"...
For G-d said, lest the nation changes its mind when the people see war and they
will return to Egypt" [Shemot 13:17]. And in fact they did complain later
on, on more than one occasion: "Isn't that what we said to you in Egypt –
leave us alone and we will work for Egypt" [14:11] ... "Why can't we
die in the hands of G-d... while sitting at the pot of meat" [16:3] ...
And they even asked to return to Egypt after they had left: "Let us choose
a leader and go back to Egypt" [Bamidbar 14:4].
This
also appears explicitly in the words of the prophet: "I said to them: Let
every man throw away the despicable idols of his eyes... However, they rebelled
against me and nobody threw away the despicable idols from his eyes"
[Yechezkel 20:7].
But
we can only feel perplexed. How could they even consider returning to exile,
how could they not be excited by the prospect of freedom?
When
we look at the attitudes in recent generations, we will see that the problem is
not only with respect to simple idols but is also a difficulty of freeing
ourselves from cultural behavior which is foreign to Judaism. Here are some
examples of this phenomenon: The Zionist movement rose up after two thousand
years of exile. There was opposition for this idea from all sides – Chareidim,
nonreligious, and "enlightened" Jews of the Haskalah movement. The
rabbi of a prominent community in Hungary wrote: "Political Zionism, which
wants to establish a Jewish State in Eretz Yisrael, appears to me to be a
dangerous spiritual illness... The Zionist movement, which wants to transform
Judaism from a religious force to a nation, has no chance of ever succeeding in
Hungary. We are Hungarians whose religion is Judaism. There is no such thing as
Jewish nationalism. Everybody agrees that this is so, both those who have new ideas
and the Orthodox Jews."
And
the head of the Orthodox rabbis indeed followed his lead: "With respect to
their opinion of the Zionist movement, the Orthodox rabbis agree with the
innovators. We object to this foolish movement. The Hungarians of the Jewish
religion want to find their happiness in Hungary, they have no thoughts at all of
establishing a country in Eretz Yisrael."
Some
people enlisted the holy writing in their cause. The association of rabbis in
Germany declared that "the desires of those who are called Zionists, to
establish a national Jewish state in Eretz Yisrael, is directly opposed to the
messianic goals of Judaism as they appear in the holy texts and in religious
sources from later periods."
Philosopher
Hermann Cohen wrote that the ideas of Theodor Herzl are a distortion of true
Jewish messianism and an insult to the patriotism of the Jews, who are
comfortable in their homeland. "We draw a feeling of religious partnership
from the existing compatibility between Jewish messianism and German
humanism... This almost goes so far as to have the seal of approval of a
religious statement."
History
continually repeats itself, again and again. "We remember the fish which
we ate for free in Egypt... the melons..." [Bamidbar 11:5]. The same is
still true today, except that the subject matter has changed, and instead of
free fish and watermelons in Egypt, the people talk about a "Milky"
dairy desert that is sold in Germany for half price.
How
do the Jews reach such a low point in their thoughts? It is written, "And
they did not listen to Moshe, because of impatience and because of the harsh
labor" [Shemot 6:9]. In the Torah portion of Shemot it is written that
"the people believed" [4:31] about the announcement of the
redemption, but now they were told, "I will take you as a nation for Me,
and I will be your G-d" [6:7]. And this is a very frightening prospect,
especially "from the point of view that they were not Torah scholars. And
this is what is called impatience, since the Torah broadens the outlook of
people" [Orach Chaim].
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