Tefillah - 088 Redemption Within Exile

Exile – A Time of Hester Panim (Concealment)

In the blessing of תקע בשופר, we ask Hashem to take us out of exile. Let us reflect into what the concept of exile is. What is exile, and what is the redemption from the exile that we ask for?

The Maharal says that \גלותgalus (exile) and \גאולהgeulah (redemption) both contain the letters of the word גל, which means to “reveal”, because both galus and geulah are situations that reveal Hashem. Let us think into this concept.

The redemption will not just be about gathering in all the exiles back to the land of Israel. It is not either about leaving the jurisdiction of the nations. It will be about truly recognizing Hashem, as it is written, “And the world will become filled with the knowledge of Hashem.” So the concept galus, exile, essentially means that we are exiled from that revelation – it is the revelation of Hashem which is currently in exile.

We can now understand what the depth of exile is. The more revelation of Hashem we recognize, the more we are in touch with the redemption, and the more concealment we feel, the more exiled we will feel.

We live currently in a time of hester panim (concealment of Hashem’s countenance). There are two facets to hester panim. There is a general state of hester panim going on in Creation, and there is also a private hester panim that each person experiences in his life.

However, the more a person recognizes Hashem in his life, the less hester panim he will have on a personal level. Chazal say that “Whoever mourns the Beis HaMikdash, will merit in its rebuilding.” In other words, a person can merit his own personal redemption, when he connects with Hashem.

But when a person does not recognize Hashem in his life, when the reality of Hashem is very hidden from him, his life is confusing and dark. His soul is in exile. That is exile – when there is a hester (concealment) upon the giluy (revelation of Hashem).

Seeing Revelation Amidst The Concealment

What, then, is our avodah?

Exile is all about concealment. It is a situation of hester panim, in which there is hester upon the giluy – in which the revelation Hashem’s Presence is being concealed. Yet, there is no Jew who is completely removed from Hashem’s Presence. Hashem is present in every person. Ever since we all stood at Har Sinai, we all merited to have Hashem revealed in each of us, to some extent. But if a person doesn’t live with Hashem in his life – every day - he lives a life of complete exile. It is written “My soul is close to her redemption” – we can all live a life in which we can enter the redemption, even though we have not yet merited the redemption yet.

Every day that goes by, we can see Hashem in our life. In this way, we experience some redemption in our life. Each person needs to see how Hashem is revealed in his life. If a day goes by and a person didn’t feel how Hashem was revealed his life – either because he didn’t mentally reflect, or because he didn’t feel it in his heart, then even if he learns Torah and does mitzvos, he hasn’t utilized his daily fully. Besides for the fact that the Jewish people will get out of exile, each of us on a personal level needs to have our own redemption, and we need it every day. Every day, we need to find how Hashem is revealed in our life.

We need to be aware of the purpose of Creation which we were created for – not just intellectually – but to actually be heading in that direction, no less than la person traveling from Bnei Brak to Yerushalayim who knows where he is going. We must be aware to where we are heading towards in life. A day in which we don’t reflect about Hashem is day that is unutilized, and it’s like we haven’t gotten anywhere. Of course, learning Torah and doing mitzvos gives us a little push, but not much, unless we are feeling Hashem in our life on a daily basis.

Chazal say that each day is more cursed than the one before it. As time goes on, the spiritual level of the generations decrease. The hester panim increases more and more. But amidst all the hester, we can still feel a revelation of Hashem in our life. There is no such thing as a situation of total hester panim. Even when Hashem has to show wrath, Chazal say that He mitigates the extent of His wrath. In any situation which the generation is, in any of our personal situations in which we suffer – both physically and spiritually - in which things seems bleak and difficult, in which we see hester panim, we should always know that it is still Hashem, Who at the same time shows us that He is with us.

The Practical Avodah We Need To Work On

So there are two parts to our avodah in exile. One part of our avodah is to reflect on the miracles we see from time to time; to discover giluy even amidst the hester. But another part of our avodah is to take all the hester panim we see and try to find how Hashem is with us even amidst the greatest situations of hester panim. First we need to see how Hashem is revealed in our life in the more obvious situations, and then we need to keep working on this until we see how Hashem is revealed even in less obvious situations. If we keep working on this, we can uncover Hashem’s Presence even amongst situations of total hester panim.

Reflections

We should reflect upon the following. Each day, many sins are being committed – all over the world, and in Eretz Yisrael as well. All of the sins going on in Creation are a massive hester panim. So many people aren’t even frum at all. It seems that Hashem should totally abandon us, due to all of this. And even those who keep Torah and mitzvos don’t always keep it so well. That should only add to all the hester panim. All the hester panim going on in Creation – the fact that so many Jews don’t do mitzvos, and all the sins that are going on – this causes pain to anyone who sees a little beyond himself and whose heart is a little open to spirituality. There are only a few individuals in the world who are really doing Hashem’s will. Can there be any greater hester panim than this?

Yet, one can reflect into this and see, that although there is much hester, there is also much giluy. Hashem continues to reveal His presence in our life in many situations.

This is a deep perspective to have on Creation. Just like when a person learns Gemara he gains a mature perspective on learning as the years go on, so can one’s perspective on Creation become more mature, if he lives an inner kind of life.

See how much Torah and how much good is going on, both in yourself and in the world, and this will help you see how there is still giluy amidst all the hester. You can notice the hester, but you should see the giluy too. See the hester and the giluy going on in Creation at once.

There are many Jews who have already returned to Israel, but to focus on this fact is just being superficial.  This is not yet the depth of the redemption. Each of us merits redemption according to the amount that we felt Hashem’s Presence with us in our life amidst the exile.

May we merit to connect our souls to Hashem and to his Torah, to see revelation amongst the concealment – and to merit a true ingathering of all the exiles, a redemption of our soul.