Rosh HaYeshiva, Machon Meir
When Avraham first appeared on the stage of history, G-d informed him of what his destiny was vis-à-vis mankind: "I will make you a great nation... You shall be for a blessing... All the families of the earth shall be blessed through you" (Beresheit 12). Also before the giving of the Torah, G-d once more announced what is the Jewish People's function, saying, "You shall be for me a kingdom of Kohanim and a holy nation" (Shemot 19:6). The "kingdom of Kohanim" refers to the following: Just as the task of the kohanim is to bless the Jewish People and to cause them to be showered with G-d's light, so are the entire Jewish People like a kingdom of Kohanim for all mankind. As Sforno explains, G-d was saying:
"The Torah that I am giving you is for you to understand and pass on to the entire human race that they should all proclaim G-d's name and serve Him as one. Such, in fact, will be Israel's destiny in the future, as Yeshayahu said (2:4), 'For out of Tzion shall go forth the Law, and the word of G-d from Yerushalayim.'" The Torah shall then go forth to the entire world. We are not just a great nation but a holy nation, the nation of eternity, living forever. As Yeshayahu (4:3) states: "He that is left in Tzion, and he that remains in Yerushalayim, shall be called holy, everyone inscribed for life in Jerusalem." Our sages commented, "Just as holiness is eternal, so shall those people be eternal" (Sanhedrin 92a; see Sforno, ibid.).
How fortunate we are that we have merited to live in Tzion and Yerushalayim for real. Yet even if we are living in a time when Yerushalayim and Eretz Yisrael are at the height of a building process, the ingathering of the exiles has still not been completed. We are still waging struggles and wars over our existence as an independent state, and over our hold on the Land of our life's blood. Precisely because we are at the height of a redemption process, in days of war and struggle, we must not lose our great vision that stands behind the entire process of our people's rebirth. Quite the contrary, we need to illuminate the horizon of our national, political and societal lives. Let us never forget what we are and what our lives represent. The moral and spiritual crisis that is besetting portions of Israeli society is the result of our forgetting the vision and destiny of the Jewish People. Shlomo HaMelech long ago said, "Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint" (Mishlei 29:18).
The way to rectify our national plight will be found when we study and come to know, clarify, and internalize what are the historic identity and purpose of our people vis-à-vis the world. As G-d told the Jewish People before the giving of the Torah: "If you keep My covenant, you shall be My special treasure among all the nations, even though all the world is Mine. You will be a kingdom of Kohanim and a holy nation to Me" (Shemot 19:5-6).
BeSorot Tovot,
Looking forward to complete salvation,
With the Love of Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael,
Shabbat Shalom,
Chodesh Tov.
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