Redeeming the Kingdom of G-d

We have come home, returned against all odds from a near two thousand year exile. If you consider that after the destruction of the First Temple most Jews remained outside of the Land of Israel even with rebuilding of the Holy Temple one can trace this exile back 2,500 years.  Whatever the amount, the sheer length of time in exile has made us disconnected from statecraft, yet we have a state, a sovereign entity with a an enviable army. When the exiles returned from Bavel, 2,500 years ago, the prophet lamented on the state of Israel, yet the people believed and felt they were experiencing redemption.  Their redemptive process was purely physical as ours has been. In fact Rav Kook likened the process we are undergoing to the time of Ezra and Nechemia. This is a miraculous process hidden behind the veil of nature.  That is what Purim was and is about, seeing the divine in the ordinary machinations of the world.

Our State

Rav Kook writes in Orot Yisrael (6:7) "This State that is in truth higher on the ladder of richness, this State is Our State, the State of Israel, is the foundation of the throne of HaShem in the world,  That it's desire is that HsShem will be one and his Name will be one, that this in truth is the highest richness."  Without trying to decipher all of the Rav's holy words, one can ask a simple question: How can the State of Israel be the foundation of the throne of HaShem in the world?  After all so many people aren't "religious" or better yet look at the corruption in government.  These are issues that have daunted many observers and of course kept observant Jews from moving to Israel.  Yet, one can answer this by looking at Rav Kook's words carefully. Notice he is referring in the present tense to the State of Israel, but there was no State of Israel when he was writing this.  Rav Kook is talking about the ideal State, the one that lies in potential within the confines of the world.  He saw that this potential for the ideal State of Israel existed even in the early 1900s.  He understood a great and tremendous process was underway and that it would lead to the State of Israel reaching a lofty level of revelation of the Creator's light in the world.

As the potential Kingdom of G-d or the ideal revelation within the State of Israel becomes manifest, we are able to see it's potential become more and more actualized in the world.  The State being a vessel that allows the Jewish Nation sovereignty over it's ancestral homeland and thus establishes the Jewish people as a collective force, it is only natural that this Strate within time would reach a level where one could say it has manifested the divine within it.  This is the goal; to build the kingdom of G-d in the Land of of G-d. Through outside events raging across the globe and those within, HaShem is refining our outlook and forcing us to draw out the divine light with his National Instrument for G-dliness.  May this process reach completion speedily in our days.