Rabbi Adi Cohen
The eternal existence of the Jewish people, in spite of the upheavals they suffered, is a wonder to behold. However, the wonder increases sevenfold in light of the fact that the nation’s history was accurately predicted ahead of time in the Torah. The Torah foresaw the Jewish People’s exiles, persecutions, dispersion across the face of the Earth, scarcity of population, and eternal survival.
Unprecedented Dispersion
In the section known as the tochehah, where the Torah warns of the calamities that will befall the nation on account of their misdeeds, we read, “And Hashem will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the Earth to the other” (Devarim 28:64).
The Torah informs the nation what they can expect in the distant future – exile. And not just any exile, where the nation is exiled to a certain land, but rather an exile in whichthe exiled nation is scattered “from one end of the earth to the other.”
Unfortunately, this prophecy came true, and even today, there is hardly any place on earth that does not have Jews residing there.This prophecy stands in contradiction toall historical experience, for there is no nation that has ever been exiled to every possible place in civilization as the Jewish people. Similarly, it contradicts logic, for the Jews by nature are a close-knit people, and it is unnatural for them to be entirely scattered and spread out to the four corners of the earth.
“Deities of Wood and Stone”
In the verse cited above, the Torah continues: “And there you will serve other deities unknown to you or your forefathers, deities of wood and stone.”
The Torah predicts that the Jewish People will be subservient to worshipers of other deities in their exile and will have to perform forced labor, such that they will be considered to have actually worshiped the deities. As Rashi writes: “They will not serve the actual deities themselves,but rather will pay taxes in the form of forced labor.” These deities will be those unknown either to them or their forefathers, and will be“deities of wood and stone.”
Surveying Jewish history, we find two relatively new religions that came into being after the Jews’ exile began, whose adherents could thus not have forced the Jews into service beforehand. These religions, of course, are Christianity and Islam,and they are symbolized by wood and stone, respectively: the symbol of Christianity is the wooden cross, and that of Islam is the stone in Mecca.
Small Yet Enduring
The Torah also writes: “And you will remain few in number, whereas you were once as numerous as the stars of the heavens, because you did not obey Hashem, your Gd” (Devarim 28:62).
The Torah here foresees that the Jewish population in exile will be small, yet they will neverthelesssurvive. Common sense tells us that the more populous a nation is, the greater its chance of survival. A small population runs a greater risk of it disappearing as a result of assimilation within its host nation, if only for the simple reason that finding a mate from one’s people is more difficult.
Indeed, during the entire course of the Jewish exile, the Jews were a small nation, numbering 17 million at its peak, and just one million at its lowest ebb. And yet, despite all odds, the nation survived.
An Exile Within an Exile
The Torah continues: “And among thosenations, you will not be calm, nor will your foot find rest” (ibid. 65).
Here, the Torah warns that even after the Jewish People are scattered among the nations of the world, they will know no rest; they will not be left alone. They will be expelled and forced to wander from place to place, which has, of course, been the Jews’ experience throughout the millennia of exile.
There is no historical precedent of a people that underwent an exile within an exile like the Jewish people have experienced. Moreover, it is impossible to explain how self-respecting governments, such as France, England, Spain, Germany, Russia, and others, issued edicts of expulsion to innocent Jewish citizens without any reasonable justification. How could the Torah have predicted ahead of timethat different nations, with completely different characters and mentalities, would all behave the same way in regard to one particular matter – their relationship to the Jews – unless this was written by Gd Himself?
The Mystery of Anti-Semitism
The Torah continues in the same section:“And your life will hang in suspense before you. You will be in fear night and day, and you will not believe in your life. In the morning, you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and in the evening, you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’ because of the fear in your heart which you will experience and because of the sights that you will behold” (Devarim 28:66-67).
The Torah in this passage foresees the phenomenon of anti-Semitism, which is unparalleled in world history. Professor Yosef ben Shlomo writes in “The Monthly Survey” (for the officers of the Israeli Defense Forces):
This hatred [of the Jews] is basic and unconditional, and therefore depends on no factors, not on personality and not on national character, not on the economic situation and not on social conditions, not on the type of government and not on its relationship to the Jews, not on their success and not on their lack of appeal, not on failure and not on progress, for we have been tried in all these circumstances and the hatred remains.
