HaRav Shlomo Aviner is Head of Yeshivat Ateret Yerushalayim in the Old City.
In light of numerous setbacks we seem to face on a weekly basis, including wars, terrorist attacks, political division, and international opposition to Israel’s sovereignty over our rightful borders, some people wonder whether this is really the time of Redemption.
Perhaps we were wrong to believe that G-d is now redeeming His Nation, they ask themselves.
While we can understand this pessimistic way of viewing our situation it is totally wrong. When the Master of the Universe spoke about Redemption, He never promised that there would be no difficulties along the way.
Moshe was certainly G-d’s emissary in the Redemption from Egypt. When he set out to redeem Israel, he spoke to the Nation and they were enthusiastic. Yet when he went to speak to Pharaoh, that evildoer refused to listen. In fact, Israel’s plight worsened, and the Jews were compelled to gather their own straw. Those moments were exceedingly difficult for the people and for Moshe himself.
Ramban, in his commentary, explains that Moshe surely knew that Redemption did not have to come in an instant, but could come gradually. In fact, some regression was likely, as indeed occurred at the time, followed by improvement.
Ramban quotes our Sages on the verse, “My beloved is like a gazelle” (Shir HaShirim 2:9): “Just as a gazelle comes in and out of view, so does the first redeemer appear to them, then disappear, then reappear” (Ramban, Shemot 5:22. Also, Shir Ha-Shirim Rabbah 2:22). The gazelle runs in the mountains, suddenly disappears and then appears once more. Later on as well, it seems to have disappeared, but it has really just moved forward, and it then reappears further along. In the same way, Moshe is the redeemer who brought good tidings and put hope and faith in our hearts. Suddenly he seemed to have disappeared. The situation grew worse, and then it got better.
At the start of the return to Zion, the Arabs perpetrated a terrible pogrom in Hevron. Not only were many righteous Jews brutally murdered, but the community was in despair, saying, “This is not what we thought would happen.” HaRav Avraham Yitzchak Kook wrote an article “Return to the Stronghold!” saying, “We have to be courageous. In the terrifying event which has now occurred in Hevron, the Redeemer seems to have disappeared, but he will be revealed once more” (Ma’amarei Ha-Re’eiyah, page 360).
We must not despair over what is happening today. We must be courageous and persevere. This is not the first time since the start of our national rebirth that we face challenges and setbacks, and we have to consider that it will not be the last time either.
It says in Shir HaShirim 2:17: “Be like a gazelle or a young hart upon the mountains of Beter.” What is meant by “the mountains of Beter?” This is a mountain with a cleft [Beter] down the middle. The gazelle passes through the cleft and none can see it. It was to reassure us about those times that G-d forged His covenant with Avraham (Bereshit 15), likewise called “the covenant between the split halves [Betarim].” When we see the gazelle run, all rejoice and are enthusiastic. The true test of whether we yearn for salvation comes when we do not see the gazelle, when it is concealed in the mountain cleft.
In the Shemoneh Esrei prayer we express this yearning. Rabbi Kook explains that yearning for salvation includes two things:
- Even when it seems to us as though the Redemption is at a standstill, or actually regressing, we have to continue to believe that the Master of the Universe is moving matters forward, only we do not see it.
- We have to seize upon all possible means to advance redemption, what Rabbi Kook called “creative yearning” (Olat Re’eiyah 1:279).
When we face hardships and setbacks, we must not despair, but instead increase our strength and courage. Then, in the end, we will prove capable of the challenge.