Dear Friends:
"Magen Avraham," Shield of Abraham.
We repeat it at least three times every day as we begin the Shemoneh Esreh. Why Shield of "Abraham"? What happened to Yitzchok Avinu and Yaakov Avinu?
Among all others in history, our Father Avraham was alone. As our commentators tell us, he was "ever ha Yarden," on one side of the river, and the ENTIRE WORLD was on the other side. [1] That is why he was called "Ivri" and we are called "Hebrews" today. Among all others, we, the descendants of Avraham Avinu, are alone in the world. In the prophetic words of our enemy, Bilaam, "It is a nation that will dwell in solitude and not be reckoned among the nations." [2]
G-d is telling us that He will be a shield to us EVEN WHEN WE, LIKE OUR FATHER ABRAHAM, ARE COMPLETELY ALONE IN THE WORLD, COMPLETELY SURROUNDED!
In the time of Avraham Avinu, there was not one other person outside of his own family who understood the existence of the Ribono shel Olam! There were no rabbonim, no roshei yeshiva, no kashrus organizations ... no Torah at all except the oral tradition that had been handed down in secret from Adam through a tiny few of his descendants!
Avraham Avinu had the courage to proclaim the Name of G-d in this benighted world! Because of it he was ridiculed, punished and threatened with death, even by his own father! The entire world ganged up on him because no one wanted to hear that there is a Ruler above us Who created the entire universe according to rules, which - if ignored, G-d forbid - will result in the destruction of our own lives and eventually the entire world!
Had not the previous generations just witnessed the Great Flood?
No matter, they said, we will try to ignore G-d and live by our own rules!
And today, in our contemporary world, are things any different?
Am Yisroel, a tiny group of the descendants of Avraham, Yitzchok and Yaakov, proclaim the Name of G-d alone in the world! "I will raise the cup of salvations and invoke the Name of G-d...." [3] Completely isolated, we are surrounded by a vociferous and united world, proclaiming our perfidy, our brutality, our rebellion against the rest of the world. Preparing to attack, they gather around us in an ever-tightening circle.
At the beginning of my book, 2020 VISION, I include the following quotation from the Malbim [4] : "In the End of Days, after the Children of Israel have returned to their land, the children of Ishmael and the children of Esau will unite to attack Jerusalem. They will form a world coalition against the tiny nation of Israel. But something will go wrong with their plan. The religious beliefs of the children of Ishmael and the children of Esau will clash, and the two nations will collide and destroy each other. This is what is referred to as the War of Gog and Magog. Following this cataclysmic conflict, the Final Redemption of the Jewish People will occur with the coming of Messiah the Son of King David." [5]
My friends, do we not see in our contemporary world the exact fulfillment of this prophesy with the interpretation of the Holy Malbim?
There is something called the Goldstone Report, through which the world is attempting to besmirch and slander the Children of Israel. I will leave the details to others, but in general it is equivalent to a blood libel. Israel wants to defend itself against murderous neighbors who send deadly missiles almost ceaselessly against its citizens, and the world regards our existence as an affront. Those who deny the Holocaust do so only in order, G-d forbid, to prepare their own Holocaust.
And so we stand alone, the descendants of our beloved Father Abraham, alone against the ENTIRE WORLD! Of course, the world thinks we cannot survive. They think that now they will finally achieve their age-old dream of making the entire world Judenrein!
Is that what you think, nations of the world?
You have forgotten one thing!
THE SHIELD OF AVRAHAM!
That which protected Avraham ha-Ivri thousands of years ago against the entire world will protect us, his children forever. Perhaps that is one reason why every Shemoneh Esreh begins with "Magen Avraham"! G-d is telling His children: do not be afraid! The same shield which defended your earliest Father against the ENTIRE WORLD is here to defend you, his "children's children."
Even if we have exhausted "zchus avos," G-d forbid, still, the Master of the Universe proclaims that He will send our Redeemer for HIS Name's sake, because the time has come to rescue the Name of G-d from disgrace and to end the great chillul Hashem which is called Golus Edom, the seemingly-endless Exile in which we have languished for almost two thousand years.
"When they came to the Temple Mount, they saw a fox emerging from the Holy of Holies and they started to weep. But Rabbi Akiva smiled. They said to him, 'For what reason are you smiling? ... He said to them... "Now that the prophesy of Uriah has been fulfilled... it is obvious that the prophesy of Zechariah will be fulfilled." [6]
My friends, are you worried about the Goldstone Report?
Now that one prophesy is being fulfilled - "the children of Ishmael and the children of Esau will unite to attack Jerusalem" - it is obvious that soon the other prophesy will be fulfilled - "Old men and old women will yet sit in the streets of Yerushalayim... and the streets of the City will be filled with boys and girls playing....Thus said G-d, Master of Legions: Behold I am saving My people from the land of the east and from the land where the sun sets, and I will bring them and they will dwell within Jerusalem." [7]
It will not be long, my friends! Let us always remember that the Ribono shel Olam is the SHIELD OF ABRAHAM! Now we will turn to Him and He will defend us! As we have just read in Hallel over all the beautiful Yomim Tovim, "All the nations surround me; in the Name of G-d I cut them down." [8]
This is the Shield of Abraham!
With trust in our Shield, we will soon see the Day that is All Good!
Roy S. Neuberger
