This is the third Shabbat of consolation between Tisha B’Av and Rosh Hashana. In the parsha we learn about ascending to the Beit HaMikdash for our holidays, and what to do if we are too far to make the trip. The last portion of the Torah reading is the reading for the second days of our holidays when we observe them living in exile.
Ramchal, in the first part of Maamar Hageula, his Essay on Redemption which we have been studying, introduces the four corruptions of the exile that must be corrected as part of the process of redemption. Ramchal explains that exile is an archetype, and that the dynamic of transitioning between exile and redemption is a persistent characteristic of our national experience. The quintessential process of redemption was the exodus from Egypt, and this provides a framework to understand the final redemption.
In every exile, we are separated from our proper state of concurrence with Hashem, from our own true essence, and we are prevented from performing the tasks and observing the rituals that define our peoplehood. There are many sources of corruption that afflict us in exile, but these can all be subsumed under four principal categories, according to Ramchal. Each of these, as we recognize and define them, is remedied by the process of redemption.
The first corruption of exile is something we are warned about in the book of Devarim (31:18): that Hashem “hides His face” from us. Ramchal explains that the natural order of the universe is for the light of Hashem – His sustenance and the will that animates existence – to be transmitted through a series of vessels, each of which refracts and filters the light until it reaches our universe and affects our senses. When the universe is in its proper order, everything is cared for fully and every intermediate process has a necessary role in optimizing the final result for the benefit of humanity and the Jewish people who do Hashem’s will.
But when Hashem “hides His face,” G-d forbid, the natural order is distorted as a consequence of the distorted behavior of the human beings who are its beneficiaries. The light that is being transmitted through reality no longer reaches us with the same intensity, and we might even have to search for its effects in distant realms to where it’s been diverted.
As the natural order is distorted and things no longer function according to their proper design, the second distortion becomes evident: The nations of the world other than Israel, especially those who afflict and torment us, experience great bounty and thrive. The rewards and joys that should be preserved for the servants of Hashem are delivered to those who never earned them and who can’t truly benefit. Things are out of balance and justice becomes skewed.
But the worst thing of all, number three on Ramchal’s list, is that with the impact of exile on the state of the universe and on the souls of Israel, the Divine Presence, known as the Shechina, withdraws from the physical realm until we are no longer sensible to her presence or influence and she is exiled to other worlds instead of residing in ours with us.
The final corruption of exile is more an accident than all these others, but is the one we are most viscerally aware of while we live through the experience of exile. Because the cosmic forces are out of balance and the divine bounty is not reaching the righteous since justice has been perverted, the people of Israel suffer physical and moral afflictions at the hands of our enemies and even the natural world. We see a proliferation of poverty, cruelty, and abuse of the weak. Individual Jews, among them the righteous and innocent, are imprisoned, tormented, even murdered. But Ramchal reminds us that all of these afflictions only affect our physical experience and cannot impact on our pure souls in our commitment to the faithful service of Hashem. He says the most important thing for us to focus on, in order to emerge from the exile, is to preserve our purity of heart and purpose and to not allow our souls to become corrupted even as the world around us deteriorates.
As he concludes this description of the four main types of corruption, Ramchal emphasizes that all of these are only signposts, templates for the way in which Hashem will effect our redemption and lead us out of this long exile. The more we understand what is wrong with our world, as natural and inexorable as the process appears, we discover that even the most difficult and dispiriting aspects are in fact supernatural expressions of a supernatural state. As easily as our actions led to this state of disorder, our repentance and reaffirmation of our covenant with Hashem have the power to return order and justice to the universe.
As we approach Rosh Hashana, we devote ourselves to repairing ourselves in the hope that through this process, the world around us can also be restored.
