My oldest son has an interesting life.
He's currently learning in a yeshiva in Bnei Brak, and during this break, he's been working there, earning some money. Earlier this week, there was a protest there (imagine that) where a 12-year old boy collapsed nearby. His friend was in the area, and since the rescue personnel could not get there in time, he started to do CPR. Freaking out and feeling tired, he called my son, who's also certified to come and help him, knowing he was nearby. My son rushed out and as he got to the kid, the paramedics came. They took over, shocked the kid several times and rushed him to the hospital, where, unfortunately he passed away.
It turns out that the boy had a medical history and thankfully was not part of the protest. Unfortunately, the rescue units could not make it in time because of the protest.
I wish people would learn from this, from the left and the right.
But, it doesn't seem so.
Sigh.
When Hashem told Moshe to go to Pharoah initially, He told him that the Jewish nation will believe in him and he will be the catalyst to the redemption. Then, after Moshe went spoke with Pharoah, the only result was the increase of labor. And because of that, the Jews did not want to listen to him. In the end, it seems that Moshe was right after all. On this, the Ramban writes that while it seems that they no longer believed in Hashem, it's not true, they DID believe in Hashem. Rather, they were in such a place where they were stuck and did not want to live one minute more, even when they knew that afterwards it would be better.
So, they believed in Hashem, they believed in Moshe, they believed in the Redemption. Yet, at the same time, they could not continue to be in such a situation!
So, Rav Reuven Leuchter asks and answers: what's going on here?
Before Moshe was on the scene, the Jewish people were languishing in Egypt. They knew there would be an eventual redemption, but they didn't know when. And it was that belief that kept them going.
When Moshe shows up, they show their happiness and their belief in him and Hashem. They are ready to finally leave! Yet when Moshe went to Pharoah, the meeting between them not only did not bear any fruit, it made things worse. And now, there is a tension between their belief in Hashem and Moshe vs. their situation. On one hand, they wanted and believed in the redemption, yet on the other, they could not continue to live in their conditions! And this is exactly the situation Hashem wanted the Jews to be in. He wanted them in an "endgame" situation where they simply could not move further on.
So, what happened to Klal Yisroel during the nine plagues? In front of their eyes, Egypt was destroyed little by little, until nothing remained. By the time the tenth plague was about to hit, Egypt was no more. Their economy, their social structure, their belief in their gods, everything was in ruins.
Why was this needed? Because any time something "revolutionary" happens and a new situation arises, humans, by nature, rebuild, but they build on something that they already know and feel comfortable with, with some new changes to the old, of course.
The Americans might have revolted against the British, but so much of what they built still had British roots. Canada and Israel as well have institutions which are still visibly British in how they are un. In fact, look at any country that used to be a European colony, and you will still see wisps of the parent country. This was something that Hashem did not want regarding Egypt. He did not want one trace of Egypt left in the Jews. He wanted Egypt wiped off the map, forcing the fledgling nation to not only start afresh, but without any "template" to build off of.
Perhaps, this is why sometimes you have baalei tshuva having issues with certain concepts in the Torah or with the Torah world. They are coming from a certain viewpoint (Western Civilization) which they are used to using as a paradigm (big word points to me) to view the world. And when the mores of Western Civilization contrast with those of the Torah, it leads to a lot of confusion and misunderstanding. Hashem wanted that issue wiped from our national mentality.
Now, after the ninth plague, as it says in the Hagaddah, "… you were naked and exposed.…" We can no longer identify with Egypt or Egyptian society. We are blank, and now, with the tenth plague, Hashem Himself comes into the world, and now we are prepared to identify with Hashem. We don't know HOW to identify with Hashem, but we DO know that it's not via Egypt or anything we might have picked up in Egypt.
That is why Hashem wanted us to be in the position that we were in. We needed to say (and believe), "We cannot go on like this!" We have no Egypt to turn to, and we have no "template" to work off of. We have no mental space to deal with the situation. It's beyond anything we have gone through and we cannot think of any solution to solve the problem. We don't know what to do or how to move forward. Yet, at the same time, we know that something WILL happen and change. Everything seems to feel contradictory. We have faith in Hashem, but we have no clue how this faith will materialize. And that is exactly when the redemption begans.
Over the past year and a half, the Jewish world has been rocked to it's core, especially here in Eretz Yisroel. What you see in the news, issues about the war, hostages, judicial reform, politics, draft policies, etc, are not simply random issues coming to the fore. They are all linked together for the country. They all point to the same core questions: Who are we? And where do we go from here?
Many in the Ultra-Orthodox world think that the draft issue will blow over as it has so many times. I do not believe so. The Ultra-Orthodox world itself has its own changes and challenges that's it's going through right now, and it's also tied to the same national questions. Many in the secular world too are asking themselves, are we a Jewish state? Are we a democratic state? What are we? We want to be Jewish, but we also want to be democratic. The whole judicial reform issue is based on the fact that the Israeli governmental structure was built in a typical Israeli hodgepodge way, without any structure or thought for the future put into it. It's not "politics" as usual as people want to think.
And Jews outside of Israel? Well, for many of them, like the UK, France or Australia, they too are wondering, are we safe? Is this really called "home"? And any American with half a brain in their head, will be smart enough to wonder, not if, but when will these same questions arise in the States?
And you know what's so amazing about this all? There are no answers! There's no path to the future laid out. We are currently witnessing the dismantlement of the old Zionist belief that the State of Israel is the answer to all our problems. We see month after month that Israel is STILL under the power of Eisav and Yishmoel. And on top of that, we see the thorough corruption and pettiness of those in power, from both the right and left.
So, where do we go from here? What can we say? What can we do?
We believe in Hashem. But we have no clue how to move forward.
Perhaps this will be the turning point in Jewish history.
With that, I wish you all an amazing and meaningful Pesach.