How To Merit Redemption
By Rabbi Moshe Krieger, Yeshivas Bircas HaTorah
In Parshas Lech Lecha, after Avraham Avinu successfully wages war to save his nephew, Lot, he fears that he may have used up his merits. Hashem reassures Avraham that his reward is very great.
Avraham then asks Hashem what reward He can give to him, since he is childless, and his servant, Eliezer, will ultimately inherit what he possesses.
Hashem tells Avraham that he will in fact bear a son who will inherit him, and that his descendants will be as many as the stars of the heavens. “Count them [the stars] if you can … so will be your seed.”
This episode concludes that Avraham “believed in Hashem, and He considered this tzedaka for him.” (Bereishis 15:1-6).
Rashi (ibid. 15:6) explains that Avraham’s unquestioning faith in Hashem’s promise was considered a merit for him, and a tremendously righteous act.
This is puzzling. Is this Avraham’s first demonstration of unquestioning faith in Hashem? Avraham agreed to be thrown into a fiery furnace because of his belief in Him. Avraham had been teaching belief in Hashem for decades and had many disciples. Why only now is his belief in Hashem’s promise considered a meritorious act?
Rav Yerucham Levovitz answers (based on the Seforno, Shemos 15:6) that at this point, Avraham reached a new level of emuna, one that was utterly unshakable. Previously, Avraham had concluded that by nature, he was unable to have children. He understood the workings of astrology and knew that for him and his wife, child-bearing was out of the question. Not to mention that he and his wife had passed the normal age of child-bearing. Yet, when Hashem told him that he would bear a child, Avraham accepted this without the slightest shadow of a doubt. Such a level of emuna is considered a meritorious achievement, even for Avraham.
Hashem wants us to reach this level of emuna. Rashi (Shemos 6:3) says that Hashem deliberately dealt with the Avos in this way, promising them things that they saw no trace of in their lifetimes, in order to build their emuna in Him. Emuna in Hashem’s promise, even when it seems to go against the reality we see, generates a merit for us that is extremely powerful. In fact, the Medrash (Yalkut Shimoni Hoshea 2) states about the Jews in Egypt that their emuna that they would be redeemed was in fact what enabled their very redemption to happen! This is why Moshe Rabbeinu, when he returned to Egypt, first brought the Jews to emuna that the redemption had come, and only then went to speak to Pharaoh (Shemos 4:31, 5:1). The Seforno (Shemos 12:11) adds that when Klal Yisrael ate the korban Pesach on the night before leaving Egypt, they were commanded to do so “your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, your staff in your hand” (Shemos 12:11). Meaning, they were to act as if they were already leaving. This would show their emuna that this would really happen, and because of this emuna, they merited to leave (see Seforno Shemos 6:9).
This is how the future redemption is to work, as well. As the sages state (Yalkut Shimoni ibid.), “in the merit of emuna we will merit the future redemption and the ingathering of the exiles … and in the merit of emuna they left Egypt.” With this principle, we can understand the sages’ statement that in one’s final judgment, he is asked: “Did you anticipate the redemption?” (Shabbos 30a). If one really believes in redemption and awaits it, this helps it to come. The intent of this question is, did you do your part in bringing the redemption? The part each of us has in redemption is our belief that it will come, and this emuna itself is what brings the redemption.
In our personal hardships as well, the way to redeem ourselves from them is through emuna. The Medrash (Bereishis Rabba 98:14) states that freeing oneself from suffering is accomplished through “hope.” What does this mean? asks Rav Yerucham. Amid suffering, if a Jew strengthens his emuna that all of his pain comes from Hashem and He can change this at any moment, and this knowledge imbues him with the great hope that things will change — this very emuna and hope provides the merit by which one’s redemption can come. This is because Hashem wants to redeem us from our troubles. Only, He is waiting for us to strengthen our emuna.
How can we strengthen our emuna?
Rav Shach would tell people to review the miraculous stories of Klal Yisrael’s history. By learning, reviewing and getting perfectly clear all the details of the Exodus, the Splitting of the Red Sea and more, we gain clarity in emuna that will accompany us throughout our daily lives. The more clearly we see that Hashem redeemed us in the past, the more easily we can envision this happening to us in the future (see Ramban, Shemos 13:16).
Rav Yechezkel Levinstein lived this. He devoted a great deal of time to thinking about emuna, recalling and envisioning such events as the Ten Plagues, the miracles at the Red Sea, the Giving of the Torah on Har Sinai, the manna and more. As mashgiach, he spoke often about these events with bachurim, and often focused on them when addressing the yeshiva. He reached such a palpable level of emuna that many testify of him that “you could see this emuna on his face.”
When Rav Levinstein passed away, Harav Shlomo Wolbe said in his eulogy, “We have lost a Jew who was part of the generation that left Egypt. He went out of Egypt together with the nation, proudly carrying the matzos on his shoulder. He walked through the parted waters of the Red Sea, and sang shirah after the drowning of the Egyptians. Rav Yechezkel lived through all of this!”
May we be zoche to build up our emuna!