<div dir="ltr"><p style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 25px;list-style:none;border:0px;outline:none;box-sizing:border-box;line-height:1.7;color:rgb(44,47,52);font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,"Segoe UI",Roboto,Oxygen,Oxygen-Sans,Ubuntu,Cantarell,"Helvetica Neue","Open Sans",Arial,sans-serif;font-size:15px">From Malka Z. Simkovich in Tradition</p><p style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 25px;list-style:none;border:0px;outline:none;box-sizing:border-box;line-height:1.7;color:rgb(44,47,52);font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,"Segoe UI",Roboto,Oxygen,Oxygen-Sans,Ubuntu,Cantarell,"Helvetica Neue","Open Sans",Arial,sans-serif;font-size:15px">Postscript<br style="padding:0px;margin:0px;list-style:none;border:0px;outline:none;box-sizing:border-box">Working on this essay gave me occasion to consider the rising tendency among Modern Orthodox American Jews to accept the notion that judaism cannot be authentically practiced outside the Land of Israel. My sense is that such Jews are exposed to the writings of R. Soloveitchik and R. Sacks, and could easily familiarize themselves with R. Soloveitchik’s interiorized understanding of the spiritual self, or with R. Sacks’ position that all jews can fulfill the prophetic charge to help build a moral civilization.<br style="padding:0px;margin:0px;list-style:none;border:0px;outline:none;box-sizing:border-box">Nevertheless, Modern Orthodox Jews intuitively align themselves with<br style="padding:0px;margin:0px;list-style:none;border:0px;outline:none;box-sizing:border-box">R. Berkovit’s position, not because of their exposure to his writings, but because they are exposed to claims from educators in Israel that position themselves as the voice of jewish authenticity. Such educators argue that the jewish people can only fulfill their covenantal destiny in the Land of Israel. For Israeli jews, the notion that halakha can only be authentically practiced in the Land of Israel, and that doing so shuttles the Jewish people towards an ontological destiny, satisfies their sense of religious purpose For jews living outside Israel, who adhere to these same ideas, it produces self-negation.</p><p style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 25px;list-style:none;border:0px;outline:none;box-sizing:border-box;line-height:1.7;color:rgb(44,47,52);font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,"Segoe UI",Roboto,Oxygen,Oxygen-Sans,Ubuntu,Cantarell,"Helvetica Neue","Open Sans",Arial,sans-serif;font-size:15px">Me- Does this description fit your sense of galut MO’s sense of self?</p><p style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 25px;list-style:none;border:0px;outline:none;box-sizing:border-box;line-height:1.7;color:rgb(44,47,52);font-family:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,"Segoe UI",Roboto,Oxygen,Oxygen-Sans,Ubuntu,Cantarell,"Helvetica Neue","Open Sans",Arial,sans-serif;font-size:15px">KT<br>Joel Rich</p></div>