Timeless Torah

The topic of divorce receives scant Biblical attention. In fact, the entire issue is covered in basically one sentence of this week's Torah portion. Nevertheless, a more comprehensive analysis by the Sages created a whole Talmudic tractate devoted to this very subject. The opening Mishna of that volume is strikingly unusual. Instead of beginning with the basic rules; how a divorce is written, when is divorce a legal option, etc., it opens with this peculiar, uncommon scenario. "The bearer of a scroll of divorce from a husband in a foreign country (outside the land of Israel) is required to declare, 'In my presence the divorce was written and in my presence the divorce was signed.'"
The reason for choosing this particular discussion to begin clarifying the laws of divorce is to make a point about the very nature of divorce itself. Divorce is unnatural. Its origins are in the "foreign country" of the spirit, without which there would be no separation.
All this has a wider spiritual significance. The marriage of man and woman is the metaphor for the relationship between G-d and Israel. If the Revelation at Sinai is where heaven and earth met and married, then exile and Diaspora should be tantamount to divorce.
And yet, how can there be a divorce between G-d and His people? Jewish law rules that divorce is finalized only when the bill of divorce has been handed over, leaving the husband's possession and becoming the property of the wife. But nothing can leave G-d. The universe and everything in it, is His. So can separation ever be real?
The answer is alluded to in the beginning of the tractate. When man moves away from G-d, G-d moves away from man. Then G-d seems distant, as if in a foreign country, and the possibility of our separating from our Creator takes root in our minds.
At this point the analogy ends. For G-d can never truly cast off His people with the finality of divorce. As the Mishna declares, the bearer of the divorce must state, "In my presence it was written and in my presence it was signed." In other words, the bearer must testify that he is not the husband, only the messenger.
In historical terms, this means that the foreign powers that defeated Israel and sent her into exile, have no final sovereignty over Israel. They are merely messengers and Israel is, and always will be G-d's people. The shadow of exile may eclipse the innate love that exists between G-d and the Jew, but can never extinguish it. No matter how far one thinks he has wandered, one can never leave one's "husband's possession".