Dear Friends:
We sit around the Seder Table every Pesach and tell the story of the Exodus.
What a story!
But it's not a story. It's reality! It's today!
In this week's Parsha, we arrive at the moment of truth. After seemingly endless years of bitter exile and slavery, Am Yisroel is about to leave Mitzraim! If you want a Parsha that tells you where we are in the contemporary world at the present moment, you have found it.
Do you think our world is falling apart?
Do you think things are getting stranger and stranger?
I am going to suggest parallels between the Ten Plagues and events of today.
Dam/Blood, The First Plague: Worldwide hatred and violence. You don't have to look very far to see the pervasive hatred and anger in today's world. People are ready to pounce on each other over nothing. You see it most clearly, of course, in the worldwide hatred toward Israel. Just one year ago, the entire world exploded in hatred because our brethren were trying to protect themselves from a constant stream of missiles falling upon homes and communities near Gaza. This is pure hatred; there is no reason for it.
Tsefardea/Frogs, The Second Plague: Worldwide pollution. Can you imagine the stench after the frogs died? Our world is becoming filled with refuse and foul air. Plastic waste is floating even in the most distant and isolated parts of the ocean. Even on the moon!
Kinim/Lice, The Third Plague: Endless petty annoyances adding up to torture. Do you sometimes feel as if your life is so crammed with distractions that you can't breathe? Not important things, but things you just have to get out of the way. They're nothing! But you feel as if they're driving you crazy!
Arov/Wild Beasts, The Fourth Plague: Insane people! There are many people in the world who are totally cracked. Some are unknown and some are heads of state. They are out of control, and they are dangerous!
Dever/Plague upon the animals, The Fifth Plague: Animals in the ancient world represented wealth. This is the plague of economic collapse.
Sh'chin/Boils, The Sixth Plague: Serious illness and strange diseases, like swine flu. Every day we hear new stories of people who are sick or injured, sometimes young mothers or fathers or small children struck down by exotic diseases or bizarre accidents.
Barad/Hail, The Seventh Plague: Natural disasters: typhoons, floods, ice storms, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, landslides. This week's headline is the apparently imminent volcanic eruption in the Philippines, where tens of thousands have already been evacuated. The foundations of the earth are shaking!
Arbe/Locusts, The Eighth Plague: Drought, hunger worldwide. By the mercy of G-d most of us have enough to eat, but billions are hungry or starving. How secure is our food supply? We no longer pick our vegetables from the kitchen garden or collect eggs from the chickens. We depend upon vast and complex technology beyond our control and subject to disruption if one link is threatened.
Choshech/Darkness, The Ninth Plague: Psychological stress and anxiety. So many people slave in mental darkness and psychological depression, lost in a world of despair. The very pressures of the times we live in, when darkness seems to envelope the world and hope seems lost, increase the psychological stress. Look, for example, at the economic crisis. Many people who previously lived comfortably are out of work, unable to feed their family! This has a devastating psychological impact, aside from all else.
B'choros/The Firstborn, The Tenth Plague: War and terrorism. We have lived through 9/11, although some did not. Many feel in our hearts that the second shoe is about to drop. Statements emanating from dark corners reinforce that feeling. Only recently a plane filled with passengers was saved by a miracle. Israel is threatened every day! What is next?
My friends, our Sages have a maxim: ma'ase avos siman l'banim, the events of our Fathers' lives are a sign for their children. This is a great kindness, because Hashem is giving us the ability to understand the events of our times, and to see how our predecessors dealt with similar tests. From this we can learn how to survive and honor G-d's Name in our own lives.
Do you feel smothered by the pressures of today? Did our ancestors feel smothered by the pressures as the mighty culture of Egypt crumbled under the power of the plagues?
Some did and some didn't. Twenty percent left Egypt, but eighty percent died in the Plague of Darkness (Rashi on Exodus 10:22, 13:18). This is our choice: to be among the twenty percent or among the eighty percent! It is a test that we must take very seriously; our lives are in our hands.
Imagine that you are an Egyptian in Ancient Egypt. Your world is crumbling! With each successive plague, another aspect of your world falls apart. You are panicking! Everything on which you depended is collapsing.
But imagine, on the other hand, that you are a child of Israel in Ancient Egypt. You are in the presence of Moses and Aaron! You are about to embark on the greatest epic in the history of the world! G-d is about to meet you at Mount Sinai and present you with His Torah! This is the greatest moment in history! You are filled with exhilaration!
One place and one moment: two totally different reactions and sets of emotion!
Ma'ase avos siman l'banim! The world seems to be collapsing only to those who cling to structures that are fallible, the physical and social structures built by Edom. "In darkness they walk; all foundations of the earth collapse." (Psalm 82) But we, the Children of Israel, are about to experience the greatest event in the history of the world, when "He will let us hear, in His compassion, for a second time, in the presence of all the living ... 'I am Hashem your G-d'"! (Shabbos Mussaf)
I remember distinctly hearing Rav Mattisyahu Salomon Shlita"h say in the name of the Chofetz Chaim that those who cling with all their strength to Hashem and His Torah and understand the utter emptiness of the surrounding culture will live through the trials and tribulations before the coming of Moshiach and enter that beautiful world to follow.
Now, as in the days of ancient Egypt, we are seeing the collapse of the structures of the alien culture within which we have lived for so long. I am not advocating it or saying it is pretty; I simply state the apparent facts. But soon, with G-d's help, in our time, we will see that glorious day when "Hashem echad u'shmo echad," when Torah will emerge from Zion and the Word of G-d from the Rebuilt Jerusalem!
May we all see it soon with our own eyes, in glory and eternal simcha!
Roy S. Neuberger
