Religious Zionism and the meanings of redemption

Abstract

But God answered Moses that his perception of redemption was wrong. Redemption is not black-and-white, straightforward, linear, unambiguous, and inexorable; rather, it is complicated, circuitous, and ambiguous. Yes, at the end of days, to usher in the eschatological era, God will send Elijah; but for now, said He to Moses, He wants to send him to redeem kelal Yisra’el. ¶

In a word, echoing the famous phrase of “kim’a kim’a” in the Midrash as well as in the Jerusalem Talmud,5 redemption is a process. Sometimes it is more obvious and easier to see, and sometimes it is more difficult. The voice of our Beloved knocked in 1948 and in 1967, and continues to knock today as well. May the sounds of that knock grow louder and louder.