LESSON 60: Geulah b’Rachamim
 
To date, the Jewish people are 3,319 years old. At least, that is how long we have had Torah for, having received it 2448 years from Creation, in the year 1313 BCE. We became a nation while still in Egypt, but we became a Torah nation at Mt. Sinai after receiving the Torah directly from God. And yet, the nation that stood at Mt. Sinai and said the words, “We will do, and we will understand” (Shemos 24:7), had only been a fraction of its former self, only 3,000,000 from a population that previously had numbered five times that amount. Four-fifths, 12,000,000 Jews died in the Plague of Darkness, as Rashi explains, because they had chosen to remain behind in Egypt (Shemos 10:22). The Plague of Darkness was the only one of the 10 plagues inflicted on the Egyptian people that also affected the Jewish people. The question is, was it an isolated event, or does it have a message for the generations of Jews that survived, and followed? It has been pointed out that there may be an allusion to the Holocaust in this very plague that resulted in the death of millions of Jews. In advance of the plague, God told Moshe: “Stretch out your hand towards Heaven, so that darkness will come over Egypt, a darkness which can be felt.” (Shemos 10:21) In Hebrew, “a darkness which will be felt” is written, “vayamish choshech”, spelled: Vav-Yud-Mem-Shin — which will be felt — Ches-Shin-Chof — darkness. However, in the Aleph-Bais, the letter that precedes Vav-Yud-Mem-Shin, a valid form of gematria, is Heh-Tes-Lamed-Raish, which is how the word “Hitler” (y”s), would be transliterated. Mere coincidence, or an amazing occurrence, considering that the Plague of Darkness was the only one to kill Jews, and millions yet? Furthermore, as mentioned already, as Torah Jews, we do not believe in random occurrence, and especially in this case, since the gemora itself connects up the Final Redemption with the first one. It even warns that what went wrong in the first redemption may actually be repeated in the final one, God forbid (Sanhedrin 111a), making it somewhat difficult to ignore the implication of such a hint. If something happens historically, it is sanctioned by Heaven. If we become aware of it, then that too was planned by God. This is especially true since God is always trying to communicate with us, and save us from disaster, whenever possible. Thus, the Ben Ish Chai points out that even one of the terms used for the Final Redemption, “Keitz HaYomim” — end of days — alludes to the connection between the redemption at the beginning of history, and the one at the end of it. The gematria of “keitz”, spelled Kuf-Tzaddi, is 190. This was the amount of years remaining from the 400 years we were supposed to have spent in Egypt, but didn’t, having left early after only 210 years. Even the word “hayomim” is instructive. It would have been enough to say “keitz yomim” to say “end of days”; keitz hayomim means “end of the days,” which might have been meaningless without the 190-year reference that precedes it. Which days end with Yemos HaMoshiach? “Those days,” meaning the days left over from the Egyptian exile, revealing, as mentioned earlier (Lessons 19 and 20), that the Final Redemption is really just the conclusion of the first one. This means, that the redemption from Egypt is a work in progress, and only comes to a conclusion with the advent of Yemos HaMoshiach. Not only are the two redemptions connected, but they are really two ends of one long, ongoing journey to freedom. More than the Jewish people have been waiting for the Final Redemption, history has been waiting for the Final Redemption, and that is the reason why it hasn’t come to this very day. The Chofetz Chaim compared the Final Redemption to the payment of a sachir yom — a daily worker. The law is that, if a person works on a daily basis, then he must be paid for his day’s work at the day’s end. To not do so is a violation of a Torah mitzvah, unless, explains the Chofetz Chaim, the worker does not request his payment. Likewise, explained the Chofetz Chaim, God definitely owes us the Final Redemption, especially after all we have suffered to fulfill the Torah. But, he explains, if we don’t ask for geulah, then God can put off bringing it until we finally demand it. And, it is always better to ask for something at a time that you don’t need it, than to wait for the time that you do. Over 3,000 years of Jewish history can testify to that. Four-fifths of the Jewish population in Egypt did not merit to survive because they rejected the redemption at hand. The Generation of the Spies suffered a similar fate because, not learning the lesson of the four-fifths, rejected Eretz Yisroel. How many times has God built us up as a people, only to take it all away from us again? Why? Because all of our success has always only been to further the cause of redemption, and it is justified as long as this is the case. When it stops being the case, and it only serves to further the cause of exile, we usually lose just about all of it. Once again, the Jewish people find themselves in a similar position. We have lived through another golden era, and even possess Eretz Yisroel, after 2,000 years of being away from the land. In the meantime, the winds of change suggest that a downturn might be heading our way once again. Do we learn from our past mistakes, and finally take the right course of action, becoming geulah-oriented, and yearn for Kibbutz Golios, the return of the temple, and the Shechinah to Tzion? Or, do we continue to miss the point, and instead remain focused on secondary issues, blinded by confusing political matters? This is the question that every Jew who can ask it must answer, and answering the former is crucial for bringing the Final Redemption, in mercy. May it be so speedily in our time. Amen.
Friday, February 22, 2008