The Difference Between Diaspora and Exile
I hear through the grapevine snatches of a question about the goal of Mishkaneering -- in particular, whether it be an anti-Zionist agenda. This question hits me with perfect timing, thank G!d, because it brings forth a deeper Torah that we could use in a few conversations taking place currently. It also sent me back to my definition of "Mishkaneering" from last week in which, I just realized, I made a critical mistake. I had written of "Mishkan" that the Hebrew literally means "in(to) dwelling." That was incorrect: "Mishkan" literally means "from dwelling."
Does this matter? Well, when has a single letter of Torah ever not meant the whole world? With the "from"-ness of Hebrew mem, "Mishkan" suggests that there is a meeting between Yisraeyl and Shekhinah that arises from the Jews' dwelling together in the wilderness. The process of dwelling is the source of Divine connection, not its product.
This necessarily impacts how we understand the constitution of Temple consciousness itself, because the Temple is built partly out of the Mishkan, and when one is lost the other is lost with it. Torah provides no design for Temple without Mishkan, and no vision of Temple left standing after Mishkan's destruction. Therefore, if the ultimate aspiration of Zionism is the Temple reconstituted, then Zionism is integrally dependent upon the dwelling of Jews in the wilderness.
Also impacted is our understanding of the "wilderness." The Hebrew word "HaMidbar" -- meaning "from the word/thing" or, more to the essence, "from duality" -- signifies both the desert-like isolation and the jungle-like complexity that arises from living in a world of boundaries, distinctions, insides versus outsides, language. "Mishkan" defines the way from that confounded aloneness to realization of Holy One-ness as a way of dwelling in the challenges of duality.
The other Hebrew word, "galut," is conventionally translated as "exile" and carries significant negative connotation. In common usage, galut is the perjorative term for Diaspora Jewry's unfortunate situation outside of the Biblical Holy Land. Its Hebrew root, signifying "exposure," is the same used for Sefer Vayikra (Leviticus)'s prohibited "uncoverings" of family relations, where also it has carried a negative connotation. As that passage in Parshat Acharey (home to the contentious "if a man should lie with a man..." pasuk) becomes ripe for deeper reading, we are approaching the possibility of a more constructive understanding of the spiritual function of nakedness in general.
Without a long tangent into comparitive mysticism, suffice it to say that there is a model for the progressive development of enlightened consciousness whose translation in Lurianic Hebrew is: 1, "haknaah" (submission) to 2, "havdalah" (differentiation) to 3, "hamtakah" (sweetening) -- each valence of consciousness being predicated upon the previous. I am going to guess right now that the spiritual psychology of Diaspora includes the same constituent valences: 1, "Galut" (exposure) to 2, "Midbar" (duality) to 3, "Mishkan" (dwelling). Torah also provides a corresponding geopolitical mapping of the three valences -- 1, Diaspora (guest culture) into 2, Zion (host culture) into 3, Temple ("Nation of Priests"). Because each level is the foundation of the next, this schematic liberates "galut" from necessarily bearing negative connotation.
Now this is all a bit academic. The progression becomes tangible only through direct experience. Until recently, this experience was the exclusive possession of mystics who could taste it through focused consciousness-raising discipline. That all changed in 1948. Today Jewish culture broadly possesses direct experience of the possibility of consciousness progression, because we are, with the State of Israel, now functioning as a host culture and not merely a guest culture. Consequently, Diaspora consciousness is itself transformed, because it is now manifestly the foundation of something, i.e. Zion. We are thereby motivated to aspire from Diaspora to Zion, for sure, but also within Diaspora (within our landed dispersion, which is all "Diaspora" really means) we are motivated to aspire from exposure as everybody's Other to a rich and self-secure dwelling in radical chosenness by way of embracing the messy duality of Jewish identity.
We are, therefore, transitioning from the Exilic Diaspora to the Post-Exilic Diaspora (which would be more accurately termed the Super-Exilic Diaspora), and this fact is manifest in the evolution of Jewish institutional life in North America since two generations ago, such that we can identify Exilic Diaspora institutional structures -- synagogues -- as distinct from Post- or Super-Exilic Diaspora institutional models like the chavurah, Hillel, and Federation.
To Be Continued. But please do comment on this work in progress.
