Is There a Place for Jews Outside of Israel?

"What are we doing here?" This is the existential question arising throughout the West with the fall of religion and the collapse of the great ideologies. For the Jewish person, this question is amplified. The popular redemption, Zionism, set against the backdrop of the diaspora's existence, created a sharp contrast: on one hand, the "pot of meat" of the open, Western world for those in exile, and on the other, the possibility for a more meaningful national existence. Because assimilation in the West has become so feasible and easy, the choice is no longer absolute for the individual Jew. The option to fully exit one's Jewishness through complete integration is accessible, even if not for his more religious brethren.

And still, this article is directed to those who have chosen, or are somehow interested, in living some form of Jewish life. That same person, whether in the land of Israel or abroad, discovers that specifically in these days of religious and identity crisis, a crisis that has in fact accompanied him for several generations, the nations are once again, it seems, using his very existence as a Jew in a peculiar way. Again, some of them exploit his distinctiveness, and the animosity towards him, to fill an identity-void in a world of post-religious terror that they themselves are experiencing.

In the Middle Ages, one could say that a good Christian was also an antisemite. But it was clear that not all Christians partook in antisemitism; there were certainly those who did not need the Jewish "other" to define themselves. Today, when a Jew allows his Jewishness or the existence of Israel to become a source of attraction for the antisemite in our post-religious world, he is, in fact, enabling that very person to derive meaning from him. In this post-religious world, it is as if the world's most ancient hatred, directed at the Jew, has become a source of meaning in itself.

Therefore, in the most elementary sense, it is entirely logical in such a world:

From a philosophical perspective, Jewish nationalism recognizes its role as an essential stage in humanity's development. It achieves this by:

A. Sustaining the Jewish people as a unit, as obligated by the laws of the Torah.

B. Allowing the people's spiritual challenge to be realized, extending beyond the framework of this nation alone.

C. Ultimately leading to the dissemination of the Torah's light among the nations.

In the diaspora, we find ourselves operating against objective challenges, both to our existence as a unified people and to our ability to adequately answer these spiritual challenges. (It is a fact that during the years of exile, few gentiles truly internalized our Torah, from Yemen to Lithuania). Moreover, not only are we possibly failing to spread the light of the Torah to the nations (after all, Islam and Christianity were established by the 7th century, a period when Jews were still a majority in their land!), but we are attempting this without the ability to mitigate the risks we take upon ourselves in trying to fix the world.

These are risks that we can also create in the Land of Israel, as evidenced by the wars with Arab nations. But these risks are undertaken without our direct contact with non-Jews as a minority, as is the case in the diaspora. They are also undertaken from a position of complete self-defense and sovereignty, where the potential exists for our Torah's light to become a focus of attraction for the entire world.

True, Muslims and Christians are not always open to this light, and we do not always market this light as our true essence (because even among us there are those who deny it), but the entire question of our people's existence naturally depends on it.

Furthermore, instead of learning from our failure living in Christian lands during the diaspora, we are still not learning today, and we are still not speaking to non-Jews in the name of the Torah's light, a discourse that must, of course, emphasize Jewish nationalism as it emanates from the chosen people, but which should also create inter-religious dialogue.

And still, despite the fact that in the Land of Israel there are wars and an inability to project influence onto surrounding nations (which often leads to forgoing direct influence in gentile lands for political interests), it is in this land that we have the merit of being stronger. This strength is necessary for refining our own inner light, which in turn can create the influence of an "encompassing light", one that can be felt even without direct contact with the nations, is adapted to the temperament of the nations, and can foster a mission of honor among peoples.

True, the State of Israel has at times failed to act with the required firmness and resolve to elevate Israel's stature in the world, which often leads to public relations crises. But regarding the question of Jewish existence in the diaspora versus in Israel, it has long been clear where the greater potential lies. It is now also clear that regarding the ability to be a light unto the nations, the greater potential resides in a life lived in the Land of Israel.

From this we learn that in the test of philosophy, and particularly in this era of accelerated secularization where entire peoples find renewed identity and meaning in antisemitism, even those who desire a universal "repair of the world" (Tikkun Olam) that draws from Jewish sources would do best for themselves to pursue it from Zion.