There are moments when we feel as though the words of the prophets are unfolding all around us. Now is one of those times.
In this week’s haftara, Amos dreams of a future day when the Jewish people will be restored from exile. “On that day, I will set up again the fallen booth of David: “I will mend its breaches and set up its ruins anew. I will build it firmly, as in the days of old” (Amos 9:11).
In Israel today, we see building, road work and other construction projects all around us. As the running joke goes here, the new national bird is the (building) crane! When else in Jewish history have we witnessed such a restoration and rebuilding of the Jewish people as we are experiencing today?
The prophet envisions: “A time is coming, declares G-d, when the plowman shall meet the reaper, and the treader of grapes, the one who holds the [bag of] seed; When the mountains shall drip wine and all the hills shall wave [with grain]. I will restore My people, Israel. They shall rebuild ruined cities and inhabit them; They shall plant vineyards and drink their wine; They shall till gardens and eat their fruits” (9:13-14).
We live at a time when fine wines are produced in Israel, when once-ruined cities are full of life. What was once only a wish has become the reality that we live and breathe every day.
As the Talmud in Sanhedrin (98a) shares, there is no more explicit manifestation of the Messianic era than the abundance of produce in the land. Israel, a land that less than a hundred years ago could not sustain its paltry population, can now sustain a population of over ten million.
“And I will plant them upon their soil, never again to be uprooted from the soil I have given them” (9:15).
All of these verses took on even more meaning for me last month, when we accompanied our son to the Bakum, the IDF Induction Center near Tel Aviv. All around us were yeshiva students, young talmidei chachamim, beginning their military service in song, in recognition of the role they are playing in bringing Amos’s words to complete fruition. Each yeshiva gathered its students together for a siyum on a masechet of Gemara, marking the moment with spiritual significance.
Of course, the prophecies of consolation have not yet been fully actualized. Amos speaks of our people being firmly planted on the land – yet entire communities in Israel’s North and South remain displaced, struggling to regain emotional and economic stability. And just last week, thousands of acres were consumed by fire.
And perhaps most painfully, the haftarah as interpreted by Metzudat Dovid (9:13) foretells the tranquility for Israel’s returned captives – yet our brothers and sisters still cry out to us from their captivity in Gaza, and our sons and daughters continue to fight and fall in the longest war this country has known.
But we have witnessed the fulfillment of many of the prophecies and, as the saying goes, “The people of Israel are not afraid of the long road” as we continue toward the eventual fulfillment of the others. May it be soon that all the hopes and aspirations passed down to us from the prophets come to full fruition, with the restoration of peace, safety and wellbeing for all the Jewish people.
