“And Pharaoh called to Moses,
saying: Go and worship the L-rd. Only your sheep and cattle will remain – your
children will also go with you. And
Moses said: You will also give us
offerings and sacrifices for the L-rd our G-d, and our flocks will go with us…”
(Shmot 10:24-26)
The ninth plague-darkness –
has struck Egypt with a vengeance and Pharaoh breaks. Step by step he has retreated and after the
eighth plague – locusts – he was prepared to allow the Jews to leave except for
their children. Now he surrenders almost
entirely as he agrees that all the Jews can leave. He only asks one thing, one
compromise, one small victory for himself, that the Jewish cattle remain
behind.
Consider;
the Jews have been slaves for 210 years.
They have lived in misery and persecution. They suffered decrees such as the one casting
their male children into the sea. They
cried out unto the L-rd for freedom and salvation. Now, apparently the great moment has
arrived! Pharaoh agrees that they shall
go free! What does it matter that he
asks for their cattle? Give it to
him! The main thing is peace and
salvation and we are willing to give up cattle for peace!
But Moses
knows that this is not the purpose of the freedom of the Jewish people and of
the story of the slavery and exodus. He
is not prepared to compromise one inch because he knows what the purpose of G-d
is. When Moses first entered the
presence of Pharaoh and said: “The L-rd, G-d of the Hebrews, has said: Let my
people go!” Pharaoh contemptuously
answered: “Who is the L-rd? I know not the L-rd and will not let Israel
go!” Here is where the battle was
joined. Here is the purpose and aim of
creation – to have the world recognize the dominion and kingship of the L-rd
being challenged. Pharaoh must be made
to recognize and totally acknowledge the sovereignty of the L-rd over him and his
people. He cannot make compromises; he
cannot strike bargains. He must submit
totally!
“And I
shall be glorified through (the defeat of ) Pharaoh and his army and Egypt
shall know that I am the L-rd.” Only the
total defeat of the wicked can raise and honor the name of the L-rd, says the Biblical
commentator Rashi. This is why there
will be no compromise with Pharaoh. He
must totally submit, he must totally surrender.
And even
when he apparently does this, after the plague of the first born, when he runs
to Moses and says: “Get out, take your flocks with you, just leave and ask the
L-rd to bless me!” Moses refuses and in the words of the Mechilta; “And he
called unto Moses and Aaron in the middle of the night and said: get up and
leave! Said Moses unto him: No, we have been ordered not to leave our
houses until morning. What are we,
thieves that we should slink out in the night?
No, we will leave only in the morning with an upraised arm before the
eyes of all the Egyptians!”
Not one
inch of retreat here. The lesson of the
L-rd being the Omnipotent, king of the universe must be seen and acknowledged.
The lesson
is an eternal one and must be learned in our time, too. The question of peace in the Middle East is a
question of the Arabs and the world acknowledging the total sovereignty of the
All Mighty. There can be no compromise
on this. It is only a peace that comes
with Arabs submitting to the yoke of the heavenly kingdom that will be a
permanent one and the Jew who gives up part of his land as a compromise,
violates the entire purpose of the rise of the Jewish state and the demand of
the All Mighty that the nations acknowledge Him as King. There can be no retreat from land because
that is in essence a retreat also from the Kingship of the L-rd.
Meir Kahane
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