became the common property of all the tribes of Israel. As explained by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan: “As one place common to all, it had a strong effect in uniting the tribes….. unity among tribes is not possible if individual Jews within each tribe are disunited. Therefore, when baseless hatred destroyed the unity of the tribes, Jerusalem had no reason to exist….
The Beginning of the Exile. When the generation of the Second Temple allowed hatred to spread, they created large psychological distances among themselves… When they ceased being a united people, they no longer needed the Land of Israel and it was taken away from them. The Land of Israel was promised and given to a people, not to a group of individuals. When the Jews do not form one people, they do not need the land!
PREVIOUS NEXT