"...And With Outpoured Wrath"

19 Tamuz 5775

People like to moan and say, "We have no prophets today! If only we had a prophet to tell us what to do." Why do you think we have the written words of the prophets of old? Why do they speak of a time much future to their own - our time? These are our prophets for all time. But, are we prepared to heed their words any more than the people of their own time did? To my great sorrow, I think not.

Do yourself a favor and read chapter 20 of the Prophet Yechezkel. It's an unbelievable thing.

It's the Tenth of Av after the destruction of the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar. The Jews are in Babylon and they come to Prophet Yechezkel for a consultation. The Stone Edition Tanakh commentary says the following:

The elders were in shock that God had apparently spurned Israel, and they asked whether they still owed Him allegiance. If they were no longer His Chosen People, why couldn't they be like all the other nations? Yechezkel responded that they were wrong. Even their exile and oppression were functions of their chosenness; Israel was being punished because it had fallen short of its mission. But, as Yechezkel says in verses 32-33, Israel is not free to join the nations.

...God instructed Yechezkel to tell the protesting elders of the national shortcomings over the course of history, in Egypt, the Wilderness, and in Eretz Yisrael.

Imagine! Hashem prizes Eretz Yisrael so highly that He feels the ultimate punishment is expulsion from the Land. And yet, the elders of the Jewish people seem almost relieved at the thought that they may be free of its burden. 

Hear the words of Hashem as recorded by the prophet. Hear how proudly and lovingly He speaks of His Divine gift of Eretz Yisrael...

"...I raised My hand for them, [swearing] to take them out from the land of Egypt to the Land that I had sought out for them - [a land that] flows with milk and honey, a splendor for all the lands."

Hashem knew that this perverse attitude would not be restricted to Yechezkel's time period, but would remain an issue for all time; therefore, Hashem said...

"...I will rule over you with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath. I will take you out from the nations and gather you from the lands to which you were scattered, with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath; and I will bring you to the Wilderness of the Nations and I will contend with you there, face to face. Just as I contended with your forefathers in the Wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I contend with you - the word of the Lord Hashem/Elokim. I will make you pass under the rod and bring you into the bond of the covenant. I will separate from among you those who rebel and those who transgress against Me; I will take them out of the land of their sojourning, but they will not come to the soil of Israel; then you will know that I am Hashem."

We've seen this "strong hand and outstretched arm" (b'yad chazakah uvizero'a netuyah) imagery before - in the references to the first redemption (Shemot 6.6, Devarim 4.34, Devarim 5.15, etc). But, something new has been added here to the description of the process of the final ingathering of the complete redemption - "with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath" (b'yad chazakah uvizeroa netuyah uv'chemah shefukhah). Why with "outpoured wrath"? Why is Hashem so angry? What's different this time? The context provides the clues.

First of all, this is addressed to those whom Hashem has come to take out from among the nations, so they are obviously not yet in Eretz Yisrael. And it takes place within the context of Diaspora leadership asking the Prophet whether they have any further responsibility to G-d or to His Land now that they have been cast out. They express that they would be happy to become like the rest of the nations living outside of Eretz Yisrael, (i.e. they've discovered that life is easier and materially richer outside the Land). 

"...I will take you out from the nations and gather you from the lands to which you were scattered, with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath...."

The logical connection is that the vast majority of those who choose to remain in the Diaspora at the End of Days do so out of a reticence to commit themselves to the higher spiritual (lower material) standard required of those who live in the Holy Land. I have actually heard a rabbi say that it's better for Jews not to make aliyah because their sins are judged more harshly in Eretz Yisrael!

Regardless of the government, which is only a disguise after all, the Land of Israel has never been more open and more welcoming of its children since the fall of the Second Temple!! Do you think this is not Yad Hashem? When Hashem has answered our prayers after two-thousand years and made us such a gift and we reject it, of course, He is angry! Instead of running home to Him with open arms, you make Him come and get you!

"...I will make you pass under the rod and bring you into the bond of the covenant. I will separate from among you those who rebel and those who transgress against Me...."

It appears from the text that all those who remained behind will be judged on their motives and those who are found to have acted out of rebellion or as a result of sin will suffer the full wrath of Hashem. 

"...I will take them out of the land of their sojourning, but they will not come to the soil of Israel; then you will know that I am Hashem."

Notice that Hashem distinguishes between "you" and "them". To "you" Hashem has said "I will make you pass under the rod and bring you into the bond of the covenant." As the Gemara (Ketubot 110b) relates: "...one who lives in Israel is as if he has a God and one who lives outside is as if he has no God."

So, those among the Jewish people who rebelled and sinned against Hashem will be forced to leave the Diaspora, but they won't be allowed to enter Eretz Yisrael. I leave their final destination to your imagination. As to the "you" group spoken of here, those who are being removed from the Diaspora but who have been judged not to be rebelling or sinning against Hashem, this will be their end...

"...on My holy mountain, on the mountain on the height of Israel - the word of the Lord Hashem/Elokim - there the entire House of Israel, all of it, will serve me in the land; there I will accept them favorably,.... Then you will know that I am Hashem, when I bring you to the soil of Israel, to the land about which I raised My hand [in oath] to give to your forefathers."

There were survivors from the Holocaust, too, but do you really want to try to live through something like that when you don't have to?   

In the Amida prayer, we say, "...raise the banner to gather the exiles and gather us together from the four corners of the earth." This "banner" was raised on 11 September 2001! The whole world saw it!! Not one Jew alive did not know about it!!! 

There has been an almost fourteen year grace period. Those who are teenagers now - "too old" to make the move to Eretz Yisrael today - were toddlers then. What stopped you from beginning to make your preparations and organizing your life to come home then?

This is also when NBN got started and the whole aliyah process became so much easier than ever before. The lack of response to Hashem's efforts to bring us home is an insult. He won't allow it to pass without a mida k'neged mida answer from Him - "and with outpoured wrath."