Exile and Redemption - Shmot
The Midrash (Breishit Rabba 2,3) on the second passuk in the Torah -
ר' שמעון בן לקיש פתר קריא בגליות –
"וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ" זה גלות בבל שנאמר (ירמיה ד, כג) "ראיתי את הארץ והנה תהו".
"וָבֹהוּ" זה גלות מדי שנאמר (אסתר ו, ד) "ויבהילו להביא את המן".
"וְחֹשֶׁךְ" זה גלות יון שהחשיכה עיניהם של ישראל בגזירותיהן שהיתה אומרת להם כתבו על קרן השור שאין לכם חלק באלהי ישראל.
"עַל פְּנֵי תְהוֹם" זה גלות ממלכת הרשעה שאין להם חקר כמו התהום מה התהום הזה אין לו חקר אף הרשעים כן.
"וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים מְרַחֶפֶת" זה רוחו של מלך המשיח.
According to the Midrash, the four exiles – בבל, מדי, יון, אדום are hinted at during the creation of the world. Following these four exiles, the period of the Mashiach will commence. Similarly, Yaakov’s dream of the ladder also hints to these four exiles (Pirkei D’Rebi Eliezer, chap. 35).
The question is – “How many exiles (of Am Yisrael) are there really?”
The answer is dependent on how you define an exile. Do you define an exile as a physical disassociation from Eretz Yisrael only or also a spiritual disassociation from the ways of the Torah? It is clear that Chazal considered an “exile” to be either or both. For example - the exile of יון was not a physical disassociation – Am Yisrael were not removed from Eretz Yisrael during the reign of the Greeks. Instead it was a spiritual disassociation – an attempt to sever Am Yisrael spiritually from the Torah.
If this is the case then there are six exiles in total – מצרים, בבל, מדי, יון, אדום, ישמעאל. As we read in this week’s parsha, the first exile of Am Yisrael occurred in Egypt. According to the sifrei hakabbalah, the final exile, following גלות אדום and prior to the coming of the Mashiach, will be גלות ישמעאל (זהר, דברים, לב). Six exiles, not four! Why then does the Midrash only list four?
Why is Egypt not considered one of the exiles?
There are many answers given. One says that Am Yisrael did not exist as a “nation” until after the Exodus from Egypt. We defined exile above to be -disassociation from Eretz Yisrael or from the Torah. Only after Am Yisrael received the Torah and conquered Eretz Yisrael could they be exiled from either/or.
That answer is a play on semantics however. The truth is that Yaakov and his twelve sons – the Twelve Tribes (the building blocks of Am Yisrael) were disassociated and exiled from Eretz Yisrael to Egypt. Yaakov and his sons, according to Chazal, observed the Torah even before Matan Torah and in Egypt they became disassociated from the Torah and assimilated to such a degree that they reached the 49th level of טומאה. That surely satisfies the definition of exile above?
There is a missing, final, third element that defines an exile (in the context of the Midrash above). In addition to disassociation from Eretz Yisrael and/or from the Torah, the final element in the definition of an exile is - that it occurred as a result of sin(s) of Am Yisrael.
The exiles of בבל, מדי, יון, אדום came about because of sins of Am Yisrael, the nation - the sin of עגל הזהב, the מרגלים, the sins of עבודה זרה, שפיכות דמים, עריות and finally the sin of שנאת חינם.
The reason that Egypt is not considered one of the exiles, according to this definition of the Midrash, is because גלות מצרים did not come about as a result of a sin of Am Yisrael. It came about because of the sin of Adam Harishon and Chava with the עץ הדעת. In my sefer (מאיר פנים, פרק טו) I explore how the exile and redemption from Egypt atoned for this sin (see also my shiur on parshat Bo ).
However, despite this, the same 2nd passuk of the Torah, on which the Midrash is based, does allude to גלות מצרים. If you group the words differently – separating והארץ הייתה from the word תהו (and not all bundled up together like the Midrash) you can find hints that the words והארץ הייתה allude to גלות מצרים and that the word תהו alludes to גלות בבל. There are many proofs to this using תורת הסוד and if you wish, you may contact me and I will send you the entire list (it is too lengthy to include in this shiur). Just two brief examples. The gematriya of והארץ הייתה is the same as לך שב מצרים – HKB”H’s command to Moshe to return to Egypt to redeem Am Yisrael. The gematriyah of תהו is טבת – the month when the siege of בבל began on Jerusalem (see my shiur on Vayechi ).
What about the final exile – גלות ישמעאל - why is this not listed in the Midrash? Many Mefarshim consider the exiles of אדום and ישמעאל to be two parts of the same exile. As above, they both can be found (hinted at) in the passuk from Breishit - with a different grouping of the words - על פני refers to אדום and תהום refers to ישמעאל (the gematriyah of תהום is ישמעאל, for example).
From this we see that already at the creation of the world, at the beginning of time, it was foreseen that history would comprise a process of repeated exiles and redemptions, culminating in the final redemption, the coming of the Mashiach and the everlasting rule of מלך מלכי המלכים הקב"ה (how it is possible that such a thing was preordained and the principle of “free choice” can still exist - is explained by the Rambam in הלכות תשובה ה,ה – not the subject of this shiur).
