What we just said needs to be explained. The Jewish people have been in Galus for about two thousand years now, without Eretz Yisrael. And we have not only survived but been productive. These were not “two thousand years of nothingness.”
A lot of Torah understanding came to be. Many of the Tannaim lived after the destruction of Beis Hamikdash. All the Amoraim, who gave us the Talmud Bavli and the Talmud Yerushalmi, lived after the Churban. And so did the Rishonim and the Acharonim. They were all eternally great people, each in his generation.
The whole world, from the six days of Creation, was prepared for the coming of Abaye and Rava, for the Rashba and the Ramban, and also for the Chasam Sofer and the Chofetz Chayim. Within the purpose of Creation was Hashem’s intention to create R. Akiva Eiger. It’s not a bedi’eved, it’s not since something went wrong and we ended up in Galus, that there needed to be all these Gedolim during the Galus.
On the contrary, the Chofetz Chayim says that when Mashiach comes, we will tell him, “Until you came, we made Torah.” The existence and the purpose of the Jewish people is the Torah. So why does the Torah talk about Eretz Yisrael all the time?
