Maintaining faith through almost two millennia of persecution in exile was a monumental challenge. Yet, with unwavering courage and resilience, our ancestors found strength in Torah and mitzvot and support in the miraculousness of their suffering and survival. The degree to which we were hated, as well as our national survival (despite the hatred and persecution), both reflected G-d’s Hand. Though maligned and ridiculed as a rejected people, our ancestors sustained their faith in our people and our future, a testament to their indomitable spirit.
And then the twentieth century arrived, bringing with it the most tragic event in our history – the Holocaust. Yet, it also heralded the awe-inspiring realization of ancient Biblical prophecies – the ingathering of the Jewish people and the revival of our land. The fulfillment of these prophecies after centuries of exile and suffering is a testament to the miraculous nature of our history, invoking a sense of awe and wonder.
This week, we examine these amazing singular phenomena that should strengthen our faith in both Hashem and ourselves.
The Ingathering
Until the twentieth century, no people had survived 2,000 years in exile and then returned to their original land. The Jewish people not only survived and returned, but did so from over one hundred countries across the globe.
Several additional factors made this ingathering even more miraculous. First, Jews decided to return together even though we no longer shared the same language, culture, or customs. Second, we returned to the land of Israel even though it was desolate and destroyed – purely because of its historical significance, not for economic or other benefits.
Many Nevi’im – including Yechezkel, Yirmiyahu, Zecharya, and Amos – predicted our eventual ingathering. Yeshayahu HaNavi described it in great detail, including a prophecy depicting our return from the four corners of the Earth (Yesh. 43:5-6). Based on these prophecies, the Ge’onim and Rishonim listed the ingathering as a central component of the redemption process.
The ingathering should, therefore, reinforce our faith not only in Hashem but also in our prophets and the mesorah.
The Land’s Loyalty and Revival Loyalty
Though our return was a great miracle, ultimately, it reflected human decision (and Hashem’s assistance). Our return facilitated another great miracle totally out of our control – the revival of the land of Israel.
As predicted by Parshat Bechukotai (26:32), the land of Israel lay desolate and fallow after our exile. As described by Parshat Nitzavim (29:21-23), throughout our exile, visitors to Eretz Yisrael expressed shock at the land’s absolute devastation.
Mark Twain is an example. After visiting Eretz Yisrael in 1867, he wrote (Innocents Abroad, Vol. II Harper and Brothers, 1922):
We traversed some miles of the desolate country, whose soil is rich enough but is given wholly to weeds, as silent, mournful expanse. A desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action…
We never saw a human being on the whole route. We pressed on towards the goal… renowned Jerusalem. The further we went, the hotter the sun got, the more rocky and bare, repulsive and dreary the landscape became. There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere.
Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country. No landscape exists that is more tiresome to the eye than that which bound the approaches to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is mournful, dreary, and lifeless. I would not desire to live there.
Professor Sir John William Dosson explained the situation (Modern Science in Bible Lands, pp. 449–450, London, 1888):
Israel awaits its true and only permanent residents.
Until today, no people have succeeded in establishing national dominion in the Land of Israel… No national unity or spirit of nationalism has acquired any hold there. The mixed multitude of itinerant tribes that managed to settle there did so on lease as temporary residents.
It seems that they await the return of the permanent residents of the Land.
The Ramban (Vay. 26:16) made this point six centuries before Dosson. He portrayed the land’s desolation as its way of keeping others from replacing us there. By refusing to produce for others, Eretz Yisrael ensured our ability to return. In the Ramban’s words, its millennia-long devastation was a “great proof” for and “promise” to us. Though we suffered in exile worldwide at the hands of nations who ridiculed us, the land’s desolation and refusal to accept anyone else reassured us of our bright future.
Revival
For two thousand years, our ancestors were consoled by the land’s devastation. In the twentieth century, they were inspired by its revival. Soon after Twain’s visit, as Jews began returning to the land, the land finally began producing again.
Over the past century, the desert has become an oasis, and the desolation a blessing. Israel has developed innovative agricultural expertise and water conservation technologies and has planted over 250 million trees. Eretz Yisrael is the only country that entered the twenty-first century with more trees than the century before.
Israel also has more than 300 wineries, and its wine, fruits, and other products are exported worldwide. Israeli crops produce (on average) more than double the world average. Here are examples of the ratios (Israeli versus worldwide tons per dunam) for specific crops: walnuts are 60 to 1, grapefruit are 100 to 23, bananas are 57 to 20, corn is 32 to 10, tomatoes are 75 to 38, and carrots are 68 to 38.
The average Israeli cow produces 12,200 liters of milk per year, the highest in the world and almost double the amount produced by the country in second place (Germany). It is also higher than the milk production of countries such as the United States and Holland, which are renowned for their dairy production.
Many Nevi’im – including Yeshaya (51:3; 65:21-22), Yechezkel (36:7-36), and Zecharya (8:11-12) – predicted the land’s revival in conjunction with our return to it. Yechezkel described Hashem’s call to the mountains of Israel to produce fruit for the returning Jewish people. Based on this prophecy, Chazal identified the flowering of the land as the most explicit expression of the end of days (San. 98a).
The ingathering should reinforce our faith not only in Hashem but also in our prophets and mesorah.
Our Decision
Rabbeinu Bechayei celebrated our ancestors’ amazing heroism. Despite being scattered worldwide with seemingly no hope for the future, they clung to Jewish faith and principles. Their host nations tempted them with conversion, which would have allowed them acceptance and a better life, but our ancestors refused. They believed in our people’s bright future. They believed we would one day return to our land, which would welcome us back with open arms.
As Jews who have merited seeing these miracles, we should have even more faith. Rav Eliyahu Dessler had this expectation. In response to the miraculous events of 1948, he wrote:
We have experienced great kindness. We have gone from the edge of suffering with the Holocaust of six million of our brethren to the other extreme – the settlement of our people in our country in the holy land.
We need to learn faith from this and embed it in our hearts. Woe to the one who arrives on the day of judgment still unable to see something so clear.
Oxford history professor Cecil Roth added historical perspective:
Throughout our history, there have been weaker elements who have shirked the sacrifices which Judaism entails; they have been swallowed up, long since, in the great majority. Only the more stalwart have carried on the traditions of their ancestors and can now look back with pride in their superb heritage.
Are we to be numbered with the weak majority or the stalwart minority?
Each of us decides how we answer Roth’s question each day of our lives.
Conclusion
Over the past three weeks, we have studied the miracles of Jewish history. We are a people who have survived despite all attempts to destroy us, and we have finally miraculously returned to our land.
May appreciating our unique history reinforce our faith in the One behind it.
