Title: Geulah B’Rachamim
Author: Pinchas Winston
Publisher: Thirtysix.org
Geulah B’Rachamim contains 60 easily absorbed lessons about the significance of Jewish life on holy soil. Its purpose is to help Jews fulfill the mitzvot of anticipating and yearning for Geulah (Redemption).
The overriding message presented in Geulah B’Rachamim is this: Geulah will come peacefully and pleasantly with world Jewry’s genuine desire for it.
This goal can be expressed in many ways; one of the most important being a Jew’s personal longing to be in the Holy Land, and most certainly with actual residence there. But if we persist in staying in host Diaspora countries, where the Shechinah is in ever-decreasing supply, geulah might arrive, we have learned from experience, not so pleasantly.
The author puts Jewish history in concise perspective: four/fifths (about 12 million) of enslaved Egyptian Jews didn’t leave with Moshe Rabbeinu. They died because they weren’t willing to leave the newfound comforts of Egypt – now that their captors had been destroyed – for a spiritual life. Six million Jews died in the Shoah in spite of their high level of Torah learning, convinced that Jewish life in Europe would last far longer than it did. It came instead to a horrific end, begging the question “Did we stay too long again?”
When every leisurely stroll – or even a cough – in the Holy Land earns a heavenly reward, the significance of Parshat Balak and aliyah take on dramatic meaning. As the author rhetorically asks readers, “Should we not be mindful of how long we’ve lived in a particular place in the Diaspora? Do we really have a choice, when staying too long always means losing everything which we worked so hard to build up?”
These delightful thoughts from Torah and related commentaries are among those included in this 198-page paperback sefer: “Once Mashiach comes, and evil has been completely eradicated, then the light of God can increase daily for everyone and the pleasure of receiving it will be tremendous Sadness, depression and all unfortunate states of mind will never exist again.”
“As with many important things in life, context counts for a lot when it comes to appreciating current events Hence the Torah tells us “Remember the days of old, understand the many generations that have passed. Ask your father, and he will tell you; your elders will say it to you (Devarim 32:7)” (p. 36).
Read what the Abarbanel predicted about life in Israel as the “righteous shoot of redemption” (p. 199) and kvell while planning your aliyah.
This book holds more gems of Jewish thought about the commandment to reside in Israel.
Learn more about Geulah B’Rachamim at www.thirtysix.org.
Yocheved Golani is the author of highly acclaimed “It’s MY Crisis! And I’ll Cry if I Need To: ALife Book for Helping You to Dry Your Tears andCope with a Medical Challenge” (Booklocker Publishing).
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