"The Great Redemption" (57)

"The Great Redemption" by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto

-- A Discourse on The End of the Exile and the Beginning of the Great Redemption

Translated by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
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57.

Truth be said, we hadn’t yet been purified from that evil that reattached itself. It sometimes lessened and other times grew strong again, but it hadn’t gone completely. But we experienced a (degree of) rectification in Solomon’s days when the Temple was built, which is why it’s said, “There’s neither an adversary or bad affliction” (I Kings 5:18).

In fact, evil would have been utterly eradicated were it not for Pharaoh's daughter (of that era, whom Solomon married), because of whom it stayed within (their environment). Nonetheless it was less significant until it regained strength to the point where the Temple was destroyed and the Jewish Nation was exiled for seventy years as a consequence of the power the husk had garnered.

When it had left them alone for a time they went back and built the (second) Temple, but the evil hadn’t vanished and only lessened and weakened.

So the Jewish Nation had a place to grow strong in, but it wasn’t long before an utterly black darkness overcame them again which they would endure until the throne of the righteous Moshiach would be built.

(c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

(Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org )

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