The Two-State Solution: The State of Israel vs the State of Diaspora.
It was well known that the Babylonian exile would last until seventy years were completed (Jer 25:12; 2Ch 36:21). But for how long was the Roman exile intended to last? The Roman exiled ended on 14 May 1948 at the moment the first prime minister of Israel, Ben Gurion, announced that Medinat Israel (the State of Israel) had been established. A nation was born in one day—the State of Israel—in fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah! The next day, however, the Arab nations invaded the Land with the sole purpose of pushing the Jews from the river (the Jordan) into the sea (the Mediterranean). At that crucial moment for the State of Israel, David Ben Gurion, a secular Jew, and Jacob Blaustein, the leader of the American Jewry, signed an agreement which obligated Israel not to encourage the American Jews to immigrate in exchange for the American Jewish financial and political support of the new state. Since then, as a result of this “trade-in”, the agreement has been honored, and no Israeli government has ever made any efforts to encourage immigration of the American Jewry to Israel. Basically, the Israeli governments and the Aliyah-related organizations remained passive waiting for the Diaspora Jews to come to them, and the Diaspora turned back to the Covenant of the Land and the State of Israel. Concerning this “trade-in” of fashioning of plans against His will in seeking protection in foreign powers, the Eternal declared in return,
Woe to the disloyal children, declares the Eternal, to make counsel, but not from Me, and to devise plans, but not of My Ruach, in order to add sin to sin … (Isa 30:1)
The prophecy in Isaiah refers to those of His children who sought shelter under the protection of Egypt and refuge with Pharaoh (verse 2). Although this is the historical context of the verses, we can offer a different interpretation, for it seems as relevant today as ever, as His children are still seeking protection of today’s “Egypt” and its “Pharaoh”. For the prophecy indeed delineates events as having layered background, in which it must be read not only in its immediate context, but also in the context of what will happen after the narrative.
Even though this latter aspect of dependency of Israel on foreign military aid and political pressure are well known in Israel, at present we are interested precisely in the question: What was the sin that was added to a sin? This will be the subject of our study to seek the answer to this question in another book of prophecy: the Book of Ezekiel. We will forward the time to the last days when Israel will be in exile.
Bas-relief on Arch of Titus showing menorah taken from the Temple of Jerusalem, Roman Forum, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Rome, Lazio, Italy. The beginning of the Diaspora.
In Chapter 36 of Ezekiel, in which the restoration and blessing of Israel is unfold, the Eternal declares that whenever Israel is in exile it is a Chillul haShem (Hebrew for “desecration of the Name”) to Him. We read in the Book of Ezekiel,
And I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the lands. I have judged them according to their ways and their deeds. And when they came to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned My set-apart Name for it was said of them, “These are the people of the Eternal, and yet they have gone out of His land”. (Eze 36:19-20)
He scattered them among the nations in order to judge them for what they deserved, and there they profaned His Name. But why is that? Was it not Him who sent them into exiles in the first place? As Rashi explains, the exile of Israel among the nations is a desecration of the Name, because they said, “These are the people of the Eternal, and yet they have gone out of His land”: in the eyes of the nations, Israel’s mere presence in the foreign lands shows the inability of the Eternal to protect and keep His people in His Land. In different words: from the Eternal’s perspective, what He is, His people are to be, for He said in Leviticus: “Be set-apart [from this world], as I am set-apart”! But from the nations’ perspective, what Israel is, their God is. They look upon the chosen people and judge them according to their deeds. This mere presence of the Jews in exile is the desecration of the Eternal’s Name, because it appears to the nations that their God had not kept His oath but abandoned them in foreign lands for slaughter (compare to what Mosheh said to Israel in Num 14:16).
