Avonam

"But where does Jewish tradition get the certainty that the punishment which has befallen Israel is not of a permanent character, and that sooner or later it will not completely disappear among the nations? For a people, deprived of the natural bonds provided by a commonly inhabited land, a common language, and the trials to which it is subjected in its own land, is doomed, in dispersion among other peoples, to a gradual loss of identity and dissolution into its surroundings."

In his latest essay, Avonam ("their guilt"), Rabbi Ephraim K. Sidon addresses a topic that has been a bone of contention within traditional Judaism for more than a century: is it religiously permissible for Jews to demand political independence, or should they remain in exile to atone for their guilt? Should they patiently await the coming of the Messiah, or are they entitled to hasten the end of the Diaspora and confidently face the new age?

Czech edition