They hate us with the complaint that we are too good, and on the other hand, because we are blood suckers; we are separate but we also mix too much. They hate us in a period of economic prosperity and persecute us in times of economic depression. The monarchy is disgusted by us, and so is the dictatorship, or the democracy; in anarchy we are the first prey of the looters. They view us as responsible for every disaster, and unnecessary for any success; they beat the one who bends to them and attack the one who walks upright; they prevent the observance of our religion but will not absorb the one bent on assimilation; at every moment and in every situation they have a reason to hate the Jews.
Just over eighty years ago, in 1923, David Lloyd George, a former Prime Minister of Britain, was quoted as saying:
Of all the bigotries that savage the human temper there is none as stupid as the antisemitic. In the sight of these fanatics, Jews of today can do nothing right. If they are rich, they are birds of prey. If they are poor, they are vermin. If they are in favor of war, that is because they want to exploit the bloody feuds of gentiles to their own profit. If they are anxious for peace, they are either instinctive cowards or traitors. If he lives in a strange land, he must be persecuted and pogrommed out of it. If he wants to go back to his own, he must be prevented.
Drawing the World’s Attention
The Torah describes further: “And you will become an astonishment, an example, and a topic of discussion, among all the peoples to whom the Lord will lead you” (ibid. 37).
Rashi explains “an astonishment,” to mean that the Jewish people will be an object of astonishment, for all will be shocked and horrified by the hardships and suffering they endure. And “example,” Rashi writes, means that “when some terrible calamity befalls a person, people will say: ‘This is like the trouble that happened to so-and-so.’” Meaning, the Jewish People will serve as an example of every trouble and sickness.
“And a topic of discussion,” according to Rashi, means that “people will speak about you.” The Jews will always be the focus of people’s attention, and they will examine them with a magnifying glass, looking carefully and scrutinizing them to identify faults.
There is no logical reason why such a tiny people, scattered over the entire planet, would draw so much of the world’s attention. But hasn’t history proven the accuracy of the Torah’s words? In every generation, the entire world spoke about the Jews, and especially in our day, the Jews – and the Jewish State – are always featured on the news, and are continually the subject of conversation.
Mark Twain wrote in 1899:
If statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of stardust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people.
After enduring exiles, expulsions, open hatred, and schemes to annihilate them, the Jews should naturally have disappeared. But the Torah surprisingly promises that even with all this, the nation will survive:
“But despite all this, while they are in the land of their enemies, I will not despise them nor will I reject them to annihilate them, thereby breaking My covenant with them, for I am Hashem their Gd.” (Vayikra 26:44)
Likewise, the prophet Malachi proclaimed:“For I, Hashem, have not changed; and you, the sons of Jacob, have not been annihilated” (Malachi 3:6). The Rambam, in his famous Epistle to Yemen, writes: “Just as it is impossible that the existence of Gd could be nullified, so is it impossible that we should be lost and nullified from the world.”
These explicit promises, and others, appear throughout the books of the Torah and the Prophets. They assure that the Jewish people will be few in number, scattered among the nations, persecuted and hated, and yet will somehow survive forever.
The Land of Israel: Blossoming and Desolation
“For Hashem your Gd is bringing you to a good land, a land with brooks of water, fountains and depths, that emerge in valleys and mountains, a land of wheat and barley, vines and figs and pomegranates, a land of oil-producing olives and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, you will lack nothing in it.” (Devarim 8:7-9).
Before Beneh Yisrael entered the Land of Israel, they were told that the Promised Land is a fertile land, suitable for settlement and agriculture, with sufficient water, such that its inhabitants will lack nothing. On the other hand, the Torah foresees that after the Jews will be driven from their homeland, “I will make the Land desolate, so that it will become desolate also of your enemies who live in it… Your land will be desolate, and your cities will be laid waste” (Vayikra 26:32—33).
The Land of Israel is a land that lends itself to prosperity, but after the exile, it will remain desolate and uninhabitable. The Torah foresaw that when the Jewish People will dwell in the Land, it will blossom, but after they go into exile, it will be desolate, and not even the enemies of the Jewish Nation will inhabit it.
This prediction runs counter to both logic and all historical precedent. Normally, if a nation is driven from a land that is conducive for economic prosperity, then other nations will come to take advantage of the land’s qualities. And the Land of Israel is not only well-suited for agriculture, but is also considered sacred by many millions of Christians and Muslims, who always desired to live there. Moreover, the territory of the Land of Israel is at the intersection of three continents – Asia, Europe, and Africa – which gives it strategic importance for the transportation of goods and assets, both commercial and military. Furthermore, the climate is mild and the soil is fertile, such that many would certainly wish to settle there.
