"The Great Redemption" (15)

"The Great Redemption" by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto

-- A Discourse on The End of the Exile and the Beginning of the Great Redemption

Translated by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
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15.

When the Jewish Nation went into exile a huge vale and terrible barrier came between them and their Father in Heaven about which it’s written, “For your iniquities have separated you from your G-d” (Isaiah 59:2). The prophet Jeremiah expressed it is as, “You (G-d) have covered Yourself over with a cloud so our prayer cannot pass through” (Lamentations 3:44).

But G-d had mercy on the Jewish Nation. The light of holiness grew stronger and ripped at the barrier at many points, and the many rips acted like windows, like lattices upon the barrier. But the great entrance was no longer left open after that. It’s said of these rips, “Behold, He stands behind our wall gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattice” (Song of Songs 2:9).

Still-and-all it’s said “My Beloved put His hand through the doorway” (Song of Songs 5:4), because the Exalted King wanted the Jewish Nation to be redeemed. For a door hadn’t been open until that day, and He only puts His hand through these lattices.

What in fact is “His hand”? His right hand, which He’d hidden away in His bosom since the day of the destruction (of the Holy Temple), about which it’s said, “He has drawn His right hand back from the enemy” (Lamentations 2:3), and “My beloved put His hand through the doorway” (Song of Songs 5:4).

(c) 2005 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

(Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org )

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