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BEGIN WITH A GRIN

 An ad in one of the Jewish newspapers:

We are in the middle of Teves. If you still haven’t taken down your sukka, please call me.

Not that I will take it down for you. I just want to show my wife that I’m not the only one!

NOT TO BE BELIEVED

 This week, we start the book of Shemos. The Ramban calls it “Sefer HaGeula” for the redemption from Egypt, the root and source of all redemptions of the Jewish people.

The essence of something is expressed in its name and the content of something is revealed from its start. Therefore, if the book of Shemos is called ‘Sefer HaGeula,” that means that its essence is redemption. Since the content of something is revealed from the start, that means in the first verses or even the first verse of the book of Shemos, we can find the redemptive content of the entire book. But what redemptive content is there in the beginning of the book? It seems to be speaking about the beginning of the exile, not the redemption!

The Rebbe explains this based on the Medrash, “And these are the names of the sons of Israel coming to Egypt – did they come today? Hadn’t they come long ago? Rather… therefore it says, ‘coming,’ as though they entered Egypt that day.”

Why did it seem to the Jewish people that they had come that day to Egypt when they had been there for many years? The Torah is teaching us an amazing lesson. A Jew, by his essence, does not belong to Egypt nor to the limitations of exile. Exile, to a Jew, is something foreign and bizarre, something so radically beyond the norm, like something that doesn’t speak to him or about him, something completely beyond the pale.

Therefore, even if one is in this exile situation for years already, even if one was born in exile, married in exile and even raised a family in exile, the exile is still something new, something which didn’t exist until now, something whose existence is unacceptable, because it’s manifestly absurd!

The Torah alludes to this in the first verse of the book of Shemos. “And these are the names of the sons of Yisrael coming to Egypt.” If we are talking about the “Bnei Yisrael,” the children of Yaakov Avinu, the choicest of the Avos, who overcame Lavan, Eisav and the angel of Eisav, then they are always… “coming,” now, to Egypt. Because up until a minute ago, a second ago, this existence of exile called “Egypt,” did not exist for them!

This was so, even though they were born in Egypt, raised in Egypt, they matured in Egypt, married in Egypt, and are grandparents to grandchildren and great-grandchildren in… Egypt! Because the existence of a Jew is always above Egypt and the exile it represents. Therefore, this exile is a novelty, and each day that passes is “like they entered Egypt that same day!”

This perspective completely changes our outlook on the passage of time. It’s common to think (or at least, this is what our animal soul thinks) that we are in exile for thousands of years and Moshiach still hasn’t come. Thoughts like these can easily weaken emuna and anticipation of Moshiach’s coming. They can cool off the pure faith that every Jew has that Moshiach is coming very soon. But, if we look at every moment in exile as a new moment, then there is no continuity to exile. It is not a natural continuity of moments that join together and form a threatening reality of thousands of years which endanger the Jewish people.

On the contrary, every moment in exile is separate, new, defies belief and inexplicable. It’s not meant to continue or even to exist altogether, which is why it doesn’t connect to any sort of continuum, as it’s a non-existent state by definition! Therefore, the fact that we’re here, in this very moment, says nothing about the following moment. In the following moment we will be in the Geula! This newfound, wonderful perspective strengthens the service of the Jewish people and gives them the power and motivation, with strong faith and anticipation for the speedy coming of Moshiach.

YOU BETTER BELIEVE THEY BELIEVE

This perspective of exile repeats itself a few times in parshas Shemos. Later in the parsha, G-d commands Moshe to tell the Jewish people about the imminent redemption. “Go and gather the elders of Israel and tell them… I have remembered you… and they will listen to your voice.” Moshe responds, “They won’t believe me.” G-d tells him they will believe him and Moshe thinks they won’t. What happened in the end? “And the nation believed.”

What was this dialogue between G-d and Moshe? Why did Moshe say that about the Jewish people? What was G-d’s answer? The Rebbe explains that Moshe thought that after so many years in exile, the difficult servitude and backbreaking work had gotten the Jewish people used to exile to the point that it became what they expected. They lived exile, breathed exile, and therefore, it would be very hard, nearly impossible, for them to absorb the message about the upcoming redemption. They wouldn’t be able to digest it.

G-d promised Moshe, “They will listen to your voice!”Even after 210 years in Egypt, the exile did not take control of the Jewish mind and it did not affect their faith. They will listen and absorb the message. And this is precisely what happened.

Even at the end of the parsha, when the exile becomes more intense, when it was worse than before, so that even Moshe complained to G-d, “Why did You do evil to this nation? Why did You send me?” G-d says, “Now you will see! With a strong hand he will send them out and with a strong hand he will expel them from his land!”

Now, immediately, the Geula will come! Hashem says to Moshe that a radical shift is about to take place, from the depths of exile to the peak of redemption, in a second. From the oppression of servitude to the highest status in a moment. This is the Geula message of parshas Shemos, at the beginning, middle and end. The message that every moment in this exile is a new moment and it says nothing about the following moment. This is the Jewish view that “Now, I am here and in the next second I am in the rebuilt Yerushalayim.” This gives us the ability to live with inyanei Geula at every moment!

TO CONCLUDE WITH A STORY

We will end with a story about R’ Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin who spent eight years in a place called prison, as he put it. R’ Sholom was sentenced to 27 years in jail, out of which he spent eight until his sentence was commuted by President Donald Trump. Throughout his stay in prison, he refused (and still refuses) to call jail by its name. The reason is because a Jew is never in jail; a Jew is always free from every yoke except the yoke of the King of the universe, ol malchus shomayim.

During his last Chanuka in a place called prison, he was told that his final appeal had been rejected and there was no chance now of his getting out of jail sooner. He refused to accept this terrible news. He strengthened his emuna and bitachon that “G-d’s salvation is like the blink of an eye,” and that he would quickly get out of there. And it happened!

On Zos Chanuka 5778, he was called to the office and informed of his miraculous release. Because a Jew has no connection with prison, and a Jew has no connection to exile, and in a moment we will leave exile and be in the Geula!

Good Shabbos!

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