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Sefer Shemos
Parashas Va’eira
Shemos: Chapter 6, verses 8
“And I will bring you to the land that I
swore to give to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov and
I will give it to you as an inheritance I am G-d.”
The
MESHECH HOCHMOH, based on a gemorrah (SANHEDRIN
111a) explains that G-d promised to bring the Jewish nation to the land of
Israel and this promised was fulfilled 40 years later as Yehoshua led the nation over the Jordan river. Of all
the men who left Egypt - 600,000 - only two reached Israel. The rest of them perished in the
various sins they committed in the wilderness (such as the sins of the
golden calf, the spies, Korach). Similarly the
number of Jews that left Egypt was a fraction of those who lived there.
(See Rashi Shmos
chapter 13 verse 18 that 80% perished in Egypt.)
The
reason that the majority of Jews failed to leave Egypt was a lack of faith in G-d and in Moshe
His prophet. This is also the reason that they did not enter the land of Israel.
We
learn from this that if after all the miracles of the plagues, 20% of the
Jews will reach the goal of receiving the Torah on Mt. Sinai there is every reason to perform those
miracles. And after all the troubles of the 40 years in the wilderness if
two men reach Israel there is every reason to call this a
success.
The
gemorrah in SANHEDRIN concludes that in the
future redemption it will be exactly the same - only a small percent of
Jews will reach the days of the Mashiach.
Therefore we should not allow our spirits to fall as we look around at so
many Jews who are not keeping the commandments. We should strengthen our
own service of G-d and try to help others to join us, knowing that if we
are firm in our faith and in our practice of the commandments, we will
merit living in the generation of redemption.
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