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All the Jews of the world will eventually return to the land of Israel. That’s a given. It’s in our weekly Torah portion, promised in the verse, “And the Lord your G-d will return (with) your captives from exile, will have mercy upon you, and will gather you from among all the nations where He dispersed you” (Deut. 30:3). Rashi explains, “The verse should have read, ‘And the Lord your G-d will bring you back.Ҕ However, a literal reading of the verse implies that G-d Himself will come back together with the Jews and return with them to the land of Israel. Therefore, Rashi elaborates, “Our sages inferred from here that the shechina (G-d’s presence) is with the Jews in exile, with them in their suffering, and when they are redeemed, it is written that He will bring about His own redemption as well, and will return with the Jews. An additional explanation; the day of ingathering of the exiles is so immense and difficult, that it will be as if G-d Himself grasps the hands of each and every Jew wherever he is, as in the verse (Isaiah 27:12), ‘And you, children of Israel, will be gathered one by one.’ And so we find as well regarding the redemption of the nations of the world, ‘And I returned the exile of Ammon’ (Jeremiah 48:47).”

Lots of questions here:
1) Why did the sages learn from this verse that G-d is with the Jews in exile? Much earlier in the Torah, we already found that G-d appeared among the Jews in exile. In Exodus, as Moses was tending his flocks in the desert, G-d appeared to him in the “burning bush,” and Rashi explains that this was to inform him that G-d was with the Jews in their suffering?

2) From the verse itself, we only know that G-d will take the Jews out of exile. How does Rashi learn that He himself will go out of exile together with the Jews?

3) Rashi brings a second explanation, “The day of ingatheringŔ Why does he not suffice with his first explanation?

4) The verse speaks only of the ingathering and redemption of the Jews. Why does Rashi mention the redemption, so to speak, of non-Jews as well?

By way of explanation, let’s first understand what it means for G-d to be “with” someone. The clearest example is what we find by the forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as well as Joseph. We find that G-d was with them in all of their undertakings, aiding them, blessing them with supernatural wealth and success, and protecting them. The same is true of the Jews in exile; though we are like sheep among wolves, nevertheless, we maintain our identity, succeed, and sometimes even achieve beyond natural expectations. Not that we don’t and haven’t suffered immensely, but together with that, there is a blessing from Above that keeps us going. It is evident to everyone that some sort of supernatural attention and protection keep the Jews going in the exile.

However, it is difficult to fit this sort of divine presence and help into the words and meaning of our verse. For, if the point of the verse is that G-d will take us out of exile and into redemption, then He how can He be part of the exile? If His presence among the Jews in exile is to protect us from the “seventy wolves,” then He may indeed take us out of exile, but it’s not likely that He would reside with us in exile. That’s why Rashi goes out of his way to emphasize that G-d is with us in the exile – He is part and parcel of the exile and not merely part of the solution. From the very inception, G-d designed the plan of exile and of redemption in such a way as to accompany it and help the Jews at every step along the way.

That enables us to answer our first question; why not learn, as Rashi seemed to do already from the burning bush, that G-d is with us in the exile? But the answer is that in the burning bush we only saw that G-d is concerned about the suffering of the Jews. We don’t see that He is truly among them. In the burning bush, G-d appeared to Moses to let Him know that He heard the suffering and travails of the Jews. But, G-d doesn’t say that He is actually present among them. That we see only in our verse, which implies that G-d will redeem Himself together with the Jews, meaning that He was actually together with them in exile all the while.

Of course, the question that next needs answering is; if He is in exile together with the Jews, then how can He possibly redeem Himself? It’s obvious that a prisoner cannot free himself from prison, so how can G-d, while in exile, redeem the Jews and Himself? To this, Rashi answers that G-d “factored in His own redemption,” so to speak. Even before going into exile with the Jews, He wrote into the Torah that He would go out with them, as it says in our verse that “He will return (with) your captivesŔ He’s not only part of the problem, He is the solution, since that’s the way He wrote it into the Torah.

