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<DIV>In a message dated 11/23/2008, afolger@aishdas.org writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>>>But beyond that, I'd like to point out that it seems that
shidukhim between <BR>shtetls that were at least one day solid walking away,
or even several days <BR>walk, was a standard occurence. FWIW, in each
successive generation, my <BR>ancestors on the paternal line (the Galicianers)
lived in a different city, <BR>ostensibly because their respective wives were
from different cities. My bet <BR>is that they saw each other
rarely.<<<BR><BR>Kol tuv,<BR>-- <BR>Arie
Folger<BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>>>>>>><BR>If you read a lot of Jewish history
you can't help but be struck by the fact that throughout the
centuries, Jews were /constantly/ on the move, either traveling for
business, or traveling to learn in a yeshiva in another city (e.g., Rashi
learned in Germany), or they were running away from war or from pogroms, or they
were expelled from here and had to go there, but then they were expelled from
there and had to go somewhere else. Our whole history is a history of
moving, moving, moving. Wherever Jews landed they tried hard to achieve
stability and permanence, but inevitably after a while they had to pull up roots
again. "A while" could be anywhere from a few months to a few years or
even a few generations, but nothing was as inevitable as Jews moving. Not
for naught do we have the timeless image of the "Wandering Jew" and BTW my
Wandering Jew plant is the only plant in my garden that thrives despite my
neglect. It just can't be killed off.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>And speaking of shidduchim, my grandmother and my grandfather were cousins
who lived in Polish towns a day's travel away from each other (before
cars, obviously) and they never met each other until they were
adults. When they met they got married. Also when my grandparents
moved to America, my grandfather's brother moved to Argentina and it was decades
before they saw each other again. They only saw each other once or twice
again in their lives.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The constant wandering and moving is the fulfillment of the curse (and
hidden blessing) of "ve'eschem azareh bagoyim" (Vayikra 26:33) -- the curse
being that we are constantly scattered and scattered again, we are never
secure anywhere in the world, we can only rest for a while but never really put
down roots -- and the blessing being that wherever in the world a Jew has to run
to, there are Jews already there waiting to take him in and help him. This
cosmic aspect of Jewish history was already foreshadowed (ma'asei avos siman
labanim) when Yosef went down to Egypt to pave the way for the Jews to survive
there in galus.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><B><BR></B><BR><B>--Toby Katz<BR>=============<BR></B>"If you don't
read the newspaper you are uninformed; <BR>if you do read the newspaper you are
misinformed."<BR>--Mark Twain<BR>Read *Jewish World Review* at <A
href="http://jewishworldreview.com/">http://jewishworldreview.com/</A></FONT></DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV CLASS="aol_ad_footer" ID="e1849a89e74e9d2fa1b930ece41a75bb"><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px"><b>One site has it all.</b> Your email accounts, your social networks, and the things you love. <b>Try the new <a href="http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1212962939x1200825291/aol?redir=http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp%26icid=aolcom40vanity%26ncid=emlcntaolcom00000001">AOL.com</a> today!</b></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>