In this Parsha the Plagues begin and fortress Egypt starts tottering. It’s Paro versus Moshe Rabbeinu … well actually it’s Paro versus the Ribono shel Olam! The nations always think they are fighting us, but in fact they are fighting our Father in Heaven.
If only they realized.
IF ONLY WE REALIZED!
The Esser Makkos are no fable. Pesach is not a “pageant” we reenact every year to entertain ourselves. No, my friends, this is life and death. WE ARE LIVING THE ESSER MAKKOS TODAY!
We see a world in disarray, a world which itself is tottering. We keep trying to tell ourselves that it’s all normal. All we have to do is attack each problem, solve them all and we can fix the world!
No, my friends, it’s not like that.
I am going to give you a mundane analogy. Almost every day I drive on the Van Wyck Expressway in Queens. They are always working on this road. Today they are repairing potholes. Next they will modernize this exit and then they will replace the guardrail. After that they will add another lane. Then they are back to the potholes again. Someday they will get to the end of all the repairs, and we will all go whizzing on our merry way.
But there’s one problem: the repairs never end. Twenty-four hours a day they will be working on the Van Wyck Expressway until the end of time. And we will never go “whizzing on our merry way.”
Our entire society is like this. We will fix Medicare. We will fix Social Security. We will fix Afghanistan. We will fix the economy. We will fix global warming. The fixes go on and on. Each day there is more to fix. Somehow, we never get to “go whizzing on our merry way.”
And by the way, when we do finally go whizzing on our merry way, just where are we going, anyway? What is the “tachlis” of this civilization? What is the point of all this work, this “improvement”? Where is it leading? To happier people? To a better life? I know one thing: whenever I see a driver weaving in and out of traffic at 90 miles per hour in a 50-mile zone, for sure HE HAS NOWHERE TO GO! He is in a mighty hurry to go nowhere, and that is a metaphor for the society in which we live.
My friends, this society is tottering like Biblical Mitzraim. It is very dangerous to think that, if we fix this and we fix that, when it’s “all over” we will be living in Utopia. What’s happening is that the Ribono shel Olam is getting ready to bring about the Geula Shelemah. We are getting close to the end of history, and the world is going to look very different when Moshiach arrives. Our Neviim do not mince words about this. At that time Yerushalayim will be the world capital; Hashem will be One and His Name One; the world will no longer be ruled by sheker and covered in tuma! It will be a world of Truth. “Ki Mitzion Taitzai Torah ud’var Hashem Mi Yerushalayim.” (Yeshaya 2:3).
The current rumblings in the world must bear some resemblance to the rumblings felt in Mitzraim when the end was near. What else can explain the chaos around us? But this should give us strength. Hashem saved us in Mitzraim and He will save those who cling to Him now!
But there is a question: if the Yidden in Mitzraim were spared during the Esser Makkos, how is it that we in these days seem to be as vulnerable as the rest of society to the chaos and troubles around us? Don’t we suffer the way everyone else does? Maybe more! There is terrible pain among Yidden, nisyonos in some cases that seem to be beyond endurance.
I want to tell you, my friends, that we ARE separated from the pain and suffering around us! We may not see it, but it is true. The simple fact that one Jew still exists in the world is miraculous! And, despite all the efforts of those who hate us and our holy way of life, we are living by the Torah!
Here are the famous words of a non-Jew, Mark Twain: “If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of stardust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly the Jew ought hardly to be heard of; but he is heard of, has always been heard of. . . The Egyptians, the Babylonians and the Persians rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greeks and the Romans followed and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, survived them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people. He has made a marvelous fight in this world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?” (From the essay “Concerning the Jews,” Harper’s magazine, September 1899)
I would like you to look at the accompanying map of the Middle East. This shows just one “ring of enemies” around us. Surrounding these nations is an entire world bent on our destruction, G-d forbid. And it’s been like this for 2000 years!
But we are here! We have survived it all and with the help of our Tati in Himmel we will continue to survive and lead the world into the Age of Moshiach. The world around us may totter and fall, but we who hold our Father’s Hand will walk into the Age of Moshiach with our heads high. As we say in Bentching, “May He break the yoke of oppression from our necks and guide us erect to our Land!” It cannot be long, my friends. Moshe Rabbeinu and Aharon ha Kohain will come k’heref ayin and lead us once again to Har Sinai, and then onwards to the Promised Land!
And this time it will be forever!
© Copyright 2010 by Roy S. Neuberger
