{"id":48840,"date":"2019-02-06T14:32:59","date_gmt":"2019-02-06T12:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=48840"},"modified":"2022-08-31T17:53:10","modified_gmt":"2022-08-31T14:53:10","slug":"rootless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/rootless\/","title":{"rendered":"Rootless"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[442,828,790],"acf":{"old_id":"48840","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34011,"related_cahpter":"150","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"What happens to us and to the world when displacement becomes mobility?","content":"

These are the journeys of the children of Israel who went out of the land of Egypt… From Rameses to Succoth, and from Succoth to Etham… from Lisbon to Livorno… and from Marrakesh to Marseilles… from Grodno to Brooklyn… and from Brooklyn to Miami Beach….<\/span><\/p>\n

The Jews leave slavery in Egypt – but before settling in the Promised Land, they experience a 40-year interlude of wandering in the wilderness, leaving an indelible mark on the Jewish psyche.<\/span><\/p>\n

We have been wanderers ever since.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Bible would have us believe that the wandering was only an interlude.Directly after the lengthy list of way stations in the desert that begins this chapter, is the detailed description of the borders of the Land, the well-defined goal of the meandering Long March. But even a cursory look at Jewish history reveals that the reality has been the opposite: the majority of our years as a people has been spent sojourning in our many diasporas. The time spent living peaceably secure within the borders described in these chapters has been scanty indeed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Likewise, the tradition itself seems to have internalized a wanderer’s consciousness: of the five books of the Torah, three and a half take place during that desert displacement. As far as the yearly readings go, no sooner do we arrive at the edge of the Land of Israel at the end of Deuteronomy, then the cycle sends us back to the Beginning, to Eden with its own Exile and resultant eternal wandering.<\/span><\/p>\n

The historical consciousness of the wanderer, avoiding setting down roots and becoming attached to any of the myriad landscapes of sojourn, has characterized Jews. <\/span><\/p>\n

What has historically been the lot of the Jew, for theological reasons, is true of the modern Everyperson, for sociological ones. The average American moves 10 times during their life. The official name for this is not displacement or alienation – nothing so foreboding – but mobility.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Jewish situation is now fashionable.<\/span><\/p>\n

But no connection means having no commitment. Pervasive alienation from the natural world characterizes modern society, which is creating urban nomads in pursuit of the career equivalents of good grazing land. And the state of the environment shows this: Whatever the implications of wandering (mobility) for the Jew (citizen), it can’t be good for the physical world. Without a sense of place and a generations-long, rooted connection to a piece of land, real caring is partial at best.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is up to each of us to decide whether we have arrived, are at home and can set down roots, with all the commitment that that entails. Or is perhaps the current Diaspora analogous to those ancient desert journeys, random visits to random places? For the Israelites, those way stations were steps on a path \u00a0– there was a direction and a goal. <\/span><\/p>\n

Can the same be said for contemporary Jewry? We seem to have the wings of spirituality, of intellect, of creativity. Do we have roots?<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":48851,"id":48851,"title":"Num33-rootless","filename":"Num33-rootless.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Num33-rootless.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/rootless\/num33-rootless\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"num33-rootless","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":48840,"date":"2019-02-06 12:32:44","modified":"2019-02-06 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