Embracing Exile: The Case for Jewish Diaspora

A new interpretation of historical and contemporary Jewish texts that views diaspora as a positive outcome for Jews and for the worldJewish people have always wandered.According to their origin story, they wandered from Ur of Chaldees to Canaan, then Egypt, and then back to Canaan.From there, they were exiled to Babylon, where they lived for centuries.They also settled in Persia, Egypt, Morocco, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Poland, Ukraine, England, the United States, among many other places.Diaspora became normal to Jews, and though they may have hoped for a return to their "Promised Land" at the "End of Days," they made sense of their many homes, defending diaspora as the realm where Jewish life could grow, and they could fulfil their obligations to God.Embracing Exile analyzes biblical and rabbinic texts, philosophical treatises, studies of Kabbalah, Hasidism, and a multiplicity of modern expressions.It offers revised readings of the Bible's book of Esther, a survey of Talmudic treatments