The Concept Of Exile In The Talmudic And Midrashic Writings

As we all know, Jewish People is a people of exile. Throughout their history, the desire of going back to their Land, to Israel, to Jerusalem was extremely strong. The Jews were exiled mainly twice and were marked by the destructions of First and Second Temples, which were in 586 B.C.E and 70 CE. Since the latter one, Jews were scattered all over the world and stayed the state of exile for almost two thousand years until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. It is only through exile that formed Jewish People that we are seeing today. There are no other nations in the world that have going through so much bitterness and anguish. The expressed desire to be in Jerusalem is a wish for unification, belongingness, a sense of security, and an end to exile. And this inner feeling and sense of exile and its resultant longing are essential components of Jewish identity. It is unique to the history of the Jewish people that this feeling has powerfully colored the emotions of the individual as well as the national consciousness. Therefore, if we want to know the Jewish People, we have to know their exiles and Diasporas.In 70 C.E., Romans destroyed their Second Temple and Jerusalem. Judaism which was based on the Temple went into pieces; the priestly power which had dominated Jewish religious and political life and which was based on the Temple apparently collapsed and vanished. Rabbis started to appear as a new Jewish leadership to continue Jewish religion and keep the identity of Jewish people. Temple Judaism started to turn into Rabbinic Judaism which is based on Torah and prayer. At the very moment, rabbis dealt with numerous communal issues, as well as matters of Jewish life and practice in Diaspora, leading people going through the difficult time in Jewish history without temple, therefore the faith moved on and was continued.However, from the beginning the exile was a phenomenon which demanded an explanation, especially facing the anguish of exile there is a thought that God has already abandoned Jews, and the rabbis were questioned by people in exile. How would rabbis view this phenomenon? Surely, the answers have to be searched in the classic rabbinic writings: Talmud and Midrash. Rabbinic views of exile would definitely be very important, as being in the leadership of Judaism, they have to give a reasonable religious explanation to reconfirm people's religion, especially having the strong Christian power coming up - only in this way could they keep the faith and escape assimilation. Also, facing religion and people's catastrophes and tragedy, by examining their attitude and views of exile, how they interpret it, the method they were using etc., we can see how they attempted to introduce a positive aspect to the nation's exile, how they turn a negative description and aspects of exile into good and positive ones. In this way they strengthened Judaism in its turning point, persuading people that even in exile they still could and should worship God and live the lives that He wants people to live; this helped people to conquer their fear of exile, while studying Torah, praying and atoning, observing Torah and commandments, waiting for the Messiah and the final redemption.