ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter it was shown that exile is essentially a metaphysical, and not just a geographical, concept. It is much more a matter of where the soul abides than of where we hang our hat. The best proof of this point is that exile, as noted, is characterized by the desecration of the Sabbath. Recall in this connection the teaching of the Spanish mystic Meir ibn Gabbai (1480-c. 1540): “The profanation of the Sabbath causes the destruction of celestial Jerusalem and through this [process] earthly Jerusalem was destroyed [and the Israelites were exiled]” (Meir ibn Gabbai 1989: 41). It is not for nothing, therefore, that, when the Nazis invaded Poland, among the first of their decrees was the prohibition against Sabbath observance (see, for example, Huberband 1987: 40). Sabbath observance entails entering into a state of “peace” and “rest,” of “respite” and “repose,” a state of hj;Wnm] (menuchah); significantly, the root for hj;Wnm] is jn: (nach), a verb that means not only to “rest,” but also to “dwell.” The Sabbath repose, therefore, is the radical opposite of the radical homelessness that Primo Levi, for example, describes, when he says that in the concentration camp “everything is hostile” (Levi 1996: 42), and “the struggle to survive is without respite, because everyone is desperately and ferociously alone” (Levi 1996: 88). Yes, ferociously alone. The Nazi prohibition against the Sabbath rest was a prohibition against Jewish dwelling, indeed, against human dwelling. It was part of the assault on the Jewish soul that rendered the Jews homeless before they were slaughtered. Living in a camp, in a ghetto, or in hiding, every Jew in Nazi Europe was homeless; not a single Jew had a residential address as a Jew.
