Redemption Code

There has been an ongoing debate for quite sometime as to what the nature of the prophecies regarding the end of days are. Throughout the long exile of our nation Israel, it seemed as if these prophecies told of a future that we needed to wait and yearn for. Yet Torah and all of TaNach for that matter is more about implementation rather than waiting for events to unfold. This is very logical, since how can events unfold in our world other than through self implementation.

This is in fact the difference between the Nation of Israel before the Zionist movement and after the Zionist movement. With all of its flaws, Zionism got the Nation of Israel moving again. Masses of Jews moved from places around the world and are still moving from places they have been for centuries to their ancient homeland. Even more than coming home, Zionism as a movement formed the ideological backdrop to the third commonwealth of Israel in its ancient homeland. Sovereignty in our homeland, the Land of Israel is about not being passive anymore. Instead of allowing events to shape us, we can determine how to best shape the events around us. We don't always get it right, but the potential is now there and that ultimately is the difference between exile and redemption. Exile is the passive acceptance of world events...good or bad and redemption is the revelation of our nation's inner G-dly strength to shape our destiny. After all, this is the meaning of Yom Hatzmaut, the day when the Nation of G-d began to have the potential to implement the will of the Creator again and ultimately make the vision of the prophets a reality.