exile

[cellio]

Today is (or perhaps was, by the time this gets posted) Tisha b'Av, the day on which both temples were destroyed (first in 586BCE by the Babylonians, and then in 70CE by the Romans). Other bad stuff happened in later years too. It is a national day of mourning for the Jewish people.
For a couple months (since it came up in torah study) I've been

Comments

[ichur72]

>> As I understand it, the traditional take on galut is all about physical distance.

I don't think so. I believe it has been considered more of a spiritual state, even though physical removal from the land is sometimes involved. Think about the story of Chanukah: The period of domination by the Seleucid Greeks is referred to as an exile, even though Jews were definitely present in Eretz Yisrael at the time.