People use the word “geulah” as though it’s something that happens from above while we are passive. But the word’s usage in the Tanach is quite active; Jews do geulah – we redeem land, we redeem people. G-d wants us to do geulah, to take responsibility for our land and our people, to govern, to be sovereign. Then, when we successfully effect that geulah – we give Him credit for the strength He has given us. Sadly, many of us are addicted to the idea that redemption is a top-down phenomenon and we revert to ghetto thinking, as though we are powerless and only a strong outside force can make change.
Large swaths of our land are in the hands of groups and tribes that hate Israel. They evict us from our ancestral cities, they call for our country’s destruction, they pollute the land, and they poison the international discourse with their antisemitic ideas. But we must believe that we can cleanse the land of Jihadism, Israel-hate, and rampant ecological and archeological damage that Hamas and the PA wreak. And we can cleanse the world’s perception of Israel through Israeli strength! To achieve that we need a geulah in our thinking, to realize that Hashem has given us power and He expects us to use it to further the process of geulah, to redeem our land and cleanse it – and then thank Him for the power of redemption which He has put in our hands to fulfill His dream.
