And HOW!!!!
We have the same Ribono Shel Olam as always.
?? ??? ?’ ?? ????? ????, ??? ???? ?? ?????
We were and are always His cherished and beloved people. And He has been our beloved G-d, our King, our Shepherd, our Father.
The circumstances and appearance of our service, our avodah may have changed externally, but our true internal essence remains the same, if not stronger. Our Jewishness, the pintele Yid is alive and aflame as always.
As Rabbi Miller ??”? pointed out, our great monumental works of Talmud and its commentaries were compiled in the diaspora, under much duress. Iv’e heard of a Rishon (maybe a Baal Tosafas) who wrote some of his thoughts, chidushim in prison with his own blood as ink!
Our central limud is Gemarah. Right. It is. Know what that means? That one is in constant touch with all sages, through ALL ERAS, and in ALL AREAS of Torah. For one to say a chiddush today one must make it through all of Mishna, Talmud, Geonim, Rishonim (all Rif, Mordechai, Rambam, Tur etc.), Achronim, Roshei Yeshivos etc. We have a lot more to contend with. Actually there’s a Gemarah somewhere that points out something to the effect that the later ones learned a lot more than the earlier ones, but that the earlier ones were moser nefesh etc.
Davening was then self-composed. Nu nu. So we don’t have the right frame of mind anymore to compose our own. So that’s why our ???? ???? ?????? composed a centralized composition, through ruach hakodesh. Know what that means? Even if one is so bogged down by the galus trappings, one doesn’t have any time or energy for contemplation, kavannah, devotion, one is still connecting oneself to HaShem through these most powerful words of Tefillah instituted by these great men of Anshei Kneses HaGedola (these very same ANGELS who were capable of doing away with the yetzer hora – for good!) Of course the optimal way of tefillah is to daven with utmost concentration, devotion, but in our current circumstance it is not always possible. That is our avodah now. HaShem just LOVES and ADORES our pithy little muttering and murmurings as we find time in our harried life and lifestyle to re-sync. And for those who can and do take their time and energy to daven properly – how much more uplifting are those words. We now have a basis and yesod of these great compositions upon which to base and direct our thoughts. Words that were conceived through ruach hakodesh have an extremely powerful effect. So in that aspect, again, we’re better off.
Kingdom? Ha! That itself was not optimal. As Shmuel chastised the Jews, ????? ??? ??? ????? ????? ?’ ????? ??? ???. No, having a king is really a ??????, look up ??? ????? in the parsha of shoftim. Torah-true Jews have HaShem as our King today, as has always been.
Farmers, Karbanos? We do that and much more with our learning! True. In the time of the beis hamikdash, there were a certian amount of koahnim who did their avodah as shluchim (for HaShem of His people). How many korbanos would you say they brought in one day? How many thousands of Karbanos are we effecting through our learning these ???????, areas in Talmud (and Tefillah).
I believe I heard from Rabbi Miller ??”? that the Torah was given in a fashion suitable for the galus lifestyle. The ???? ?????? ???? had our current matzav in mind when shaping history. It’s no coincidence and not by chance that the majority of Jewishness has been in Galus, without a Beis HaMikdash. This is HaShem’s pure nachas from us, seeing us elevate ourselves from amid the trials and tribulations this great galus has to offer.
If you need testimony from a goy, see what Reb Shmuel Clemens said on the matter. Even he understood (a bit of) The Jew.