Moving toward redemption
Parshat VaEra (Shmot 6:6-8) lists five languages of redemption:
I will bring you out (v’hotzeiti) from under the burdens of Egypt.
I will save you (v’hitzalti) from slavery.
I will redeem you (v’ga’alti) with an outstretched arm and with acts of great judgments.
I will take you (v’lakachti) as My people, and I will be your God.
I will bring you (v’heveiti) to the land that I promised to give to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov; to you I will give it as a possession.
The redemption of Israel, both in the past and in the present is made up of many stages which work in a slow process as we see in the first chapter of Brachot in the Jerusalem Talmud:
Rabbi Chiya Rabba and Rabbi Shimon ben Chalafta were walking in Bikat Arbel early in the morning. When they saw the first light at daybreak, Rabbi Chiya said to Rabbi Shimon: “This is how the redemption of Israel will be. First, it will start slowly and then it will continue to increase.”
We learn this in Micha 7:8:
My enemies do not revel over me; though I fall I will rise; though I sit in darkness, God is my light.
The exile is compared to darkness while the redemption is compared to the light at dawn.
This is how the redemption was in the days of Mordechai and Ester.
At first (Ester 2:21) we saw the foundation:
As Mordechai sat at the King’s gate at that time, fury engulfed Bigtan and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, guards of the threshold, and they plotted to lay their hands on King Achashverosh.
In the second stage (Ester 6:11) we saw the beginning of the downfall of Haman and the rise of Israel:
Haman took the clothes and the horse and dressed Mordechai and led him across the town square, crying out before him as they went, “This is what is done for the man whom the king wishes to honor!”
Next (Ester 6:12):
Mordechai returned to the king’s gate…
In the fourth stage (Ester 8:15):
Mordechai left the king’s presence in royal clothes…
And finally (Ester 8:16):
And the Jews basked in light and happiness, joy and great honor.
May we too see the light of redemption. May we see all of the hostages brought back from darkness to light and may we prevail over the Pharaohs and Hamans of our generation.