Written by Yishai Fleisher    
One exile is when they remove us from our land, but the spiritual exile is much more difficult; it is exile that takes place when the connection between the Nation and its land is forgotten. We all know what exile is. Exile is what happens to a person who was kicked off his land. But this is not the worst exile. It is possible to exile a nation from its land by force, but if the nation aspires to return, sets up days of mourning in memory of the exile, remembers each centimeter of its land, remembers its history in that land, remains faithful to the holy sites and its Forefathers burial ground and educates each generation from generation to generation to remember the land under any conditions, then this exile is never complete because the connection between the nation and its land was never entirely severed.
Memory, education and longing—all three are the methods to defend from the full force of the exile effect and they might preserve a nation until such time when it is possible to stop the exile and begin returning from it. If so, what is full exile? Full exile takes place when the linkage between the land and the nation is forgotten. If there is no memory of previous ownership, if there is no desire to return, if children are not told stories about the land, then the exile the enemy wished to impose on the nation, the disconnect between the nation and its land receives its full force. If a nation forgot the fact that it was exiled, then it is true exile.From the idea of the nation’s collective memory loss comes the birth of true exile, stems surprising conclusion: A nation can be in exile even when it is living on its land. Like a person who suffers memory loss while he is sitting at home, a nation can lose its memory totally and in such a way that is cannot remember it arrived home.To remember Rachel-This is Israel’s situation today. The memory that remained in our collective conscious for two thousand years has gone through gradual erosion process and already cannot block the exile surge. Take for instance Rachel’s tomb. From the Jewish Nation’s emotional point of view there is no second to Rachel’s tomb. Rachel’s biblical life story; the description of the Prophet Jeremiah of her cry for her children being exiled and God’s promise that they will still return to their borders; the generation after generation who visited her tomb and the magnificent burial estate Moshe Montefiore built for her in 1841—all are different expressions of the manner that kept us remembering Rachel’s Tomb, in the Bethlehem olive orchards during the exile years. If you could, visit Rachel’s Tomb today. Monstrosity of complicated walls; gun posts, gates and chains were built around it, as they were going to stop the invaders. The place has turned ugly. If you actually succeed in entering the place, the guards will not let you walk around freely because, they say, of the danger that lurks everywhere, even inside the maze of the high walls.
Take your children to Rachel’s Tomb. Try teaching them about our Foremother Rachel while you enter with them into this big jail fortress. You will not succeed because you will not be able to pass on to them the sense of value of the place. It is too ugly, too military, to frightening, for it to have any kind of attraction, physical or emotional.
Only those who remember Rachel Tomb as it was could experience the emotional linkage to the place. If current conditions continue, the next generation will not remember Rachel Tomb and the exile from it will be stronger then it ever was during the last two thousand years. The way they exiled us from the physical Rachel Tomb, so Rachel Tomb is removed from our souls.The exile phenomenon exists everywhere, not only in Rachel’s Tomb. Joseph Tomb in Shchem has been lost after it was destroyed by the Arabs and was neglected by Israel. Hebron, our Forefathers domicile and burial, more often than not, is on the verge of destruction. Temple Mount, the place of the two Jewish Temples, is systematically castrated from its history (not to speak about its future value). Judea and Samaria, the heart of the biblical land, are disconnected by a winding wall that hurts the land and partitions between our past and our legacy. It seems that the forces of exile spitefully attack the places where our collective memory is the strongest.Intellectual ExilePhysical exile is one thing but intellectual exile, the memory disconnection is the final exile guillotine. The compelled forgetfulness infrastructure was laid during decades. The Jewish Nation historical linkage to its land was systematically wiped from the consciousness. At school many Jewish children learn to despise the Bible. They provide them with revisionist and anti Zionist version of history and the stories that could bring about the emotional linkage to places suck as Rachel Tomb are no longer taught. New jargon fills the void that is left in the young heads: Occupation, Palestine, peace and post Zionism. Our history is being wiped out and with it our connection to our land.This is not the first time there are attempts to cut off the memory of the Land of Israel among Jews. Prior of course were the two big exiles that took place when the Babylonians and Romans pillaged Jerusalem and sloughed the nation.Another event however clearly reflects what takes place today: the Jewish king Yerav’am ben Nevat was a villain who ruled the northern tribes during Israel’s divided kingdom (10th century BC). He wanted to cause his subjects to forget King David dynasty that ruled in Jerusalem at that time. For that purpose, and as an alternative to the temple in Jerusalem, he built two pagan temples and guided his nation to go pray there. But the nation insisted to go on visiting the real temple. Yerav’am built manned barriers in order to stop his subjects from going up to Jerusalem and hoped that aggressive obstruction will cause them to forget the Temple. Two hundred years passed before this "separation fence" was removed but then it was too late; the nation indeed forgot!
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