Inspired by the Weekly Torah Portion of Shemot [1](Exodus 1:1 - 6:1
The MAHARAL of Prague, Rabbi Yehudah Loew ben Betzalel (circa. 1512 - 1609) emphasizes that the Final Redemption at the end of time will mirror the First Redemption from Ancient Egypt during the time of the Exodus. That means the Torah portion of Shemot "Exodus" that describes the early beginnings and travails of the nation of Israel and the rise of its messianic-like leader Moshe and the confrontations with Pharaoh are important templates that lay down the pattern and open the doors to the subsequent 3,300 plus years of Jewish History.
The beginning of the story is always the same. The Israelites arrive as refugees, they become great and succeed beyond their wildest dreams making their host nations very nervous and paranoid that results in what we today call rising antisemitism that does not end well for all concerned: God saves the Israelites from a terrible genocidal fate, someone arises to champion the cause of the Israelites/Jews, then there is a showdown that brings matters to a head. This is basically what happens in the Parsha of Shemot and it is an ongoing lesson for all of history.
Pharaoh utters the words of every paranoid Jew-hating leader that the Israelites cannot be trusted and are therefore a danger of a fifth column ready to align with enemies of the state. This is still the motto of modern-day antisemites and proves that the more things have changed over the last 3,300 plus years, the more they have stayed the same.
The Jews under Nazism, Communism, Catholicism, Martin Luther, Chmelnicki, Torquemada, the Pogroms, Inquisition, the Farhud, expulsions from France, England and many countries in Europe during the Middle Ages, expulsion of Jews from Muslim lands, and even as part of "white flight" from lower class neighborhoods in America, and on and on it goes further back into history, under the Romans, Greeks, Persians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Canaanites, Philistines and then back to the grandaddy of them all that laid down the pattern's beginnings: Ancient Egypt with its enslavement, persecution and infanticide against the Children of Israel.
As the MAHARAL stresses in his teachings about the first Exodus, it is but the forerunner of all the later ones and it constantly molds what comes after it.
Each era in history has had the potential of being the age of the Final Redemption. It could have all climaxed with Moshe leading the Children of Israel into the Land of Israel and bringing on the End of Times, but it did not end that way.
The Final Redemption could have been done under Mordechai and Ester in the time of the Persian Empire, but it did not turn out that way.
Rabbi Akiva himself during Roman times, believed that Bar Kochba was the promised Savior of the Jews, but that too never came to pass.
For over two thousand years the Jews wandered around the world. There were plenty of small and large Pharaohs, tyrants, kings, emperors, lords high and low who stood up against the Jews and God with the same Chutzpah of Pharaoh saying who is God that I should obey him and let the Jews go free? They want freedom? I will give them slavery, torture, exile, auto da fes, ghettos, death camps and gulags ad nauseum. It's always the same tune from the paranoid Pharaoh personality type.
Nevertheless, the Torah teaches that as sure as anything, God is sending a redeemer not just to the Jews but to the world. Moses redeemed the Children of Israel from Ancient Egypt, and then many other great Jewish leaders carried the baton of leadership in their own ages, but the final chapter will belong, as the Jewish Prophets teach, to a Redeemer not just of the Jewish People but of all humanity, who will finally place the world under the rule of God. May it happen speedily in our days!
Note|:[1] "Shemot" means "names" from Exodus 1:1 "And these are the names of the Children of Israel who came to Egypt...")
