The Land I Will Show You, sec. 3, chapter 5

Waiting for Complete Redemption

5: Waiting for Complete Redemption

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Come let us consider the matter, and we shall see that the other point of view seems correct. As we have shown, the opinion is rooted in one point and branches into three parts. The root of the opinion is that the belief in redemption in the form promised in the Torah and the Prophets prevents actions that replace it with any form of another deliverance. We will first treat the root of the matter, and then comment on the three details of the form of the longed-for redemption, one at a time.

The Torah and the Prophets promise complete redemption. “The King Messiah is destined to arise and return the Davidic kingdom to its original, glorious state, and he will build the Temple and gather the dispersed of Israel.”[1] But belief in this redemption doesn’t restrain us from working toward attaining the good things involved in it that can be achieved in some other form. Even one who believes with perfect faith that in the end of the days there will be an ultimate, complete redemption, in a certain form, will act in the interim to attain whatever is attainable even before the manifestation of the full redemption. There is no “replacement” involved.

This notion is simple and obvious and requires no proof, but people err and are confused in this matter, and therefore I will expand on this somewhat and supply proofs.

The promise and belief in the coming of the Messiah preceded the building of the Second Temple. Despite that, the people of Israel didn’t refrain from building the Temple and working toward gathering the dispersed ones of Israel without the King Messiah.[2] Indeed, today, after the Second Temple was destroyed, we understand that their actions constituted no contradiction to the redemption of the Messiah and the rebuilding of the Temple by him. They built a temple and so will he build a temple, in a different form: as envisioned by the prophet Ezekiel. The same applies to these times. If we had the ability and were commanded to build the temple today, in the current situation, that wouldn’t mean that the King Messiah wouldn’t also build a perfect temple for Hashem. We believe in a brilliant and perfect future, and in the interim we work with all our efforts to attain the perfection and brilliance that is attainable by us.

The same applies to the ingathering of the dispersed ones of Israel. The day will come when all the dispersed will be gathered and the Temple will be rebuilt and all the people will follow the way of the Torah under their king from the Davidic dynasty. That period is termed “The Messianic Era.” Until then, is it not appropriate for us to attempt attaining even a portion of the hoped-for good? Let us gather those dispersed ones that we can gather, along with the belief that they won’t all be gathered – and it’s clear and self-evident that this won’t happen – until the coming of a king that will unite all of Israel, far and near, by virtue of his outstanding personality. Because we believe that only in the days of the Messiah will the nation of Israel be unified in keeping the Torah (as Rambam says about him: “and he compels all of Israel to follow it and strengthen its fragility”[3]), would we not attempt ourselves to compel all of Israel to follow it and strengthen its fragility as much as is possible? That would be shocking! And exactly the same holds for the other hoped-for good things.

This is as regards the opinion in general, that faith entails waiting and passivity. The foundation is fallen and the structure is collapsed; nonetheless, we will not refrain from commenting on the specific points that Rabbi Yoel of Satmar raised.

His principle that the belief that the Holy One, blessed be He, himself will redeem us restrains from human activity – is surprising. The basis for the idea is very weak and actually demonstrates the opposite of his intention. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Avraham: “Know that I have scattered them, shall you know that I will bring them in, know that I subjugated them, shall you know that I will redeem them.” From this, Rabbi Yoel of Satmar demonstrated that the redemption happens only by the hand of the Holy One, blessed be He, alone. But he didn’t define what is something done only by the Holy One, blessed be He – is a deep concept which is difficult to define;[4] and if the dispersion is considered to have been done by the Holy One, blessed be He, Him and no other, that implies that everything that happens through the nature of war and international politics, and is executed by humans is considered that it was done by the Holy One, blessed be He. Even in the redemption of the building of the Second Temple things happened in the usual fashion, naturally, contrary to what he wrote: “Even in the days of Ezra when there wasn’t a revelation such as there was in Egypt in the days of Moshe and Aharon, still they didn’t make a move without prophecy, as is delineated in the verses, and every single move was done on a mission from the Holy One, blessed be He.” I haven’t found this delineated in the verses; on the contrary, in the book of Nechemiah the opposite is delineated. Nechemiah acted for the sake of rebuilding Jerusalem in the usual way, without any prophecy or special revelation, but rather with prayer and industry:

 The words of Nechemiah… Chanani, one of my brothers, came… and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile… They said to me, “Those who survived … are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.” When I heard these things, I sat down and wept… I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Then I said: “Hashem, the God of heaven… Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moshe, saying… if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen… Hashem, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant…Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.” I was cupbearer to the king. In the month of Nisan… I took the wine and gave it to the king… I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?… If it pleases the king… let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it” (Nechemiah 1:1-2:5).

His words that the King Messiah alone will gather the dispersed ones of Israel, and that therefore activism in this matter is a breach in faith, are contradicted from the actions of Nechemiah who labored to effect an ingathering of the dispersed. The same applies to what he wrote that only in the days of the King Messiah will there not be subjugation to the kingdoms, and that therefore we must not take freedom before the time. In the days of Messiah the good things will be attained in toto and in eternal fashion, when an independent kingdom, faithful to Hashem and His Torah, will rule; until then, we must not refrain from laboring partially, to attain from the good what can be attained even before the time of redemption. There is proof to this from the words of Rambam about a king who didn’t succeed completely:

If a king would arise from the House of David, who studies Torah and does mitzvahs like his ancestor David, according to the written and oral Torah, and he compels all of Israel to follow it and strengthen its fragility, and he will fight the wars of Hashem – he is assumed to be the Messiah; if he acted and succeeded, and vanquished all the nations surrounding him, and built the Temple in its place and gathered the scattered ones of Israel – then he is certainly Messiah. And if he doesn’t succeed to that extent, or if he was killed – it is known that he isn’t the one the Torah promised about, and he is like all the perfect and legitimate Davidic kings that died.^[5]

One who didn’t succeed to attain what the King Messiah is destined to attain is only not the Messiah, but he is not a sinner by virtue of his trying; and if he succeeds completely – then he is the Messiah.

