"In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing..." (Ezra 1:1). Remember what happened then? Most of the people didn't believe the good news and remained in exile. The few who ascended changed our nation's history, just like the handful of pioneers who, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, didn't relocate from exile to exile – from Eastern Europe to its West or to the US – but chose to return to the land in the Zionist immigration waves.
In the first month of our modern-day Cyrus' renewed entry to the White House, we heard prophetic words from him: "Israel shall dwell safely alone; the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of grain and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew." He also placed at our disposal "everlasting arms, and he thrust out the enemy from before thee; and said: Destroy!" (Deuteronomy 33:27-28).
Immediately, voices of protest and disbelief arose among us. We are experienced in disappointment, and it's appropriate to qualify and see how things unfold. But it's also right to rejoice at such rare declarations, especially when they come from the leader of the world's strongest superpower.
There were also those who invested their lives in the Palestinian project and the "two-state solution" and worked to destroy the Jewish settlement enterprise in the ancient homeland regions of the mountain ridge. From their perspective, it's impossible to implement, and "immoral." Some went further and attached the label "ethnic cleansing" to the idea of transferring the enemy population. For many years, far too many, public discourse has been neutered in the wake of political correctness, this language policing mechanism that cuts down every idea in its infancy if it doesn't align with the fundamental concepts of language and thought police. In their view, it's possible to transfer Jews from their homes for some arrangement that will be violated immediately afterward, but it's absolutely unthinkable to transfer our enemies – who committed genocide against us on Oct. 7 and whose entire reason for existence is dedicated to Israel's destruction and the murder of Jews – from the destroyed and bleeding Gaza Strip to better places where perhaps the younger generation could examine different life possibilities, apart from hating and murdering Jews.
Well, we tried to live beside and with them. We withdrew from the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2005 down to our last grave. The result wasn't Singapore, but blood and attacks and missiles and an entire country held hostage to the whims of barbarians who controlled our life's pulse, culminating on Oct. 7: a massacre in the style of Bohdan Khmelnytsky and Symon Petliura and the greatest murderers of all generations. We learned the lesson. If they remain, we'll count the days until the next massacre that will bring with it more destruction, and so on. Therefore, there is no hope for their future.
When Israel left Egypt, as we read this Sabbath, God did not lead us to the promised land "by way of the land of the Philistines" – along the coastal route of the Sinai desert, northward through Gaza (!) to Canaan – despite it being the shortest path. Why? "Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt." The Bible notes that "the children of Israel went up armed" (Exodus 13:17-18) and even numerically they outnumbered the Egyptian army. Nevertheless, God testifies about them that at the first contact with the enemy, they would fold and return to the only place they knew. Why?
Because this is human nature. "It is not in human nature for someone raised in slavery, with clay and bricks... to suddenly wash their hands of their filth and immediately fight with the children of the giants," explained Maimonides in the second half of the 12th century, in his book "The guide for the perplexed". Long years of slavery and taking orders from others while in constant fear for their children's lives aren't easily erased, like cleaning external dirt. The hardest of all challenges was bearing responsibility and standing on our own. Therefore, it was God's wisdom "to lead them around by way of the wilderness" for forty years, "until they learned valor," until a new generation was born in the desert, the conquerors of Canaan in the end, the generation of victory.
Indeed, it's difficult to change a slave's consciousness. Here was the first moment they stood before the first danger. While they camped by the sea, the Egyptians pursued them with "all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots and his horsemen and his army." And when they lifted their eyes, "behold, Egypt was marching after them, and they were exceedingly frightened, and the children of Israel cried out." (14:9-10). From their perspective, these weren't just many soldiers, but "Egypt," the entire empire with its masters and taskmasters approaching them.
In the first half of the 12th century, Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra explained the psychological phenomenon: "The Egyptians were masters over Israel, and this generation leaving Egypt had learned from their youth to bear the Egyptian yoke and their spirit was weak, and how could they now fight with their masters? And Israel was feeble and untrained in warfare... until another generation arose, the desert generation, who had not seen exile, and they had a high spirit." (comment to Exodus 14:13).
And immediately accusations and protests and "we told you so" were heard: "And they said to Moses: Were there no graves in Egypt that you took us to die in the desert? What is this that you have done to us to take us out of Egypt?! Isn't this what we spoke to you in Egypt, saying: Leave us alone, and we will serve Egypt, for it is better for us to serve Egypt than to die in the desert!" (14:11-12). Just a moment ago, they left the concentration camps where the price of a Hebrew infant's life wasn't worth a mud brick. Now, facing danger, they complain about gaining freedom and delude themselves that their lives under the whip as a mass of slaves are preferable to their situation by the sea.
Our fathers and mothers were required to choose between surrendering to their former masters and fighting for their freedom. As mentioned, the generation of slaves didn't dare to fight their masters, so they were required to jump into the sea and walk until the water reached their souls, because it's better to die free than to live as slaves in a foreign land. At that moment, the sea split and they crossed it and were saved, while their enemies fell into the trap and drowned.
Oct. 7 began a new count in time and consciousness. Until then, we were trapped in the tangle of the old conception because we obeyed the thought and language police, and didn't dare to think outside the framework. Thus we became addicted to rounds of clashes, as if we were destined to get used to missile barrages and attacks. No more. This Sabbath we all leave Egypt leaping (passing over!) the old consciousness and jumping into the great sea – like a ritual bath or womb where we cleanse ourselves of the disgrace of slave thinking – and are born anew. After Oct. 7, we are required to think as free people, not to be impressed by pseudo-moral concepts that were forced upon us, "for their rock is not as our Rock, and our enemies themselves are judges." (Deuteronomy 32:31).
Our sages taught that the Song of Songs also contains within it the eternal dialogue between God and the people of Israel. "The voice of my beloved knocks: Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one..." And the beloved's response: "I have taken off my robe – how can I put it on? I have washed my feet – how can I soil them?" (Song of Songs 5:2-3). There were times in our history when God knocked on our door to bring us out of the historical straits in whose thicket we were caught, and then we didn't hear or we turned our backs and sank again into national slumber. These are the refusers of redemption in every generation.
It seems that such a wondrous turn stands at our threshold and knocks on the door, and the sea of troubles is about to split before us. It's better to complain less; things don't necessarily proceed according to our requests. However, the personal and national difficulties are the price of our redemption, the birth pangs to redeem our souls. "Why do you cry out to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward... and come... into the midst of the sea on dry ground." (Exodus 14:15). We need patience. And faith.
