[Avodah] [Areivim] idf

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Michael Kopinsky asked:
> Why was Galus Yavan considered galus and the days of Menashe
> not? ... but we still have the problem of towards the end of
> Bayis Sheni, when the Babylonians were essentially in power,
> even while we had the BHMK. We don't call that period galus,
> and instead we say that our current galus began with the
> Churban.
> I would like to see some kind of answer to these seeming
> contradictions.

Indeed, these contradictions are merely "seeming" contradictions.

I believe the problem is that we use the term "galus" far too generically, as if there is either "galus" or "not galus", and no other situations.

The truth is that there are at least two kinds of galus: When the Shechina is in exile, and when *we* are in exile. These two types of galus do not overlap exactly.

And there might be additional kinds of galus, each with its own peculiarities, such as when we are physically present in Eretz Yisrael, and at the same time the Shechina seems to be there as well (evidenced by the miracles of a functioning Beis Hamikdash), yet the government is run by foreigners. I'm not sure what sort of galus this is called, but I think the situation was mentioned somewhere in this thread.

In short, I beleive that the question, "Does such-and-such a situation count as galus?" is not a valid question. To be meaningful, one needs to specific what sort of galus he is asking about.

Akiva Miller

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