What he wrote that there won’t be redemption until we repent, and that one who considers ascending as a wall before all of Israel repents is a denier of the Torah – is also contradicted by the words of Nechemiah who attempted to achieve ingathering of the exiles without first determining whether all of Israel repented. In fact, we won’t know nor will we be able to define what is repentance of all Israel. Perhaps it is from those sins that caused the exile – idolatry, sexual immorality and murder;[6] if so, perhaps we have already repented: The inclination to idolatry was annulled, and the inclination toward sexual immorality was partially annulled,[7] and murder is quite rare in our merciful nation. Or perhaps the repentance must be from the root of all the sins that all of religion depends on – rejecting Eretz Yisrael, as per the words of the Kuzari, as explained above.[8] If so, in the very return to the land there inheres complete repentance from sin, such that with the very ascension to Eretz Yisrael we will all return to Hashem! And this point too is self-evident – all of Israel, far and near, will not return to Eretz Yisrael unless they are inspired with a spirit of repentance to Hashem, God of their fathers. Like the language of the passage that connects returning to the heart, returning to Hashem, and Hashem returning to return the returnees to Eretz Yisrael:

And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon you… and you shall return to your heart among all the nations, where Hashem your God has driven you, and you shall return to Hashem your God, and you shall obey His voice … Then Hashem your God will return your returnees, and have compassion upon you, and will return and gather you from all the nations, where Hashem your God has scattered you. Even if any of your dispersed are at the ends of the earth, Hashem your God will gather you together from there, and from there He will bring you back… And you shall return and obey the voice of Hashem, and do all His commandments which I command you this day… for Hashem will return to rejoice over you for good… if you return unto Hashem your God with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 30:1-10).

In conclusion, there is no basis for the opinion that refrains from returning to Zion based on the belief in the coming of the Messiah.[9]

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[1] Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings, chapter 11 1.

[2] See Nechemiah, chapter 1.

[3] Laws of Kings, 11:4

[4] See Guide for the Perplexed, 2:48; see also Kuzari, 5:20, end.

[5] Laws of Kings, 11:4.

[6] As stated in Yoma 9b. Baseless hatred is given there as the cause for the destruction of the Second Temple, but we are situated, essentially, in the exile that began with the destruction of the First Temple, while the sin of baseless hatred brought to an end that partial and temporary redemption of the Second Temple, so that the main cause that we are situated in exile is the three cardinal sins; see the words of R’ Chasdai Crescas, Or Hashem, Essay 3, Principle 8, chapter 2: “It is known that this exile that we are currently in, is the exile that became our due with the destruction of the First Temple, except that the people of Babylon were remembered… but were never redeemed, but were always under the kings of Medea and Persia… for being that there was among them baseless hatred and division of hearts, they didn’t succeed in the rebellion, until Titus came and captured them… The matter of the Second Temple, was as if the king of Egypt, who currently rules over the Cherished Land, would give permission to the Jews all over his kingdom to ascend and build the Holy Temple, on condition that they remain under his rule… exactly so was the matter of the Second Temple… the absolute truth… that this exile that we are situated in is the exile that followed from the destruction of the First Temple.” In a similar vein Rashi wrote on the verse, “And it shall come to pass in that day, that Hashem shall set his hand again the second time to acquire the remnant of his people” (Isaiah 11:11): “As He acquired them from Egypt, that they were redeemed absolutely, without subjugation, but the redemption of the Second Temple doesn’t count since they were subjugated to Cyrus.”

[7] See Yoma, 69b.

[8] Section 1, chapter 3.

[9] In fact, the goal of Rabbi Yoel of Satmar – the memory of the tzaddik be blessed! – is not clear, how much he intended to establish an eternal and absolute Torah opinion in every detail that he treated of in his book. His main battle and true concern were directed toward the unholy alliance that developed between the Zionist movement as it was expressed in his days and apostasy. He fought relentlessly against people who wanted to replace old with new, to exchange the Torah of Hashem with a Torah of Zion; the heretical principles of the standard-bearers of this belief were expressed in an overall heretical and disparaging approach, such that certain opinions derived from heresy, although they weren’t heresy in and of themselves. Rabbi Yoel – the memory of the tzaddik be blessed! – understood the depths of their opinion and denounced those who held these opinions as heretics. Against this terrible danger of apostasy Rabbi Yoel – the memory of the tzaddik be blessed! – waged war with all weaponry available to him, while one who studies his words well can find allusions here and there that he didn’t establish every word as absolute, objective truth; see Essay on Residing in Eretz Yisrael, sec. 118, regarding words of Torah said only in order to “penetrate the ear” and inexactly, and there, sec. 133, number 6 regarding the will not to uproot a certain belief from the heart – suggesting that this is a matter of will and choice to establish the appropriate beliefs for the masses, an appropriate concern for a loving leader thinking about the good of the nation of Israel.