When Moshe Rabbeinu first encounters Hashem at the Burning Bush, he strongly doubts his ability to carry out Hashem’s mission.
“Who am I … that I should take Bnai Yisroel out of Mitzraim?”
Hashem answers: “This is your sign …. When you take the people out of Mitzraim, you will serve Hashem on this mountain.” (Shemos 3:11)
I never understood this answer. What assurance does a future event give in the present? How can this promise reassure Moshe? Or if it is a sign for the people, why should they believe in a future event as security for the present? Am Yisroel undoubtedly already knew of prophesies of future redemption, but they were downtrodden and depressed, not seeing beyond their suffering.
Recently, I came across the fascinating words of Rabbi Nosson Scherman Shlita”h. (Overview: Shavuos, Artscroll/Mesorah) This opened my eyes to understanding the words of Hashem to Moshe. Rabbi Scherman cites a Midrash which describes the angels’ reaction to Hashem’s plan to give the Torah to Bnai Yisroel. The Midrash describes how the angels wanted to destroy Moshe when he came to Shomayim to receive the Torah on behalf of Bnai Yisroel. The angels felt that the Torah was too precious to be handed over to mere humans.
The Midrash continues: Hashem changed Moshe’s visage to resemble Avraham Avinu’s and asked the angels: do you want to harm the man who gave you food, drink and lodging? (See Beraishis 18:1ff) This is hard to understand: were the angels fooled into thinking that Moshe Rabbeinu was really Avraham Avinu?
But the point is very deep. The point is that Moshe Rabbeinu was in fact the bearer of the “spark” of Avraham Avinu, and that spark is the answer to every question about our future. Avraham Avinu lived in a world that was completely dark, a world of avoda zara in which the Existence of Hashem was obscured. Only through Avraham Avinu and his children was the spark ignited and turned into an inextinguishable torch.
But everything for Avraham and his children was in the future. They saw in their lifetime no fulfillment of Hashem’s promises. But those promises were sufficient for them. Here are the words of Rabbi Scherman that opened my eyes: “G-d’s answer to Moshe showed that people can be judged and even rewarded on the basis of their potential.”
People of emuna can live on promises!
Am Yisroel can be on the lowest level – the 49th Degree of Tumah in Mitzraim. They can be enslaved, tortured, close to forfeiting their heritage, even worshipping avoda zara. Why do they deserve to be redeemed? What is their merit?
Their merit is the promise that some day they will stand at Har Sinai and receive the Torah! That promise is sufficient to redeem them today, even when they seem lost!
This is so relevant in our own days!
Today the entire world seems beyond hope. Am Yisroel sometimes appears hopelessly lost and divided. Yet we have a promise bequeathed to us by Avraham Avinu: that is our “Pintele Yid,” the spark which can never be extinguished.
This, my friends, is Shavuos, the epic story of Rus Hamoavia, who rose from apparently-hopeless degradation to become the mother of royalty, the progenitor of Dovid ha Melech, the progenitor of Moshiach!“He raises the needy from the dust, from the trash heaps He lifts the destitute, to seat them with the nobles of His people.” (Tehillim 113)
This is the culmination of Sefiras Ha Omer, the moment when a degraded and reviled nation becomes a Nation of Kings and Prophets, the spiritual leader of the entire world. This deep lesson calls out to us especially today, when we look upon a charred and barren world landscape, where the seeds of redemption seem hidden.
“I heard and my innards shuddered … I would come to my resting place on a day of travail, arriving upon an invading nation. For the fig will not have blossomed and there will be no fruit on the vines…. The sheep will be cut off from the corral and there will be no cattle in the stall … but I shall exult in Hashem. I shall rejoice in the G-d of my salvation. My Lord Hashem is my army. He shall [cause me to] walk upon … high places!” (Chava-kuk 3:16ff, Haftara for the Second Day of Shavuos)
All may appear lost, but “a staff will emerge from the stump of Yishai and a shoot will sprout from his roots, and the spirit of Hashem will rest upon him….” (Yeshaya 11:1) Hashem’s promise will be fulfilled when we least expect it and the Glory of Hashem will suddenly envelop the entire world. This is the promise which sustains us, the spark which can never be extinguished.
Suddenly, Redemption will come! May we see it soon in our days!
GLOSSARY
Am Yisroel: the Jewish People
Avoda Zara: Idol worship
Avraham Avinu: the Patriarch Abraham
Bnai Yisroel: the Children of Israel
Dovid ha Melech: King David
Emuna: Faith in G-d
Mitzraim: Ancient Egypt
Moshe Rabbeinu: Moses
Rus Hamovia: Ruth the Moabite, great-grandmother of King David
Shomayim: Heaven
Tehillim: Psalms
Tumah: Impurity
Yishai: King David’s father