A person should always reside in the Land of Israel, even in a city that is mostly populated by gentiles, and he should not reside outside of the Land of Israel, even in a city that is mostly populated by Jews. The reason is that anyone who resides in the Land of Israel is considered as one who has a God, and anyone who resides outside of the Land of Israel is considered as one who does not have a God. Ketubot 110b
The desecration of His Name in the heathen’s eyes began when Israel was carried away out of its own land and scattered in the foreign lands first in Assyria, Babylon, and then the longest exile—the exile of Rome. The heathens looked upon the destruction of the Land and the Temples, they then looked upon the people among them, despised them and regarded them as no longer a nation (see also Jer 33:24 and Rashi’s commentary that with these words, the gentiles caused “My people to despise being a nation to Me”) and concluded that the exile of Israel was a judgment of their God upon them, who had distanced them from Him, and saw it as a sign of the inability of their God to defend His people from the nations of the world. The heathens mocked them by saying that they are no longer the chosen nation, a special nation to their God, and hence they concluded that the God of the Hebrews must have rejected them and started looking for another people to adopt. The Christians later came to this exact conclusion, when they saw the lowly state of the Jews in their lands and determined that the Church had superseded Israel, their God had rejected the “Old Israel” for the “New Israel” and replaced the “Old Covenant” with the “New Covenant”. Thus, Israel’s exile among the gentiles has led to the invention of the so-called “Replacement Theory” of the Church that Israel was replaced by other people, namely, the Christians. This unfounded doctrine has led to centuries of Christian anti-Semitism, pogroms, persecution, and the Holocaust, because the Jews scattered among the nations, without land and hope, were seen as low people who have deserved their fate in exile. But for the Eternal the exiles of Israel are Chillul haShem (“desecration of His Name). There can be no greater desecration of His Name than to witness Israel in exile, then and now.
The only way in which the Eternal could destroy the delusional nations is by manifesting Himself to the world as the Elohim of Israel through the final redemption of His people and the glorification of His Land. And this will be the ultimate sanctification of the Name (“Kiddush haShem”): His people living in the Land in fulfillment of the eternal Covenant with the forefathers, as we read again in Ezekiel,
And I shall sanctify My great Name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. And the nations shall know that I am the Eternal, declares the Lord Yehovah, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. (Eze 36:23)
How will He set apart His great Name, which has been profaned among the nations? By taking Israel back home (verse 24), which is the greatest sanctification of the Name. This promise in the form of solemn declaration is meant for all generations, for it is eternal, as the promise-giver is eternal. He has not changed and neither has His Word spoken of since the greatest prophet Mosheh our teacher.
There are “religious” Jews who reject the Land, because they say that the State of Israel is secular, and if it is run according to the Torah, they would return there. If not they would stay in exile until Mashiach comes and brings them home on a magic carpet. For them the Promised Land is something out “there”. But what the misguided “frums” do not want to see and recognize is that the elevation of the State of Israel is dependent on the level of observance of the Torah, and the level of observance of the Torah is dependent on the number of the observant Jews who live in it. The more observant Jews live in Israel, the higher level of sanctification and elevation of the Land. Anyone who refuses to return to the Land by excuses like the above does not recognize the One who has said these words through the prophet Ezekiel.
The final redemption of Israel spoken of above unfolds in stages, as the Eternal declares it: first, the return of the exiles back in the Land, the purification of His people from the uncleanness of the gentiles, and then, the return of the Torah and its observance, as the Law of the Land. When all of these stages are completed, Israel will dwell safely in the Land as His people, as the Eternal is going on to say,
For I shall take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and I shall bring you into your own Land (the first stage: the gathering of the exile). Then I shall sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean…. (the second stage: the purification). And I shall put My Ruach within you and cause you to follow My statutes, and you shall keep My judgments and do them (the third stage: the return of Torah). And you shall dwell in the Land that I gave to your fathers. And you shall be My people, and I shall be your Elohim (the final redemption). (Ezekiel 36:24-28).
Then, the prophecy in Ezekiel concludes with the building of the Third Temple in Jerusalem and re-establishing the Torah of the Eternal as the Law of the Land (see Ezekiel 40-48). Some details of the language employed here suggest that the terminology carries a deeper meaning. And indeed, from the positive statement in verses 24 through 28 we may derive the negative: Israel is still in exile.
We will now return to complete what we commenced to explain in the beginning. The founding of the State of Israel (“Medinat Israel”) in 1948 and the ongoing return of the Jews from exile (the first stage) have made it clear to everyone that the Eternal has kept His promise to bring them back home; it is clear to everyone but to the Diaspora. And even though the Land is receiving back her people through Aliyah (literally, “going up” or “immigration”), not all of them are willing to come home. This is the exile’s Chillul haShem. But there is a worse desecration of the Name than this: those born in Israel and those who have already made Aliyah are now leaving her to return to the exile. This is the ultimate desecration of His Name adding sin to sin: by returning to the state of the Diaspora, while abandoning the State of Israel. The world is watching them, and so is the jealous Elohim.
Knowledge known to only a few will die out. If you feel blessed by these teachings of Time of Reckoning Ministry, help spread the word!
May we merit seeing the coming of our Mashiach speedily in our days!
This page contains sacred literature and the Name of the Creator. Please, do not deface, discard, or use the Name in a casual manner.