Q&A: Are We in Redemption?
Are We in Redemption?
Question
I know that you are wary of giving prophetic meaning to history and to processes taking place among the Jewish people.
But doesn’t it seem to the Rabbi that, in accordance with many prophecies that were given to us, the current reality matches the description of redemption?
And I know that you say about prophecies that they are vague and open to interpretation and therefore lack value, but don’t you think that the reasonable interpretation of the following prophecies shows that we are in a process of redemption, and why not?
1. (2) “And you shall return to the Lord your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you this day, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul;
(3) then the Lord your God will restore your captivity and have mercy upon you, and He will return and gather you from all the peoples among whom the Lord your God has scattered you.
(4) If your outcasts are at the ends of the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will take you.
(5) And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will do you good and multiply you more than your fathers.”
2. “With a pleasing aroma I will accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you have been scattered; and I will be sanctified through you before the eyes of the nations. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I bring you into the soil of Israel, into the land that I lifted My hand to give to your fathers.”
3. (11) “And it shall come to pass on that day, that the Lord shall set His hand again a second time to recover the remnant of His people that shall remain, from Assyria and from Egypt and from Pathros and from Cush and from Elam and from Shinar and from Hamath and from the islands of the sea;
(12) and He shall raise a banner for the nations, and shall gather the outcasts of Israel, and assemble the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”
4. (14) “And I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will restore your captivity and gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I exiled you.”
Answer
The question is worn out and has come up more than once. There is a certain plausibility to it, but I wouldn’t build much on it, and certainly wouldn’t turn it into a principle of faith the way people tend to do. By the way, regarding the ingathering from Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, and Assyria—that’s not exactly a description of what is happening today. You’ll have an explanation that it’s a metaphor. That interpretive freedom is exactly what prevents us from treating the verses as factual in a way that can be confirmed or refuted.
Discussion on Answer
Nothing prevents it. There can be plausibility. By the way, there was also an ingathering of the exiles in the Second Temple period.
Ben-Gurion heard that bereaved people in Beit She’an were looking for a livelihood.
In Ein Harod they were happy to give them work: if you’ll be like us, you’ll live on the kibbutz, be members of it, eat from us, drink our water together, etc. You’ll be members of the kibbutz; whatever there is, we’ll divide among everyone equally.
But the immigrants were not used to kibbutz life, only to urban capitalist life.
And so they didn’t come to work on the kibbutz.
Ben-Gurion heard about the conflict and decided to rebuke דווקא the kibbutz members and not the immigrants from Beit She’an.
He came and gave a speech:
‘You are delaying the horn of the Messiah for the ingathering of the exiles.’
And left.
The kibbutzniks gave in and gave work for wages and not in exchange for kibbutz membership.
So according to our leader’s view, the ingathering of the exiles is the horn of the Messiah.
I understand regarding this specific prophecy, but from the little I know about you, you believe that there is no certainty about anything, and therefore probability is usually enough. In the case at hand, we have explicit verses that speak about a future ingathering of the exiles of the Jewish people from all the nations and from all the lands. When I speak about redemption, I’m not talking here about a belief that necessarily leads to action, but simply about believing the claim that the prophecies are being fulfilled, and that we are part of their fulfillment. Don’t you think that on this issue there are enough explicit prophecies that we can see have been fulfilled? Of course this is not a conclusive proof, but in a case where a person believes in the Holy One, blessed be He, in His Torah, and in prophecy, what prevents you from adopting the reasonable claim about the fulfillment of prophecy?