The Ramban, in hiscommentary to Vayikra (ibid.), underscores this anomaly, and explains its significance:
What the Torah relates here is a good tiding. The Land “will become desolate also of your enemies,” which informs us that in all our exiles, the Land will not acceptour enemies. This is also a great proof and promise for us, for nowhere else in civilization will you find a land that is good and spacious, which had always been settled, that is as desolate as the Land of Israel. Everyone tries to settle there, and no one is successful.
Both descriptions of the Land of Israel – the prosperity it will offer the Jewish People, and its state of desolation when they are in exile – have proven to be true.
The historian Josephus Flavius, who lived during the Second Temple period and saw the Land of Israel before its destruction, writes in The Wars of the Jews:
It is a rich land with ample pasture, with many fruit trees and a wealth of grain that attracts men from far away who love agriculture. The entire land is tilled by its inhabitants; there is no desolate stretch of land anywhere. Because of the land’s great fertility, the cities and villages of the Galilee are very populous; the smallest village has 15,000 inhabitants.
Let us contrast this description with the testimonies of famous tourists who visited the Land in the 19thcentury.
A.V. Schultz wrote:
And what is the current state of Palestine? It has turned into a desert in comparison to its former traditional fertility. In our travel we were forced more than once to hike for hours until we found a shady place to rest under a tree.
Mark Twain, who visited the Holy Land in 1867, recorded his impressions in Innocents Abroad:
Arrived at an elevation of twelve hundred feet above the lake (Sea of Galilee) as bald and unthrilling a panorama as any land can afford, perhaps, was spread out before us… Desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action… we never saw a human being on the whole route…hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive tree and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country.
Elsewhere, he described: “Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes. Over it broods the spell of a curse that has withered its fieldsand fettered its energies.” He concludes: “Palestine is no more of this work-day world. It is sacred to poetry and tradition – it is dream land.”
Professor Sir John William Dawson wrote the following in 1888:
Until today no people have succeeded in becoming settled as a nation in Palestine. No national entity or national spirit has acquired a foothold there. That mixed multitude of sparse tribes that dwell there hold onto the land only as share croppers, temporary owners, and it appears as if they are awaiting those with the right to permanent ownership of the land to return.
Fulfillment of Promise
When we look at the Land of Israel today, after the Jews have returned, we feast our eyes on the lush green fields and blossoming fruit trees that fill the length and breadth of the Land, and are amazed by the skyscrapers and huge bridges in the bustling cities. All this took place within only one hundred years. This spectacular flourishing is a testament to the Torah’s promise of the blessings offered by the Land when the Jewish People reside within it.
Such an important event in the history of the Jewish People – the Jews’ return to the land, and its blossoming in response – should certainly be foretold by one of the prophets. Sure enough, the prophet Yechezkel foresaw thousands of years ago the Land’s return to prosperity with the gathering of the Jewish exiles, describing it as though it unfolded before his eyes:
Mountains of Israel, hearken to the word of the Lord… So said Hashem, Gd, to themountains and to the hills, to the streams and to the valleys, to the desolate ruins and to the deserted cities, which became a scorn and a mockery to the remnant of the nations that are around… And you, the mountains of Israel, will produce your branches, and you will bear your fruit for My people Israel because they are about to come… and you will be tilled and sown. And I shall multiply men upon you, the whole house of Israel in its entirety, and the cities will be settled, and the ruins will be built up. (Yechezkel 36:1-10)
Yechezkel prophesizes that upon the Jews’ return, the Land willbear fruit and prosper as it did once before. The Talmud adds that the flourishing of the Land of Israel is a sure sign of redemption: “Rabbi Abba said: There can be no more manifest sign of the imminent redemption than what is said: ‘And you, the mountains of Israel, will produce your branches, and you will bear your fruit for My people Israel because they are about to come’” (Sanhedrin 98a).
Rabbi Shmuel Ideles, the Maharsha,writes in this commentary to the Talmud: “As long as the Jewish People are not on their Land, it does not yield its fruits the way it should. However, when it goes back to yielding fruits, this is a revelation of the imminent redemption and that the Jewish People will return to their Land.”
The Torah and the Prophets promised thousands of years ago that the Land of Israel will flourish only when the Jewish people inhabit it, and this promise is being fulfilled right before our eyes.