Prof. Paul Eidelberg
The Jewish People are in the third of four redemptions. The First Redemption, of course, was from Egypt, the second from Babylon. The most conspicuous sign of the Third Redemption was the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
The death of six million Jews in the Holocaust gave the Jewish people a new life: from the four corners of the earth, Jews returned to Eretz Yisrael. And yet, today, in the midst of the Third Redemption, no place on earth is more dangerous for Jews than in the State of Israel. How are we to understand this paradox?
According to HaRav Yisachar Shlomo Teichtal, the Holocaust, of which he himself was a victim, was very much a consequence of the failure of European Jewry to heed the teachings of the Prophets and the Sages to redeem Eretz Yisrael when even Gentile nations supported the return of the Jews to their ancient homeland. He blames rabbis, righteous Jews, who, by opposing ALIYA, hindered Jews from fulfilling their sacred obligation to restore the Land of Israel and thereby sanctify God’s Name.
Writing in 1943, without books and with Jews perishing around him, Rav Teichtal composed an extraordinary work entitled A JOYOUS MOTHER OF CHILDREN. There he cites an incredible number of Torah, Talmudic, and post Talmudic sources showing that “the purpose of our afflictions is to arouse us to return to Eretz Yisrael.” These sources all speak of the crucial importance of the Holy Land. They show that the redemption of the Jewish people can only take place in Eretz Yisrael.
Rav Teichtal goes further. Contrary to what he himself had learned and believed before perishing in the Holocaust, he shows that secular Zionists deserve great praise; for even though they deny the Torah, they fulfill the commandment to redeem the Land of Israel.
But what are we to say today, we who live in this land now ruled by their not very Zionist descendants? What are we to say of secular Prime Ministers who have yielded parts of Eretz Yisrael to Israel’s enemies? Moreover, what are we to say of prominent rabbis who have justified this desecration of the Holy Land on the grounds of “PIKUACH NEFESH”—the saving of Jewish life? Saving Jewish life indeed! The Land of Israel is soaking in Jewish blood. What does all this mean?
Rav Teichtal states that the Jews of his time—even the righteous—having been spiritually diminished by the Exile, were not of sufficient caliber to merit or endure the unprecedented light and goodness of the Fourth Redemption. (Like a man emerging from a darkroom into the light of the sun.) The Jews have to be prepared step-by-step for the Final Redemption.
The Third Redemption involves a period of suffering, of increasing humiliation and degradation, but also of spiritual awakening as Jews begin to interface science and philosophy with the Torah. Two Israel’s therefore coexist in the Third Redemption: a political Israel that dwells in darkness, and a spiritual Israel that sees the dawn of day. Let me speak of the former.
Israel has experienced increasing humiliation and degradation since December 1987, when Arabs threw stones at Jews and thereby initiated the intifada. The Shamir Government, despite its mighty army, could not or would not quell this violence. Instead, it went to Madrid in October 1991 to seek peace with Israel’s Arab tormentors. Then, in the 1993 Oslo agreement, the Rabin Government sunk lower and offered Yasser Arafat, an arch-terrorist, Judea and Samaria, the heartland of the Jewish people for “peace.”
After Rabin the Government descended to the level of Shimon Peres, a fool who applied for Israel’s membership in the Arab League, a consortium of corrupt dictatorships dedicated to Israel’s destruction.
Descending further, the Netanyahu Government withdrew from Hevron, the city of the Patriarchs. But this was not the end of Israel’s disgrace. The Barak Government offered Arafat shared sovereignty of the Temple Mount, the holiest site of the Jewish people!
With the Sharon Government, Israel fell even lower. Sharon made Shimon Peres, the architect of Oslo, Israel’s Foreign Minister. Even though Sharon was elected with a clear mandate to suppress Arab violence, more Jews have been killed under his reign than under his predecessor. Moreover, even while Israel is bleeding, Sharon continues to support a Palestinian state on Jewish soil! Is it any wonder that a French anti-Semite called Israel a “shitty little country”?
To what further level of humiliation and degradation must Israel descend in this period of the Third Redemption? And what is the purpose of this humiliation and degradation? Jews are being hardened by adversity. What is more, they are learning. From the fact that one government after another only heaps upon them more and more disgrace, they are learning that democratic elections are futile, that Israel’s political parties and governing institutions are worthless.
Sooner or later they will see that the present State of Israel must perish before Israel’s Fourth and Final Redemption.