Beyond Orthodox Conversion to Judaism

"So G-d turned the people toward the way of the Wilderness to the Sea of Reeds. The Children of Israel were armed when they went up from the land of Egypt" (Exodus 13:18).

In Rashi's second explanation of this verse he tells us that only one out of five went forth from Egypt, and four parts of the people died during the three days of darkenss becaue they were unworthy of being delivered. During the three days of darkness Rashi explains (Exodus 10:22) that there were two types of darkness. One type of darkness was of gloom when no man saw another during those three days and there was moreover another period of three days darkness twice as thikck as this when on man rose from his place.

G-d brought darkness there Rashi explains because there were wicked people amongst the Jewish people of that generation  who had no desire to leave Egypt and these died during the three days of darkness so that the Egyptians might not see their destruction and say, 'These (the Jewish people) too have been stricken as we have. Could it really be after all the affliction that the Jewish people suffered at the hands of the Egyptians that three-quarters of the Jewish people did not want to leave Egypt?

Rav Moshe Sternbuch Shlit"a in Chochmah and Da'as explains that when there are revealed miracles like what happened in Egypt, G-d demands more from us. This means that since G-d changed nature and punished the Egyptians, the Jewish people witnessing these miracles should have in fact lived to a much higher standard and were judged accordingly.

This does not mean that these Jews were heretics and denied G-d but rather their hearts did not see the goodness of what G-d did for them and therefore were judged as being evil! This means that when we are saved from some serious dilemma whatever it may be, we not only have to recognize it as such but our actions should change for the better because of it!

When we live in a world of G-d's presence is hidden, we have to strengthen ourselves even more in our belief in Him.  The Ari z"l (Rav Isaac Luria) explains that the inner levels we hope to acquire in spirituality take great effort to acquire but today we can merit great things in spiritual terms easier than in previous generations.

This obligates us every one of today since it is so easy to acquire these levels compared to previous generations, we should not waste this precious time! There are those righteous people who explained this in the following light.

They claimed that when they die, they won't rest until they are able to bring the messiah here. The problem is that after they die, they come to someone in a dream and tell them that in the next world they see things totally differently.

They see what can be accomplished today where G-d's presence is hidden and where we can acquire great spiritual levels much easier than in previous times. After the coming of the messiah, we will not be able to do this and therefore it is worthwhile to delay the redemption.

This is one of the acts of chesed that G-d does for us to help us gain merits in a much easier way and lift ourselves to levels we did not think was possible. Imagine what we have to gain!! Let us not waste our time in this world and acquire the greatness that is possible.

Shabbat Shalom