Q&A: Why Was the Exile 2,000 Years?
Why Was the Exile 2,000 Years?
Question
Hello,
If I understand correctly, the Jewish people behaved improperly in areas A, B, C, and D, and because of that they were exiled from the Land.
So basically, you would need to change A, B, C, and D, and then it should be possible to return to the Land.
Why does this whole process take 2,000 years (rather than, say, 50 or at most 100–200 years)?
For example, you can see cultures in our world that changed dramatically in periods of less than a hundred years (Japan, Vietnam, Russia, and others). Of course it’s not exactly parallel, but it illustrates that change can happen over time spans that are not hundreds or thousands of years.
In addition, to the naked eye it doesn’t seem that what supposedly should be happening is actually happening (the change in A, B, C, and D). Aside from an hour-long class here and there a few times a year for an audience that mostly isn’t really listening, I don’t see active efforts taking place to change things. I do have an inner feeling that things are moving forward, but I don’t see how that is happening in practical terms in the outside world. And also—changes being made now could also have been made 1,500 years ago, which is really the original question: why does everything take 2,000 years?
Answer
A strange question. First of all, this isn’t a matter of output or cultural change, but of will and repentance. How many people do you know who have significantly changed their character traits or personality? How many people have undergone meaningful repentance that actually lasts?
Beyond that, even if we were exiled because of A-B-C, that doesn’t mean that once A-B-C is fixed we will immediately return. The exile may involve many considerations as well (such as the ripening of cosmic and universal processes, and more).