We read in the haftara of Parashat Parah:
And when they (“the house of Israel”) came (written vayavo, in
the singular) to the nations to which they came, they profaned My holy name; in
that men said of them: “These are the people of the Lord, and are gone out of
His Land.” Ezekiel
36:20
The simple understanding (pshat) of the verse is that the
Israelites’ behavior in exile desecrated God’s name. However, there is an
alternate understanding based upon a Midrashic interpretation:
It is written “he came to the nations,” but shouldn’t the verse have
stated “they” came to the nations? It is as if He Himself came to the
nations and went to the gates of the nations to hear what they had to say. And
what did the nations say? “If this is the people of the Lord, why did they
leave His Land?”
Introduction to Eicha Rabba 15
According to this Midrash, we can understand that the
desecration of God’s name resulted from His nation leaving their Land. The very
fact of Israel being in exile undermines the respect which the nations of the
world have for the greatness of God’s name!
Given that Israel’s exile from the Land constitutes desecration of
God’s name, Ezekiel’s prophecy [verses 33-34] conveys the rectification:
Thus says the Lord God: “In the day that I cleanse you from all your
iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall
be built. And the Land that was desolate shall be tilled, whereas it was a
desolation in the sight of all that passed by.”
Simply put, Israel’s return to its Land constitutes sanctification of
the Divine Name. Indeed, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveichik wrote: “You have no idea
how the Name of the Almighty was glorified and extolled, and His kingdom
reestablished, by the establishment of the State of Israel.”
The result of the rebuilding of the Land and its blossoming again will
be the nations’ recognition of God’s greatness [verses 35-36]:
And they (the nations) shall say: “This Land that was desolate has
become like the Garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities
are fortified and inhabited.” Then the nations that are left round about you
shall know that I God have built the ruined places, and planted that which was
desolate; I God have spoken it, and I have done it.
How sad and distressing it is that we, who had the power to bring
about the complete fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy with the establishment of
the State have failed to do so. Clearly, the nations cannot appreciate that the
Land “has become like the Garden of Eden” until or unless we, the collective
Israel, understand and appreciate that fact.
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