Where Are We in the Redemption Process? (Part 2 of 2)

9 Tevet 5782

[Please note Rabbi Richter's Part 2 from last week's shiur at right -->]

"It is known that the last redemption will be like the first." (p.569)

"G-d will bring the final redemption the same way He brought the first,...." (p.930)

"This last exile and its redemption will be like the first exile and its redemption: Just as there, when the time of reckoning came, G-d did not allow Israel to remain in the exile, the same here as well. Our sages said (Midrash HaGadol, Bereshit, 50:24):

"'G-d is sure to visit you' [pakod yifkod] (Gen. 50:24): He informed them of two visits. The first [pakod] referred to the time of Moses, the second [yifkod] to that of the Messianic king." (p.964)

"The first exile is an omen for the last." (p.994)

~ Or Hara'ayon by Rabbi Meir Kahane, Volume II

 

If so, and if we are now in that parallel period of redemption during which the famous plagues would be carried out, maybe we should be following the example of our forefathers during that earlier time period. But, what did the Hebrews do during that year? Did they just sit back and watch?  

There are discussions about whether the Hebrews were affected by the first three plagues, but there is a general consensus that they did not suffer from the remaining plagues, except for the plague of darkness during which all those who did not want to leave Egypt perished.

It would seem that this was a transitionary period during which the Hebrews were no longer forced to labor as slaves yet they were not yet free to leave.  It was necessary that they concentrate on observing G-d's display of power, and Egypt's slow demise, and internalizing the new reality so that their faith in HKB"H could be firmly established and the desire to escape be nourished.  That preparation was perhaps critical to the successful crossing of the Sea and the advance into the Wilderness.

We could possibly deduce this from our current situation.  Western Civilization is the new Egypt and it rules the entire world.  Assimilation into that culture is the greatest threat to Klal Yisrael on the planet.  Like Moshe Rabeinu, our righteous Mashiach will come to take us out of this current incarnation of Egypt, but in order to do so, the Jews will first have to become convinced of the necessity and desirability of its ultimate destruction and choose to disassociate themselves from it.  

"Today's alien culture has replaced idolatry, one more reason G-d promised not to let Israel dwell among the nations.  G-d said, 'With fury poured out I will be King over you' (Ezek. 20:33), and He said He would remove Israel from the exile by force - at least those who survive the suffering there and are not killed by G-d like the Jews who, despising Eretz Yisrael, preferred to remain in Egypt."  (p.569)

"Just as G-d liquidated the exile in Egypt and allowed no Jew to remain, killing those who refused to leave for Eretz Yisrael, so, too, in this period of final redemption, G-d will liquidate the exile with fury poured out and will annihilate any who refuse to leave it - Heaven help us!" (p.580)

"Lack of faith and trust is what separates us from redemption by our Father in heaven.  It is this which leaves most of the Jewish People in the cemetery of exile, breeding ground for a future holocaust, G-d forbid! 

"Lack of trust in G-d's Oneness, fear of the nations [or love of them], the alien conception that we must rely on them or we have no hope, and the calculation that one had better sit tranquilly in the exile 'since earning a living in Eretz Yisrael must be harder than splitting the sea' - such petty lack of faith is what keeps the Jew in the exile.  This mind set is hinted at in the Hebrew language ordained by G-d.  In Hebrew there is no difference between גולה-gola, exile, and גאולה-geulah, redemption, except the letter aleph, with a numerical value of one.  Thus, whoever remains in the exile, thereby postponing Eretz Yisrael's redemption, is only doing so because he lacks the "One," the complete belief in G-d's being One and His name One."  (p.967)

~ Or Hara'ayon by Rabbi Meir Kahane, Volume II

What we really need to be doing right now is setting aside all other distractions and concentrating on building faith and trust in HKB"H as well as working to uproot every thought, desire and act that is favorable toward the continued domination of this world by the current incarnation of ancient Egypt.  (And that is without slacking in our avodat Hashem!)