“Exile and the Jews: Literature, History, and Identity”
Edited by Nancy E. Berg and Marc Saperstein
At the moment of birth, we all begin as exiles, forced to leave our mother’s womb. “Exile and the Jews: Literature, History, and Identity” takes us on a journey that starts at birth and travels through thousands of years of Jewish experience. The book quotes Arnold Eisen, a noted Jewish scholar, who said, “to write the history of Jewish exiles is to write the history of the Jews.”
Through a grant from the William T. Kemper Foundation, editors and professors Nancy E. Berg and Marc Saperstein developed this book for a class at Washington University in St. Louis’ Department of Jewish, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies. It is a unique collection of Jewish texts about exile. Organized into ten chapters, the anthology groups texts into categories such as “Exile as Human Condition,” “Exile in Ancient History,” “Exile in Holidays” and more. The editors included helpful introductions before each text with information about the author, along with history and context from the time it was written. They included biblical texts and many other texts written by a who’s who of Jewish thought throughout the ages. Just to name a few, there is Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav from the late 1700s, who was the great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the Hasidic movement. From the late 15th century, we have writings from Don Isaac Abravanel. The editors called Abravanel, “One of the most luminous personalities of postbiblical Jewish history.” There are sermons from rabbis, such as Rabbi Hermann Adler, who was the chief rabbi of the British Empire from 1891 to 1911. Modern Jewish voices were included, such as Amos Neufeld, a New York writer and poet. He wrote a poem titled “Exile” for the Jewish Spectator in the summer of 1988.
I’m not a rabbi, so many names were new to me. But since the anthology was designed for college students, the editors wrote it so that non rabbis could understand it. The writing is very accessible, and the introductions to the texts assume no prior knowledge of the authors. Many will be familiar with the big names, such as Maimonides and Nachmanides, but I think even rabbis will learn something new. The editors included writings from over 125 authors. Almost every page has a text that can spark a discussion. It made me think of classes I took from Rabbi Irvin Wise, Rabbi Emeritus at Adath Israel Congregation. He could take one small text that could easily turn into a spirited hour-long discussion. This book is filled with texts like these that made me think.
A major takeaway for me was how living in exile is a paradox. How could something good come from something that is supposed to be such a bad thing? Sending someone into exile is a harsh punishment in the Torah, so how could something good come from it? The book pointed out that Cain killed his brother Abel and was sentenced to wander the earth in exile as a fugitive, yet he was able to marry, have a child and found a city that he named after his son Enoch. Exile can be a path to redemption, which is a theme for an entire chapter. The book quotes the Babylonian Talmud, saying, “Exile atones for all.”
Speaking of paradoxes, we wouldn’t have the Babylonian Talmud, one of the most treasured Jewish texts, if it weren’t for the Babylonian exile! The Babylonian exile occurred after the First Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BCE. Scripture spoke of how the Jews practiced idolatry and turned away from G-d’s commandments, which led to the Temple’s destruction. But while the Jews lived in exile in Babylon for seventy years, they were able to prosper. It became a golden age where the foundation of modern Judaism was created.
A letter from the Prophet Jeremiah was included in the book. It was a message from G-d to the entire exiled Jewish community that gave them permission to prosper in the foreign land. An excerpt from the letter said, “Build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their fruit. You should take wives and beget sons and daughters; and you should take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there, do not decrease. And seek the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you and pray to G-d on its behalf; for in its prosperity you shall prosper.” Jews embraced the foreign lands where they lived and not only survived but prospered. In Egypt, the pharaoh became worried about the Jews when they prospered and increased in number. This became a painful pattern with foreign leaders in Jewish history. Another paradox was that the punishment of exile may have ultimately saved the Jewish people by scattering them across the globe, making it difficult for any one enemy to destroy them all.
The Hebrew word “galut” is used many times in the book to refer to the Jewish people’s exile away from the Jewish homeland. One of the most memorable parts of the book for me was getting to read the writings of Theodor Herzl and Asher Zvi Hirsch Ginsberg, also known by his pen name Ahad Ha’am. I was fascinated by Ha’am’s three-page internal debate in his 1908 essay about the Diaspora. As he laid out his case, I learned about the many differing Zionist opinions of the time. His arguments led him to advocate for maintaining a strong Diaspora supported by a Jewish cultural center in the Land of Israel.
When I first saw this book in my stack to review, I pushed it aside. Digging into a college textbook can look intimidating. But this month, I opened the cover and started reading, and I couldn’t put it down. I was in the mood to learn. For teachers, this book could be used as the basis for an adult studies class. It could be used by a Jewish book club and discussed over several weeks. I could see rabbis keeping this book in their library as a cherished resource. Between the time I read the book and wrote the review, we celebrated the holiday of Yom Yerushalayim, which commemorates the reunification of Jerusalem after the Six Day War in 1967. Returning to Jerusalem from exile was something that Jews dreamed about for thousands of years. I realized that I don’t usually think of myself in exile, living a good life here in the Diaspora of the United States. Reading this book gave me new perspectives, taught me about my Jewish history and identity, and made me think more about my relationship with my homeland, Israel.
