26 Mar IN SEARCH OF SAFE HAVEN: CHAZAL’S PROPHECY ON TURMOIL AND DISTRESS

Many Jewish people
feel frightened at this
time as antisemitism
reaches new peaks.
Many wonder where
would be a safe
place to migrate, while they know that
there isn’t any safe place in the world, as
our enemies are scattered all over the
globe.
To address this, let’s revisit the story of
Purim with some reflections on the
holiday that are very relevant today:
When Achashverosh decided to kill all
the Jews with the advice of Haman, he
sent a decree throughout the entire world
to kill them all in one day, men, women,
and children without exceptions.
This decree seems to not align with the
explanation of the Ramban (and Rabenu
Bechayei), who wrote on the meeting of
Yaakov with Esav when Yaakov split his
people into two camps(ט ,לב בראשית (. The
pasuk says that if one camp were to be
killed, the other camp would escape and
survive. The Ramban writes that from

this, we learn about the future history of
Klal Israel that in their interactions with
the descendants of Esav, where they will
be persecuted, there will always be a
place of safety to escape to: “The intent of
this is that Yaakov knew that not all his
descendants would fall into Esav’s hands.
Therefore, in any case, one camp would
be saved. This also implies that the
descendants of Esav will not formulate a
decree against us designed to obliterate
our name entirely, but they will do harm
to some of us in some of their countries.
One of their kings will decree against our
wealth or our persons in his country,
while simultaneously another king will
show compassion and save the refugees.
And so the Rabbis said (Bereshith
Rabbah) “If Esav comes to the one camp
and strikes it — these are our brethren in
the south. Then the camp which is left
shall escape — these are our brethren in
the Diaspora.” Our Rabbis thus saw that
this chapter alludes also to future
generations.”
The Ramban teaches us an important

insight that he repeats a few
times in his work: whatever
happened to our patriarchs
will always happen to our
(מעשה אבות- סימן לבנים)nation
. The story above tells of
how the Jewish people
survived the long and hard
exile, where there was
constant persecution of the
Jews. Some were able to
escape in time to other
places in the world.
The Gemara also acknowledges this
Hashem 🙂 פסחים פז, ב)saying ,point
performed a charitable deed with Israel
by scattering them among the nations.
Had He exiled them to one place, they
could have all been destroyed at once.
Considering this, how then would
Achashverosh be able to exterminate the
entire Jewish nation?
The possible answer to this is that there is
a difference between the descendants of
Esav and others. The Ramban explained
that this is our fate during the Esav’s
exile. However, Achashverosh was not
from Esav; therefore, the fate of the
entire Jewish nation under his rule was
in jeopardy.
This also explains what Chazal tell us in
Yalkut Shimoni about the end of days
(תצט רמז ישעיהו(, that Israel will be in
turmoil and distress and ask, ‘Where
shall we escape? Where shall we go?’
This means that in our times, when
times will get tough, the Jewish people
will look for a safe place but
unfortunately will not find any, as any
place in the world will be hostile. This is
how it is now; there is no safe place in
the world because Jew-haters from
Ishmael are in every corner of the world
without any exceptions. Therefore,
when a Jew asks where he can find a
safe place in the world, there is nowhere
to find. This is how we explain the
prophecy of Bilaam who said about
Ishmael in the end of time(כא ,כד במדבר (
: “Strong is your dwelling,” to point out
that Ishmael will have a stronghold and
populate every continent in the world.
Another source that Ishmael will be
populated and dwell throughout the
globe is what Hashem says about the
: (בראשית טז, יב):Ishmael of descendants
“And he shall dwell in the presence of

all his brethren” — Rashi explains that
his progeny will be numerous, but the
essence of the verse teaches more. Firstly,
that Ishmael’s descendants will dwell all
over the world. Secondly, that they will
live in other nations’ countries, as it says
that they will dwell among their brethren.
If one pays close attention to the way the
Torah defines Ishmael’s children
compared to Esav’s, we’ll see that with
Esav, the Torah calls them “aluf” —
s’Ishmael while ,) בראשית לו, טו- מג)chiefs
children are just listed without any
seems reason The .) בראשית כה, יב- יד)titles
to be that Esav’s children have a character
of loyalty and have always had lands and
empires, while Ishmael’s nature is to live
at the expense of others or in deserts. This
enables them to spread all over without
their hosts realizing that they are taking
over their land and threatening the
natives.
Although this sounds very frightening
and depressing, we should look at the
continuing words of Chazal, where they
point out that Hashem Himself reassures
us and says, ‘My children, do not fear. All
that I have done, I have done only for
your sake. Why are you afraid? The time
for your redemption has come. And there
is no need to fear.’ In that time, Hashem
will reveal the light of the Messiah and
the light of Israel, as it is said, ‘Arise,
shine, for your light has come, and the
glory of Hashem has shone upon you’
.(ישעיה ס, א)
There is a double encouragement here.
First, the fact that we shouldn’t worry as
Hashem will save us. But even more
significant is the fact that Hashem says
that the redemption has come. This means
that whenever we are in a situation where
there is no safe place in the world to
escape, it is the time when the final
redemption is very near.