Thinking Outside the Box

18 Menachem Av 5784 

The ballot box that is.  Democracy is a failed experiment.  The idea that this is progress for mankind is simply not true.  It comes from the idea that humanity is moving from primitive society to advanced society when the reverse is actually true.  The further we travel from the Har Sinai experience, the more degraded we become.

When we are ready to concede that what calls itself democracy is not suited to a Torah-based national life, we will finally be prepared to be redeemed.

(Hoshea 3:5)  Afterwards shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God and David their king, and they shall come trembling to the Lord and to His goodness at the end of days.

(Yechezkel 37:21-28)   And say to them, So says the Lord God: "Behold I will take the children of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side, and I will bring them to their land.

And I will make them into one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be to them all as a king; and they shall no longer be two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms anymore.

And they shall no longer defile themselves with their idols, with their detestable things, or with all their transgressions, and I will save them from all their habitations in which they have sinned, and I will purify them, and they shall be to Me as a people, and I will be to them as a God. And My servant David shall be king over them, and one shepherd shall be for them all, and they shall walk in My ordinances and observe My statutes and perform them.

And they shall dwell on the land that I have given to My servant, to Jacob, wherein your forefathers lived; and they shall dwell upon it, they and their children and their children's children, forever; and My servant David shall be their prince forever.

And I will form a covenant of peace for them, an everlasting covenant shall be with them; and I will establish them and I will multiply them, and I will place My Sanctuary in their midst forever.

And My dwelling place shall be over them, and I will be to them for a God, and they shall be to Me as a people.

And the nations shall know that I am the Lord, Who sanctifies Israel, when My Sanctuary is in their midst forever."

(Yirmiyahu 30:1-25)   The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying:

So said the Lord, the God of Israel, saying: "Write for you the words that I have spoken to you, on a scroll.

For, behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will restore the captivity of My people Israel and Judah, says the Lord, and I will restore them to the land that I gave their forefathers and they shall possess it.

And these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah.

For so said the Lord: A sound of quaking we have heard, fear, and there is no peace.

Ask now and see whether a male gives birth. Why have I seen every man [with] his hands on his loins like a woman in confinement, and every face has turned to pallor?

Ho! For that day is great, with none like it, and it is a time of distress for Jacob, through which he shall be saved.

And it shall be on that day, says the Lord of Hosts, [that] I will break his yoke off your neck, and I will break your thongs, and strangers shall no longer enslave them.

And they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king, whom I will set up for them.

And you, fear not, My servant Jacob, says the Lord, and do not be dismayed, O Israel, for behold I save you from afar and your seed from the land of their captivity, and Jacob shall again be silent and at ease, and no one will frighten them.

For I am with you, says the Lord, to save you, for I will make an end of all the nations where I dispersed you, but of you I will not make an end, but I will chasten you in measure, and I will not completely destroy you.

For so said the Lord: Your injury is painful, your wound grievous.

No one deems your wound to be healed, you have no healing medicines.

All your lovers have forgotten you, they do not seek you, for I have smitten you with the wound of an enemy, cruel chastisement, for the greatness of your iniquity; your sins are many.

Why do you cry about your injury that your pain is severe? For the magnitude of your iniquity, since your sins are many, I have done these to you.

Therefore, all who devour you shall be devoured, and all your adversaries, yea all of them, shall go into captivity, and those who plunder you shall be plunder, and all who prey upon you I will give for prey.

For I will bring healing to you, and of your wounds I will heal you, says the Lord, for they called you an outcast, that is Zion whom no one seeks out.

So said the Lord: Behold I am returning the captivity of the tents of Jacob, and his dwellings I will pity, and the city shall be built on its mound and the palace on its proper site shall be established.

And thanksgiving and the voice of those making merry shall proceed from them, and I will multiply them, and they shall not be diminished, and I will increase them, and they shall not become few in number.

And their children shall be as of old, and their congregation shall be established before Me, and I will visit evil upon all their oppressors.

And their prince shall be from them, and their ruler shall emerge from their midst, and I will bring him near, and he shall approach Me, for who is it who pledged his heart to approach Me? says the Lord.

And you shall be My people, and I will be your God.

Behold a storm from the Lord has gone forth with fury, yea a settling storm; on the heads of the wicked it shall rest.

The kindling of the Lord's anger shall not return until He has executed it, and until He has fulfilled the plans of His heart. At the end of the days you shall consider it.

At that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.

[On vs. 5 Rashi says: "A sound of quaking we have heard": Some interpret this as alluding to the tidings of Babylon, from which those exiled there quaked. But the Midrash Aggadah explains it as an allusion to the war of Gog and Magog.] 

[On vs. 7, "that day" - the day of the downfall of Gog.]

SO HAS IT BEEN WRITTEN,
SO SHALL IT BE DONE.