Our Gemara at the end of 105b into 106a compares the curse of Ahijah the Shilonite to the blessing of Bilaam:

Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani says that Rabbi Yonatan says: What is the meaning of that which is written: “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are importunate” (Proverbs 27:6)? Better is the curse that Ahijah the Shilonite cursed the Jewish people than the blessing that Balaam the wicked blessed them.

Ahijah the Shilonite cursed Israel with a reed, as it is stated: “For the Lord shall smite Israel as a reed is shaken in water” (I Kings 14:15). There is an aspect of blessing in that curse, as he was saying they will be just like a reed that stands in a place near water, as the water sustains it, and its stalk replenishes itself—as if it is cut, another grows—and its roots are numerous. And even if all the winds that are in the world come and gust against it, they do not move it from its place and uproot it. Rather, it goes and comes with the winds. And once the winds subside, the reed remains in its place.

But Balaam the wicked blessed them with a cedar. There is an aspect of curse in that blessing, as he was saying they will be just like a cedar that does not stand in a place near water, and its roots are few relative to its height, and its trunk does not replenish itself—as if it is cut, it does not grow back. And even if all the winds that are in the world come and gust against it, they do not move it from its place and uproot it; but once a southern wind gusts, it immediately uproots the cedar and overturns it on its face.

Moreover, it is the reed that was privileged to have a [kulmos] taken from it to write scrolls of Torah, Prophets, and Writings. Therefore, the curse of Ahijah is better than the blessing of Balaam.

Maharsha adds that the reed, even when uprooted, can still reproduce via writing; so too, Jews in exile produce and spread Torah.

This makes me wonder how far the metaphor goes. After all, the reed actually can only produce writing after it is uprooted. Shall we also then say there is something necessary about exile that leads to creativity and production?

Historically, though exile is traumatic and may lead to forgetting and losing traditions and identity via the loss of social and geographical anchors, it may also bring out new qualities via confrontation with an outside culture.

It is undeniable history that the Babylonian Talmud, a high point of Torah study and intellectual achievement and moral development, came about in Babylonia, not Israel. The greatest prophet and lawgiver, Moshe, grows up in an Egyptian home, and even after receiving the Torah, receives key guidance from an outsider, his father-in-law Yisro. Is this an accident, or is there something that is catalyzed within the Jew when there is appropriate engagement with outside cultures? The dark side of this is assimilation, but is there any potential upside?

The Gemara Pesachim (87b) states: And Rabbi Elazar said: The Holy One, Blessed be He, exiled Israel among the nations only so that converts would join them, as it is stated: “And I will sow her to Me in the land” (Hosea 2:25). Does a person sow a se’a of grain for any reason other than to bring in several kor of grain during the harvest? So too, the exile is to enable converts from the nations to join the Jewish people.

A simple reading of this suggests that the exile exposes the secular world to the ideas of Judaism, which inspires some to convert.

This idea of exile, so far, serves the Gentile more than the Jew. However, there is more to meet the eye. Various commentaries see this “conversion” as a metaphor for other forms of spiritual transformation. 

Ben Yehoyada says the exile allows the Jews to redeem the holy spiritual sparks of goodness trapped within the physical matter. Resise Layla (57) says that the Jewish encounter with the Gentile allows the Jew to draw out the holy spiritual sparks trapped within the various characterological and social qualities of the other nations.

Once we go that far, the redemption of the holy sparks can be expressed in a psychological and sociological dimension as the generation of new ideas and approaches that were developed from this exposure. The explosion of Torah development in Babylonia may not just have been an inevitable product of time and development, but even stimulated by the exile. The Resise Layla quoted above also states that even personal exiles may represent a need to redeem spiritual sparks. Enduring defeats, loss, and loneliness, while intensely painful, may also provoke and activate qualities within us that we never would have discovered.

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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Rabbi Simcha Feuerman, Rabbi Simcha Feuerman, LCSW-R, DHL is a psychotherapist who works with high conflict couples and families. He can be reached via email at simchafeuerman@gmail.com