When Opportunity Knocks…

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Hebrew Word of the Day Tragedia(Tragedy) Hear Translation » May 15, 2012 "Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites – everyone whose heart God had moved – prepared to go up and build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem." —Ezra 1:5 At first blush, the response to King Cyrus’s declaration that the Jewish people can return to their homeland seemed positive. People left Babylon and went to Jerusalem. But who, exactly, went? Or, more importantly, who did not go? The overwhelming question remains: how is it that every last exile did not run, skip, and hop his way back to Jerusalem? The time period that we are speaking about is known as Shivat Zion, which means “the Return to Zion.” There are two important things to note about that time period. First, only two tribes actually got to return – Judah and Benjamin. These two tribes were part of the kingdom known as Judah. The other ten tribes – known as the kingdom of Israel – had been exiled hundreds of years earlier by the Assyrians and therefore were not part of this return. The second thing to understand is that most Jews did not participate. They chose to remain in Babylon. In fact, Jewish tradition teaches us that had the Jews come back to the Land of Israel in droves, they would have built the Holy Temple and ushered in the messianic era right then and there! Why did so many Jews miss this grand opportunity? The answer, in a word, is comfort. The exile only lasted for 70 years, but that was enough time for the Jewish people to become comfortable in their new surroundings. These were the very same people of whom it is written in Psalm 137, “by the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion” (v. 1) and “if I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill” (v. 5). Yet, less than a century later they seemed to have indeed forgotten! The truth is that the Jewish people never did forget Jerusalem. Jerusalem was always the dream, but Babylon was their reality. For many Jews, it was simply easier to stay. Change, even for the good, is not easy. It requires us to leave our comfort zone and venture into the unknown. That can be hard, and change may bring about difficult consequences. But there are also consequences for resisting change, and those consequences can be tragic. More than two thousand years of human suffering could have been averted had the Jewish people embraced change and danced their way back to Jerusalem. A fantastic opportunity was missed, and we are suffering the consequences even today! Yet we can learn from the past and change the future. It has been said that opportunity never knocks twice on any man’s door. Next time you hear a knock at your door, run – don’t walk – and answer it. With prayers for shalom, peace, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein President