Rav Itamar Schwartz, the author of the Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh
Get a PDF of Three Weeks Talks
Exile in the World
There is exile in time, such as the Three Weeks. There is also exile in a place, such as Adam being exiled from Gan Eden. There is also exile in our own soul (our nefesh) – when our own soul is exiled. How does the soul become exiled?
The Jewish people have been exiled among the nations, but there is also an exile within the Jewish people. We are exiled amongst the Erev Rav (the Mixed Multitude). The current exile, Edom has entered a new phase, the exile of Yishmael. And this exile of Yishmael has just now expanded into the exile of the Erev Rav. This is a more inner exile than the exile of Yishmael, because it is an exile within the Jewish people itself.
Scattered Soul – Personal Exile
Yet there is an even deeper kind of exile than our exile to the Erev Rav. This is the exile of our very nefesh (soul). What is this exile?
The Maharal in sefer Netzach Yisrael writes that just as the Jewish people are exiled, so also is the Torah in exile. The Sages say that the “words of Torah are rich in one place and poor in another place.” The fact that the words of Torah are spread out and scattered all over the place is a form of the Torah in exile. With regards to our own soul as well, when the soul abilities of a person are scattered inside himself, he is in a personal exile. The soul has many abilities, and they each have their proper place. When they get mixed up, the person is in exile within himself.
This is also the depth behind the suffering of Gehinnom. If a person lived his life wrong and he is sent into Gehinnom, his real punishment is that he is in a place where he doesn’t belong. He is in exile.
Exile is when we aren’t in the place we should be. The same is true for our soul. If our soul’s abilities are out of place, that is exile. When our abilities are not where they are supposed to be it creates internal chaos.
The exile of the soul is really the depth of our exile. Chazal say that three sins take a person out of this world: jealousy, desire, and honor. That is exile – when we are taken out of our proper place, due to negative traits of the soul which “take a person out of the world.”
The Ramban says that a person exists where his thoughts are. If, for example, a person is sitting in the Beis Hamidrash, but he’s spacing out, thinking about what’s going on in the world, where is he? He is really outside of the Beis Midrash, out there in the world, in a place where he doesn’t belong. It is exile.
First Feel Your Own Exile
A person must come to recognize this matter from within himself (as it is written, “From my flesh I see G-d.”). If a person doesn’t feel his own personal exile that is taking place inside himself, he won’t be able to feel the general exile of the Jewish people either. In order to know what exile is, you have to already recognize the concept from within yourself.
There are many areas in the soul. There is the layer of our actions, our middos (character traits), our emotions, and our thoughts. If a person realizes how mixed up the parts of his soul are with each other, he will realize how much he is in a personal exile.
If a person realizes that this is his situation and he is able to cry about it, he has the key to feel the exile of the Jewish people, and the fact that the Shechinah is in exile and that Moshiach hasn’t come yet. Although it is “shelo lishmah” (based on ulterior motivations), because he is only crying about himself and not about the other, still, the rule is that shelo lishmah can bring a person to “lishmah.”
The concept of galus, on a superficial level, is well-known. But the inner meaning of galus is not that well-known. The Maharal says that the concepts of exile and redemption are interrelated, for the words “galus” (exile) and “geulah” (redemption) are rooted in the word, “giluy” – to reveal. The depth of this concept is because when a person sees how much we are missing in exile, he sees how much is needed to be ‘revealed’ – and he will then be able to feel the pain of the exile.
If someone still cannot feel how his very soul is in exile, and he doesn’t realize that we are supposed to reveal Hashem, and that we are missing this in exile, what can he do to feel the loss of the Shechinah?
He is not exempt just because he doesn’t feel his own personal exile. He should think into the world’s dire situation right now – how much the world is missing now. It is written about Moshe, “And he went and he saw their suffering.”
So too, one should think about the painful situation of today’s times which will bring him to feel the loss of the Shechinah, the situation of exile.
Basic Empathy
If this is still not enough for a person to awaken himself to feel the pain of this exile, he should at least think about how much people are missing physically in their life. For example, think into the following:
1) How many widows and orphans are there on the world? 2) How much suffering and illness is manifest in the world? 3) How much financial stress is occurring in the world?
How much pain is going on in this world? Feel the pain of other people on this world; connect with the pain of others whom you meet. Anyone is capable of doing this – we can all unite together in this way and feel some mutual connection.
This will elevate our own personal suffering from being self-absorbed, into feeling the suffering of others, the suffering of the masses. This will help us feel the pain of exile, and of this the Sages state,“Whoever mourns properly over the destruction of Yerushalayim, will merit to see it rebuilt.”
