Our Rabbis teach that the redemption of the Israelites from Egypt, the National birth of the Jewish People, will parallel the final redemption in which the Jewish People will fulfill their mission and usher in the Messianic age [Michah 7:15]”As in the days of your exodus from Egypt, I will show you wonders”. When viewing the Exodus from Egypt and the fateful events in the desert through a foreshadowing prism, we can begin to shed light and clarity on the darkness and confusion of our times.

The redemption of the Jewish people from their harsh servitude was a miracle of such magnificent proportions that tales of the nature-defying miracles spread like wildfire to far nations in distant lands. From the supernatural plagues and the parting of the Sea to the overnight destruction of the Egyptian superpower, all who heard were struck with awe and fear. It was not the Jewish people, however, who earned this fear but the G-d of Israel which rescued them “with an outstretched arm and with great judgments” [Exodus 6:6].

In the military, any soldier can attest to the acclimation period necessary after four months of basic training when he realizes that he doesn’t need to ask permission to use the restroom anymore – imagine the adjustment necessary after centuries of slavery so harsh that military training anywhere would seem like vacation. Once the Jewish people were an independent nation in the desert it became clear that although the nation had been taken out of slavery, slavery had not been taken out of the Nation. Hundreds of years of subjugating persecution had left an enduring mark on young nation’s communal psyche, and the events in the desert wilderness exposed exactly how catastrophic the damage had been.

Despite the miracles which their eyes beheld, the nation complained about the food and the water, questioned the leadership of Moses, and built the Golden Calf. The worst transgression, however, was the sin of the spies who returned from their reconnaissance mission to the nation, bearing a fearful report which assessed the Land as unconquerable. Years before, G-d had explained to Moses at the burning bush that the entire reason that he would redeem Israel was to bring them to their destined Land [Exodus 3:8] “I shall descend to rescue (them) from the hand of Egypt, and to bring (them) up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey…” and hence slandering the Land of Israel penetrated to the very root of the Jewish purpose and their relationship with G-d. Only two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, were truly brave leaders with faithful hearts and they proclaimed “the Land is very, very good” and that there is no reason to “fear the people of the Land” for “their protection has departed from them. Hashem is with us!” [Numbers 14]. Despite this the people cried to Moses and Aaron that it would have been better had they “died in the land of Egypt” for their “wives and young children will be taken captive”[Numbers 14]. This was a generation of slaves, and G-d decreed that 40 years they would wander in the desert and die until the new generation, a generation of courage and faith, would arise and enter the Land of Israel.

Fast forward 3200 years. After a glorious era in the Holy Land, the Jewish people became sinful and rebellious and G-d expelled them from the Land at the hands of the Roman emperor Hadrian, leaving the Land “bereft of them” [Numbers 26]. After two millennia of dark exile replete with murder, blood libels, pogroms, inquisitions, and holocaust, G-d redeemed a starved languid nation from the ovens of Aushwitz, bringing them to back to the Land of their forefathers. In 1967, eight armies mobilized against the young Jewish State preparing for her destruction. As the world sat by preparing the eulogy for the Jewish experiment and the Jewish people trembled with fear at their seemingly inevitable demise, G-d rescued the Jewish people with a miracle of Biblical proportions and against ludicrous odds, not only were they not destroyed, but they emerged with Judea and Samaria, the Golan, and the 2,000 year old dream of Jerusalem.

Much like the generation of slaves, however, the nation was not spiritually ready for the freedom they were offered. From the leadership to the layman, fear was the prevailing sentiment. Moshe Dayan, Minister of Defense, was not prepared to capture the Golan out of fear of Soviet casualties, yet the army outran him capturing the critical mountain range for the State. The Temple Mount, the future site of the Jewish Temple and the location through which all divinity enters the world, was finally in Jewish hands yet Dayan, along with the vast majority of Israeli leadership, both religious and secular, relinquished control of the Temple Mount to the Muslim Waqf for fear of the United Nations and the Muslim world.

It has now been 40 years since that fateful June day in 1967. A new generation has arisen in Israel – a generation of Joshua’s and Caleb’s. Despite fearful warnings of danger and demise, young Jews from around the world are flocking to the Land of Israel for it is “very, very good”. The elder generation grasps the reigns of leadership with all their waning might, but a new consciousness is stirring. It has been 40 years since the unification of Jerusalem and the Jewish People are recognizing G-d’s sovereignty and liberating themselves from the fear of man, to the fear of G-d. The Rabbis of the generation warn that great days are coming soon, for we are no longer slaves in our Land but free men.

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