Can you picture a Jewish people, an Israel, loved and admired by the world at large? An Israel that perennially wins the “Most Admired” prize in international voting? Can you see our Israeli ambassador in the United Nations getting a standing ovation from a standing-room only crowd at the General Assembly? Seems like quite a stretch, doesn’t it? Considering the way we’re typically portrayed in the media, and the level of anti-Israel diatribe in the world at large, such a scenario sounds pretty far-fetched. And yet, this is the challenge, the goal, the dream – and the Divine promise – that lies ahead of us.
As Israel prepares to leave Egypt, the Torah tells us: “And Hashem caused the Jewish people to be viewed favorably by the Egyptians; Moshe, too, was admired as a great man in the eyes of Pharaoh’s servants and the people of Egypt” (Shemot 11:3).
What a stunning statement! We surely would have expected a far different reaction! After years of anti-Jewish incitement and demonization by the Pharaohs, after 10 devastating plagues that decimated the Egyptian landscape, their economy and their daily routine, we’d have thought the Jews would be utterly detested and ridden out of Mitzrayim on a rail. Instead, we left “b’Yad Rama,” proudly, with heads held high, even showered with lavish gifts from the populace! Earlier (5:21), Bnei Yisrael had complained to Moshe that they were so detested that “even our very scent is abhorrent to the Egyptians!” What happened so that now we came out smelling like a rose?!
I suggest the Egyptians’ perception of us radically changed when our own perception of ourselves changed! As long as we saw ourselves as a pitiful, pitiable people, others viewed us likewise, and their pity soon turned to contempt. If we had no pride in who we were, if we ourselves had no self-respect, how could we possibly expect others to respect us?
Moshe changed all that. The first task assigned to him by God (6:6–7) was to take us out of “sivlot Mitzrayim.” The word “sivlot” can mean “burden,” but it can also mean “tolerance,” in this case, the tolerance of being brutally mistreated by Egypt and simply shrugging our shoulders and accepting it, doing virtually nothing to stop it. Moshe taught us to stand up for ourselves, to view ourselves and to conduct ourselves as an Am Segula, a precious, holy nation rather than a degraded slave people.
Our defining moment would come when we were commanded to take a lamb – the Egyptian deity – and offer it to the One, true God. Dangerous? Challenging? Absolutely! But – no guts, no glory! We would gather up our courage and proudly declare to Egypt and the entire world that we are Hashem’s first-born and that we fear Him and Him alone.
Hashem promises that one day we shall be looked up to by the world as a model for holiness in human form. While that seems so very far away, we have recently been granted a glimpse of what the future holds for us. When the Emirates broke ranks with other Arab-Muslim nations and established diplomatic and economic relations with us, they expressed their whole-hearted admiration and respect for Israel and the Jewish people. This was truly a prophecy come to life.
And as our courageous IDF army of holy soldiers fights against the scourge of terrorism, more and more people will, albeit grudgingly, acknowledge that we are in the forefront of the struggle against the forces of evil, against those who would send the world back to the Dark Ages where liberty, equality and prosperity were in the hands of the few, not the many.
The longest journey begins with the first step. And that first step is to stand straight and walk tall, clothed in middot and mitzvot, secure in our role as God’s treasured nation. Medinat Yisrael has taken that giant step, for the good of all mankind.
Rabbi Stewart Weiss is the director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra’anana and the scholar in residence for the Pesach program in Ramot on the Golan. He is also a member of Mizrachi’s speaker’s bureau.[email protected]
