Israel was not given the Law so that it might win political independence and national prosperity; rather, Israel was given political independence and national prosperity so that it might be able to observe the Law. תורה, the Law, remains the eternal, unchanging goal, the purpose of the national existence of the Jew. This purpose does not vary with the degree of independence or prosperity that the Jewish nation enjoys at any given time. Freedom makes it easier for Israel to observe the Law; prosperity enables the people of Israel to accomplish its mission more fully. Political pressure will make observance of the Law more difficult, and lack of independence will leave the fulfillment of Israel’s mission incomplete. But all of Israel’s apparent fate signifies only a greater or smaller allotment of means for accomplishing the mission assigned to it by the Law of God. Israel’s mission as such remains unchanged, and hence also remains the one unchanging bond that unites the larger Kehillath Ya’akov as a whole, as well as each small Kehillah that exists only as a daughter branch of the great, total Kehillah.
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch “The Kehillah,” Collected Writings, Vol. VI, pp. 64-5