From Resurrection to Heroism: A Message for These Days / Rabbi Shmuel Slotki

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We are often taught of how Hashem is found ‘in the details’. Many aspects of Torah study today emphasise practical sides of halacha. By studying these practical teachings and by practising them, Hashem is revealed to us. However, there is a whole other aspect of divine revelation. When living in the Land of Israel and in the era of the first Beit HaMikdash, Hashem revealed Himself to us through prophecy. Today, lacking prophecy, this other aspect of Heavenly revelation is through history. In fact the Torah itself values the concept of historical study: בִּינוּ שְׁנוֹת דּוֹר וָדוֹר שְׁאַל אָבִיךָ וְיַגֵּדְךָ זְקֵנֶיךָ וְיֹאמְרוּ לָךְ, ‘Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will declare to you, your elders, and they will tell you’. By reflecting on history we can see the hand of Hashem and realise how Hashem is leading His world and what it is that Hashem expects of us. It is for us to hear Hashem’s voice within world events; Rabbi Jonathan Sacks once described it as ‘listening to the music of time’.
Rav Kook often misspelled the word ‘history’, writing it הִיסְתוֹרְיָה as opposed to הִיסְטוֹרְיָה. The change of letter allows the word to be split into the phrase הסתר י־ה, Hashem is hidden. By doing so he was implying that Hashem leads the history of the world and world events in some way, often beyond our understanding, lead to a better future. And yet, it is all hidden from the human eye.
In the famous story of Purim, one could easily doubt whether it was a grand miracle and the hand of Hashem that prevented the first ‘final solution’ or whether it was Mordechai and Esther’s wisdom and ingenious initiative alone. And yet to us as religious people it is obvious that it was the hand of Hashem. It is this way that we reflect on the Purim story and thus it is a day of praise to Hashem.
Similarly, in our current generations there is more than one way to view the foundation of the State of Israel. A nation was scattered to the four corners of the world. For 2,000 years this nation suffered from persecution, crusaders, pogroms, banishments from several countries and finally the dreadful Holocaust. This nation as a whole chose not to disintegrate; refusing to accept any other religion despite the fact that it would have made life far easier, or even at times allowed life to merely continue.

And then within several decades alone, against all probabilities, this nation has emerged from a group of individuals to a collective; from all over the world, once again united; from victim to defender; from weak to strong; turning great Jewish philosophical ideas into practicality.

Living in Israel today seems like we are reliving some of the greatest chapters of Jewish history only on a much larger scale. Indeed, today like in Egypt we are witnessing the impossible happen and today like with the Purim story Hashem is hidden behind the scenes. It is without exaggeration that we could assume that Israel today is stronger and more prosper than ever before in history. Today, it does not take too much to see how Hashem is hidden in history.

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