'Reclaiming Redemption Vol. II': Tracing Jewish survival from exile to war - book review

Over the past 500 years, humanity has yanked itself out of the shadows and launched major revolutions advancing the human condition.

Science has equipped humanity with the tools to better understand and improve its world. Through its moral instinct, humanity has discovered democracy and has crafted civil societies to protect the dignity of man.

Are we ready to inspire?

In some ways, the world is inching closer to a state of “readiness” to be inspired by God through Am Yisrael.

Are we ready?

Are we capable of reclaiming our universalist voice?

Have we forgotten that every single person possesses this divine image and divine potential – and that it is our duty to inspire them?

After 2,000 years of turning inward, can we now also turn outward without diluting our inner world?

This shift of consciousness and of national identity may take time. However, it is a crucial shift for history to continue its moral and religious evolution.

One day, the answers will come. Until that day, we hold on to faith. We search for those who embody resilience, who illuminate the path of belief through their unwavering trust.

We listen for the echoes of Jewish faith reverberating through history, drawing strength from those who came before us.

We remain loyal to them, summoning the faith that they carved out and that they expect from us. And in that strength, we find the courage to continue.

We often assume that faith is rooted in grand ideas articulated by great thinkers. We search for answers in philosophy and theology, believing that ideas alone can sustain belief.

But faith, at its core, does not arise from abstract concepts but from people.

It is not ideas that move us, but those who live and embody them. Ideas don’t move people; people move people. In moments of crisis, uncertainty and perplexity, we do not cling to theories; we hold fast to those who have passed faith down to us, drawing strength from their presence and example.

Condemned to live among hostile nations determined to undermine our faith, we not only survived, but transformed the world into a vessel of monotheism, preserving the presence of Hashem on this Earth.

This endurance should fill us with confidence. The mesiras nefesh (“sacrifice”) of Am Yisrael over the past 2,000 years should infuse our tefillot (“prayers”) with both pride and anticipation. Our prayers must weave together the raw, desperate pleas of an underserving heart with the steadfast confidence earned through millennia of mesiras nefesh.

If this is true after 2,000 years of galus (“exile”), it is all the more so after the past two years.

The child who cannot be cast out

The image of a ben sorer u’moreh (“stubborn and rebellious child”) reminds us that even in our rebellion, we remain Hashem’s children... By referring to us as having a lev sorer u’moreh (“stubborn and rebellious heart”), the Prophet Jeremiah offers a deeply compassionate perspective on Jewish failure. Though the image may sound harsh and castigating, it pulses with ahavas Yisrael (“love for our fellow Jew”): No matter how far we stray or how rebelliously we behave, a child can never be severed from the parent. Even in our failings, our bond with Hashem as our Father remains unbroken.

How did we pull off this miracle? What tools did Hashem empower us with to outlast this historical struggle?...

Our nation was selected by Hashem because of two national tendencies. Firstly, we possess an uncanny ability to process supernatural information, such as Torah and prophecy. Secondly, we are a very stubborn people, unwilling to listen to others or bend in the face of adversity.

During the first 1,300 years of Jewish history, our stiff-necked stubbornness repeatedly sabotaged us. However, once we entered our dark galus, everything changed. Our national shortcomings became our forte.

And our stubbornness prepared us for one final epic act of heroism.

Having recovered from the Holocaust, the greatest horror to ever plague humanity, we were immediately tasked with returning to our homeland and rebuilding it in the face of unending hostility and international disapproval.

A nation of lesser valor and of lesser intransigence could not possibly have survived the darkness of the past 2,000 years.