I’ve said it in the past many times and I’ll say it again, in the merit of righteous women we will be redeemed. It is written in the Likutei Torah Bamidbar (7:3) that in the days to come when the world will be totally cleansed of all evil, the women who represent the power of receiving, will stand on a higher level than the man, who represent the power of influence.
As we go through the weeks and read the Torah portions about the exile and redemption of the Jewish people throughout their journey in the desert, we can see how the women, all along, stood strong in their beliefs and in their connection to Hashem. No matter what came their way, they always stood strong.
We are entering the time period before the holidays of Purim and Pesach, where behind our big heroes stood even greater women. Our great leaders couldn’t have been who they were without these special women. This coming weekend we are entering the month of Adar Aleph. This year we can truly use an extra month to rejoice and be happy. We need to connect to our inner soul that has been saddened, brought down by all the tragic events that have been happening to the Jewish people in Israel and all over the world since the holy holiday of Simchat Torah. No matter what times come over the Jewish people, you can always look and you’ll find that it is the women who become stronger and stronger as things get harder and harder. This means that the more things don’t make sense and the harder it is to keep going and believing, the more the women get stronger and give strength to others. We see that with Queen Esther how true this fact is. Despite the complete an utter insanity of going in front of the king knowing the fact that it made no sense and that she was going to get killed, she did it anyway. She believed in a greater cause, she believed that G-d was with her and it was in her hands to save the Jewish people. So too did we see the prophetess Miriam when everybody else gave up, and all the great rabbis of the time divorce their wives because they thought logically it doesn’t makes sense to keep bringing children into the world if they’re going to get killed anyway. Then Miriam stepped in and said it doesn’t make sense, but the redemption is going to happen. Miriam told her father that he must get back together with her mother so that the leader of the nation can be born. She believed, so Hashem was able to relay the message of the redemption through her, she went beyond. The merit of the righteous women is that which will bring the redemption. They have the power and energy to continue despite the great darkness. Before the light there’s always great darkness. The women can bear children, the women can go through all the pain and suffering to bring life and light into the world. Women realize they cannot fight the reality of what’s going on. When it’s dark, when it’s painful, and when all are broken, a woman can accept the hardship, and from the acceptance she rises above and sees the light.
I was just back in the U.S. for a short visit to my son and his beautiful family in New York. While I was there, I visited the gravesite of my grandparents who are buried in New York. I loved my grandparents very much. I loved them equally. They both have a dear place in my heart. I went over to my grandfather and spoke with him. I begged him so keep looking out for me and all I have. I asked him to beg the Almighty to bring the redemption with mercy soon in our days. I bent down and put a stone on his tomb. I then stood at my grandmother’s grave, suddenly the tears started rolling from my eyes, my heart opened up, and it was as if my grandmother was standing right there with me, talking to me and giving me strength. As I spoke the tears kept rolling down my cheeks. I felt like I could hear my grandma as if she was standing there with me. As I started walking back to the car, I felt that in the world of truth, in the heavens above where there’s only goodness, which can be compared only to the days to come when all evil will be gone and all will be good, that the women will be on a higher level than the men. I felt it right then and there. I felt that up in heaven the women are in another place – a higher place.
The way I see it, this world exists due to the women. They bear children in every condition, they bring children into the world. They bring them up sometimes under harsh conditions, sometimes under poverty, sometimes under pain and suffering. Yet it’s the women that make sure there is continuity in the world. They give in many times for peace. They give in many times because they look beyond and they are able to not say the last word. After 120 up in the heavens, all those words that were not spoken and all the hard work that only a mother can really do bringing up children adds up. The woman get rewarded for these actions. That’s why it says, in the merit of righteous women we will be redeemed as we were redeemed back in Egypt, and as we were redeemed by Queen Esther, and by the prophetess Deborah and so on. How great are the women of Israel whose purpose is to keep this world going in the best way possible. To keep our children connected to the One Above no matter what. Throughout history they are the ones who really brought the redemption. Each time behind the scenes there was a woman. Their belief and their strength.
As we approach the two months of Adar we can get the strength from Queen Esther to be strong and to do what’s right despite all odds, all sadness. Now we must immerse ourselves in happiness that will reach the heavens, in happiness that will open up the door to the full redemption soon in the month of Nissan. It is written that only in happiness shall we be redeemed. We will once again exit our Egypt and will receive the holy Torah once again, as one people with one heart and one body, as one nation. Amen.
