Most Jews who dream of redemption desire a complete redemption all at once – on a single day, through a total overturning of the order of the world. It is very difficult to internalize what is stated explicitly in the Torah (Exodus 23:30) and in the words of the Sages (Jerusalem Talmud, Berakhot 1:1):

“I will drive them out before you little by little, until you have increased and possess the land”; thus is the redemption of Israel: at first it comes little by little, and as it proceeds, it continues to grow.

To understand this we must return and read the Torah and the Prophets carefully. After the splitting of the Red Sea, Moses sang the Song of the Sea with the children of Israel, and in its final section appears a prayer describing complete redemption:

In Your love You lead the people You redeemed; In Your strength You guide them to Your holy abode. The peoples hear, they tremble; Agony grips the dwellers in Philistia. Now are the clans of Edom dismayed; The tribes of Moab—trembling grips them; All the dwellers in Canaan are aghast. Terror and dread descend upon them; Through the might of Your arm they are still as stone— Till Your people cross over, O ETERNAL One, Till Your people cross whom You have ransomed. You will bring them and plant them in Your own mountain, The place You made to dwell in, O ETERNAL One, The sanctuary, O my Sovereign, that Your hands established. GOD will reign for ever and ever!

In Your love You lead the people You redeemed; In Your strength You guide them to Your holy abode.

The peoples hear, they tremble; Agony grips the dwellers in Philistia.

Now are the clans of Edom dismayed; The tribes of Moab—trembling grips them; All the dwellers in Canaan are aghast.

Terror and dread descend upon them; Through the might of Your arm they are still as stone— Till Your people cross over, O ETERNAL One, Till Your people cross whom You have ransomed.

You will bring them and plant them in Your own mountain, The place You made to dwell in, O ETERNAL One, The sanctuary, O my Sovereign, that Your hands established.

GOD will reign for ever and ever!

Why did all this have to last 480 years (I Kings 6:1) until Solomon built the House of the Lord in Jerusalem? Why could the children of Israel not have entered the land all at once – just as you prayed – amid the utter astonishment of the peoples of Canaan, from Edom to Philistia?

Why could Moses not have been both David and Solomon together, as the dreamers long to see “our righteous Messiah,” bringing complete redemption all at once?

The State of Israel is a state of “the ingathering of the exiles,” as defined explicitly in its Declaration of Independence and in the Law of Return. In truth, the ingathering of the exiles has been unfolding before our eyes for nearly two hundred years. And it is important to understand: never before in history has there been an ingathering of exiles to an ancient ancestral land. In the world there are only waves of migration and assimilation. Even the people of Israel did not witness a massive ingathering of exiles in the days of the Second Temple – nor at any time from then until our own generations.

Moshe Rabbenu (Deuteronomy 30) described a future ingathering of exiles after the “blessing and the curse,” after the scattering of our people to the ends of the earth. The prophets repeated this again and again. In the Amidah prayer we ask for it three times a day. Yet only in the last generations have we merited seeing this with our own eyes.

In no source is it written that David’s anointed successor – Mashiach ben David – will gather the exiles; not in the Torah, not in the Prophets, not in Psalms, not in the words of the Sages, and not in our prayers. Only God gathers the exiles, and the order of redemption follows the order of the prayer (Babylonian Talmud, Megillah 17b; Jerusalem Talmud, Berakhot 2:3):

First God gathers the exiles; afterward come justice and the wars against the arrogant enemies; and only at the end comes the David’s anointed successor to complete God’s redemption.

Since Israel’s rebirth with the establishment of the state, for 78 years we have been living through a continuing War of Independence that has never truly ended. Not in Jerusalem after the Six-Day War, and not on the Golan or at Suez after the Yom Kippur War. All the agreements have been temporary – armistices and ceasefires, even partial “peace agreements,” without ending the conflict. Dreamers among us yearn for full and rapid peace, and many of them are convinced that it depends only on us – but this is completely detached from reality.

The current stage in the war for the rebirth of the people of Israel in its land has now been unfolding for two and a half years. Before our eyes astonishing miracles are taking place – from the remarkable fighting spirit of our sons and grandsons to the complete mastery of our pilots in the skies over Iran. And yet the end is nowhere in sight, even though most of us long and pray to see it.

Now people are speaking of the collapse of the evil regime of Haman = Khomeini = Khamenei, yet the wicked heir is still striving to continue the revolution of evil. The patience of the American president – such as has never arisen before in his support for us – already sounds short-tempered. For the tyrants in Iran, mere survival of the regime would be enough to celebrate victory and plan revenge with enriched uranium.

It is difficult for us to accept such a long road. Yet this has been the pattern throughout Israel’s history, in every generation – from the Exodus from Egypt until our own day. Let us take strength from the great spirit now emerging, especially among the younger generation. Let us reflect on the extraordinary miracles unfolding before us, the like of which have not been seen for thousands of years. Let us pray for God’s complete redemption, while at the same time taking a deep breath and recognizing that Israel’s redemption is indeed unfolding before our eyes – but as a long and ongoing process.

Even when we seem to see the “end,” it is only another stage in our redemption.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)