However, after all of this explanation, one thing is unclear. We have established a new factor regarding exile; G-d is not only cares about the Jews from afar. Nor does He limit Himself to taking them out of exile. He is actually among them, one with the Jews. However, when you look at the simple meaning of our verse, it’s not talking about exile, but about redemption. The verse states that when the Jews are redeemed, G-d, so to speak, is redeemed together with them. Since the main point of the verse is redemption, and not exile, Rashi finds it necessary to bring a second interpretation that emphasizes redemption. The redemption means that every Jew, wherever he or she might be, will come out of exile. That’s an unbelievably difficult task, not only because so many Jews are in so many places, but because many of them don’t even know that they are Jewish, and many more have no concept of exile and redemption. Therefore, says Rashi, redemption is so big and so significant, that we have to know that only G-d can do it. Only the One above can simultaneously perform the intricate and vast task of taking every last Jew out of exile.

And that brings us to a question that a five-year old, learning the Torah for the first time, might ask. True, the redemption of the Jews is an intricate, detailed and huge undertaking. But, it’s not only the Jews who will be redeemed. The whole world, including the non-Jewish world, will emerge from exile. In fact, the non-Jewish redemption may be even more difficult than the Jewish emergence from exile. The Jews, as scattered and dispersed as they may be, are one people, and perhaps when one Jew sees another go through redemption, he can relate the process to himself. Non-Jews, though, are a myriad number of peoples and cultures, for whom the process may be more complicated. Therefore, the five year old will ask, why does our verse mention “the Lord, your G-d,” (of the Jews), when in reality it’s the entire world, including non-Jews, who will undergo redemption? To this, Rashi answers that the task of removing the Jews from exile will be great and complicated, since they are scattered among the non-Jews and it will be necessary to “take them by the hand, one by one,” so to speak. And he adds that it will be necessary to redeem the non-Jews, as well, just as the five-year old knows.
The difference, Rashi implies, is that the redemption of the non-Jews will not take place “by hand, one by one.” Rather, their redemption will take place automatically and naturally, without specific attention to individuals.

What is the difference whether we leave exile “one by one, held by the hand,” or “automatically”? It seems that Rashi is hinting at the difference between divine providence of the individual, and divine providence of the species alone. The Rambam holds, for example, that divine providence applies only to man, while G-d’s dominion over the rest of creation extends only to species of minerals, plants and animals and not to the individual members of the species. However, the Ba’al Shem Tov proclaimed that G-d’s providence extends down to a leaf blowing in the wind, and that each and every individual creation, whether human, animal, vegetable or mineral is controlled directly by G-d. In order to resolve this apparent contradiction, Chassidic philosophy differentiates between revealed and concealed divine providence. According to Chassidut, the Rambam’s position that divine providence applies only to man does not deny divine providence to all the other species of the world. What the Rambam really means is that divine providence is openly revealed and observable in regard to man, but hidden and unfathomable among all other species. The Rambam does not deny direct G-dly control over all of creation. He only implies that it is invisible, hidden to the eye. The Ba’al Shem Tov, though, claims that G-d’s divine providence is evident among all creatures of the world, whether man, animal, vegetable or mineral.

And that may be the crux of the difference between redemption of Jews and non-Jews. It could be that Rashi meant to imply that the Jewish redemption will be openly miraculous and obviously accompanied by divine providence, while the nations of the world will be redeemed “en masse,” naturally, without a great deal of miraculous intervention. Thus, only by the Jews does Rashi mention that they will leave exile “one by one, held by the hand.” The redemption of the non-Jewish nations of the world, though, will be “automatic,” natural and easy. Both will require divine intervention, but the intervention will be obvious in the case of the Jews, and hidden in the case of the non-Jews.

However it takes place, the main thing is that it should be soon. What we do know is that He cares enough to be with the Jews in exile, and to take us all out soon, G-d willing very soon!

From Likutei Sichot of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, ztz’l, vol. 9, pp. 175-183 Rabbi David Sterne, Jerusalem Connection in the Old City of Jerusalem