With this you will know that I am HaShem

(Exodus 7:17)

Tevet 29, 5777/January 27, 2017

Back in the day before internet, social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Whatsapp; long before the smartphone, the cellphone, the cordless phone, the dial phone; thousands of years before television, radio, newsreels, telegraphs, the pony express or the printing press, when G-d wanted to deliver a message to the world He would write it boldly in the heavens, shake the foundations of the earth, and cause the oceans to rise or fall, according to His will. Actually, G-d continues to communicate with His creation in the very same way today. Only today, who's listening?

When G-d heard the cry of the Israelites in Egypt and determined to free His people, He chose Moshe as His earthly messenger, and, many ages before the concept of a "spoiler," told Moshe, "And you shall say to him, 'HaShem G-d of the Hebrews sent me to you, saying, "Send forth My people, so that they may serve Me in the desert," but behold, until now, you have not hearkened. So said HaShem, "With this you will know that I am HaShem. Behold, I will smite with the staff that is in my hand upon the water that is in the Nile, and it will turn to blood." (Exodus 7:16-17)

Moshe was charged with delivering to the relevant party, G-d's commandment and G-d's warning of the consequences lest His commandment be denied, but the real, the undeniably real message was in what followed: the turning of the Nile to blood, the plague of the frogs, the wild beasts, and so on, was G-d's direct message to Pharaoh: the world as you think you know it, runs according to My will. My will now is for My first-born Israel to worship Me. If you, Pharaoh, think to deny My will then you and all your people and all the world will witness the step-by-step deconstruction of the world as you have come to know it, by decree of My will. My way or the highway, G-d answers to no one, certainly not those who (like Pharaoh) refuse to recognize G-d or accept His will.

Of course it wasn't a fair fight, and what G-d could have caused to happen in a minute, if that had been His will, He stretched out over ten plagues, the splitting of the Sea of Reeds and the destruction of the entire army of Egypt, for the purpose of making His will and His Name known to all the inhabitants of the world.

Pharaoh's world was entrenched in a vast and sophisticated system of gods and mythology, that, as intellectually and technologically advanced as it was, was based entirely on falsehood. Penetrating this fantasy-scape and collapsing the house of cards upon which it stood was not easy. After all, G-d granted man free will. But this is exactly what G-d did, and when Israel left Egypt it was with Pharaoh's blessing, and with the good wishes and generosity of the entire Egyptian nation. From hard-hearted obstinacy to open-hearted benevolence (if only for one single, critical moment), G-d's will for Israel was embraced by the entire world.

Our sages say that the ten plagues began on the first of the month of Shevat and, of course, reached a crescendo on the fifteenth day of Nisan (Passover), taking all of ten weeks to completely upend, overturn and devastate the existing order in the world. And this, of course, was in a time when man's attention was much more focused on the natural world around him, G-d's personal palette, His chosen medium through which to communicate with man. Still, it took ten weeks and ten plagues to get the message across that this is G-d's world and that it exists by G-d's will alone.

Today, modern man in modern society is infinitely further removed from G-d's world than even those societies most steeped in idolatry in Pharaoh's day. Today every individual has the ability to immerse themselves in their own personal virtual world, to be their own Pharaoh, star of their own self-created mythology and idolatry, and never emerge from it. People can say and do what they want in worlds that don't exist, yet still be able to wreak devastation upon others who do exist in the real world. In today's world one has the freedom to click on the Tweet about the gown worn at the Oscars and ignore the preceding Tweet about genocide and slavery being perpetrated in a place far off and far less glamorous.

Can G-d communicate with man anymore? Is anyone listening? How can G-d make Himself heard? G-d does not own a Twitter account or a Facebook account. He doesn't take selfies, tag friends or cyber-bully. But G-d still owns His world and G-d is still messaging mankind every day via His tried and true methods of upending and overturning our political and societal realities, of causing the seas to rise and the earth to shatter and the heavens to spit forth fire. G-d moves vast populations across the borders of the nations and G-d has placed the struggle between good and evil front and center in man's world today.

When G-d chose to liberate Israel from Egypt with an outstretched arm, with signs and with wonders, He had his work cut out for Him, but there was never a question that His will would be achieved. It is clear that in the past century G-d has chosen once again to liberate Israel from the nations, to return His first-born to the land of Israel, to Jerusalem, to the Temple Mount and the rebuilding of the Holy Temple, where His presence dwells, and there is no question that G-d's will will be attained. Whether it will take ten weeks or tens of decades is up to man. G-d is knocking at our doors, rattling our walls, shaking our worlds, remaking our societies and rewriting realty all for the purpose of waking man up from his long, self-induced slumber. And not just for Israel's sake, but for all humanity. Today's world contains many millions of Pharaoh's denying G-d's existence, but still they are no match for G-d. "With this you will know that I am HaShem." May G-d's voice be heard by all!

-The Temple Institute