Some of the exiles focused on physically destroying Am Yisrael – breaking them physically or even engaging in genocide. The exile of Egypt was such an exile. This exile was designed to physically break Am Yisrael through sheer forced slave labor. Pharaoh took it one step further by trying to kill all the firstborns. As in other exiles of this type, the remedy was not brought about via physical resistance and uprising, but through prayer ויצעקו בני ישראל אל ה'. Am Yisrael’s part in the redemption was supplication. The redemption was ultimately brought about by “physical warfare”, but waged by HKB”H Himself (not Am Yisrael), in the Ten Plagues and on the Red Sea. The exile of מדי and the story of Purim is another example of this type of exile – the downfall of Haman was brought about through fasting and prayer, not by physical rebellion of the Jews in Shushan.
Other exiles focused on spiritually destroying Am Yisrael, like the Greek exile. The remedy to such an exile was the application of physical force and uprising of Am Yisrael themselves, as occurred with the Hashmonaim and Yehuda Hamaccabi.
The exile of אדום combines both physical and spiritual aspects. Some periods were purely physical, such as the Inquisition, Nazi Germany and the former USSR. Others were (and are) entirely spiritual, as in the USA and other western countries where assimilation is rampant. Some periods of this exile combined both at the same time. The remedy is the same as above – prayer and teshuva in response to physical persecution and physical uprising and revolt in time of spiritual persecution.
We are currently experiencing the final throes of גלות אדום where the greatest current threat to Am Yisrael is spiritual assimilation into the materialistic, liberalist, anarchist western culture. To remedy this kind of persecution requires our individual physical participation. Living Torah lives and providing a vivid, shining example to others; Establishing nuclei of Torah observance and outreach davka in the heart of cities and neighborhoods that most lack it and not seeking refuge in our own isolated enclaves; Being active and visible in the media and public forums, opposing any threat to sever Am Yisrael from the Torah – such as laws banning shechita, brit mila, in Europe etc.; Demonstrating and democratically opposing attempts to sever the Torah infrastructure from the state - in Israel; Increasing our chessed work in the community; etc. We are not fighting a visible, physical entity, like the Hashmonaim fought Antiochus and his armored elephants. Today we are fighting a non-descript enemy that has many faces, many often “friendly”, “inviting” and “tolerant”. The response to such an enemy is to be active and resolute - in direct opposition to what they are trying to achieve. Where they seek to make us lazy and indifferent, we must arouse activity and caring. Where they seek to confuse us with liberalistic, progressive logic we must counter with the wisdom and truth of the Torah. Where they seek to deprive us of our intrinsic national heritage and make us equal citizens in a “global village”, or a generic country of “all its citizens”, we must oppose by emphasizing that which sets us apart, our rich heritage of values, morals and spiritual light.
Surprisingly the Lechem Hapanim has a central role to play in counteracting the threat of גלות אדום. The exile of אדום is referred to in the passuk in Breishit as על פני, hinting to the לחם הפנים which is one of the “secret weapons” in the war against גלות אדום. Obviously it is not baking the heavy breads and hurling them at the goyim, but rather applying the lessons of the Lechem Hapanim, specifically the concept of איזהו עשיר השמח בחלקו – to counteract the materialistic philosophy.
We are also currently, simultaneously experiencing the period of גלות ישמעאל, an “exile” which is typified by the פרא אדם – a physical persecution of unspeakable, cruel proportions, terror fueled by hatred. As in other exiles of this type, the correct response should be prayer and tshuva, as it was in the time of Pharaoh and Egypt and in the time of Haman and מדי.
Ironically our responses to the two exiles we are currently living through are reversed. We are attempting to counter גלות ישמעאל with physical force, action and military might and counter גלות אדום with prayer and words. Neither response is working because they are inappropriate.
To defeat ישמעאל who seeks our physical destruction, we need to cry out to HKB”H and do tshuva. HKB”H will then fight for us and defeat them - as He did in Egypt with the Ten Plagues. As He did in מדי with Haman, He will once again, in our “modern version of מדי and Haman”, via a combination of the diplomatic wiles of Mordechai/ Mashiach ben Yosef together with the united tshuva and prayer of Am Yisrael for ישועה. There is only one reason HKB”H is arming Iran with nuclear weapons – He wants us to cry out and reconnect with Him
To defeat אדום we have to become physically involved, with actions, not just words. To move out of our physical comfort zone and political “correctness” and become active in responding to each and every spiritual threat that seeks to eliminate our rich Torah heritage - with our own spiritual countermeasures, as detailed above.
It is difficult to imagine supernatural miracles occurring in our present day. A miracle like waking up tomorrow morning and discovering that the nuclear reactor in Bushehr has been swallowed up by the earth in a devastating earthquake; like waking up tomorrow morning and discovering that the entire leadership of the BDS movement are on ventilators in the ICU because of a new strain of COVID-19.
The Israelites in Egypt could not imagine any miracles happening. They were slaves trying to survive another day, under the whip of their cruel taskmasters. But the redemption in Egypt came – and it was an abrupt, sudden 180 degree turn of events, that nobody could have foreseen or imagined in their wildest dreams. They cried out to HKB”H and He answered כהרף עין.
We are so close! All we need to do is cry out to the Master of the Universe to save us from גלות ישמעאל. To put aside our petty differences and unite in action against גלות אדום and then our redemption will also come ….. in the blink of an eye.
